Laura Dern and her ex-husband Ben Harper reunited for a special family occasion on Sunday, June 4. The former couple were both pictured at their 18-year-old daughter Jaya‘s high school graduation in Los Angeles. Laura, 56, and Ben, 53, walked next to each other as they arrived at the ceremony to celebrate the milestone moment for their youngest child. The exes, who were married from 2005 to 2013, also share son Ellery, 21, who joined them at the graduation.
Laura had on a super fashionable outfit for her daughter’s outdoor graduation. The Big Little Lies star wore a black jacket over a matching turtleneck sweater and pants, with a pink scarf and matching sunglasses and shoes. Laura had flowers in her hand that seemingly went to Jaya once she received her high school diploma.
Ben, meanwhile, wore a white cardigan sweater with a button-down shirt and brown pants. The famous musician also wore a pink beanie and a pair of white sneakers. Ben and Laura seemed to be very friendly with each other as they reunited for Jaya’s graduation ten years after their divorce. Laura’s mom Diane Ladd, 87, was at the graduation, as well.
Laura met Ben in 2000 when she attended one of his concerts. They welcomed their son and daughter in 2001 and 2004, respectively, before they tied the knot in 2005. However, the marriage didn’t last, and they officially divorced in 2013. The exes were private about their relationship when they were together, but Laura did briefly mention the divorce in 2020, when she spoke to Variety about how the dissolution of her marriage impacted her award-winning performance in Netflix’s Marriage Story.
“As [director Noah Baumbach] first said about the story when we first talked about it, he said, ‘I want to tell a love story where endings are not failures.’ And that really moved me and struck me deeply,” Laura said, noting her own amicable separation from Ben, as well as her own parents’ separation. “So to my amazing divorced parents, and my amazing step parents, and my amazing children—who came from love despite an ending in a marriage—we’re so privileged to redefine what family looks like,” she added.
