Val Kilmer was “lonely part of every day” after divorcing his wife Joanne Whalley in the 1990s, before his death at the age of 65.. The pair first tied the knot in 1988, after meeting on set of the film Willow. By 1996, however, they were divorced – and Kilmer reportedly learned that his wife had filed the legal paperwork from watching CNN in a hotel room.
Over the course of their marriage, Val and Joanne welcomed two children together – daughter Mercedes and son Jack. Their divorce came “only two months after the birth of their second child”, as per The Tampa Bay Times. He said learning the news via TV was “no fun”. Joanne cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their divorce, with sources claiming rumours of Kilmer’s on-set romances had played a huge role. Reports at the time claimed Joanne had walked in on her half-naked husband kissing a crew member in his trailer on set of Batman Forever.
After their split, Joanne took their children to Los Angeles after a custody battle, with Val confessing: “I miss my children every single way that’s possible, and ways I didn’t know were possible.”
While Kilmer went on to be linked to stars including Cindy Crawford, Jaycee Gossett and Cher, in his memoir he made a heartbreaking eight-word confession, revealing: “I haven’t had a girlfriend in 20 years.”
He added: “The truth is I am lonely part of every day.”
Thankfully Val remained close to his two children, telling People magazine in 2020: “I am just madly, wildly entertained by them. My only gripe is that I never see them enough, so I never get enough of the wild entertainment that everyone else gets, but they're really, really, entertaining."
He added in 2012 to Vanity Fair that he turned down “10 really great directors” because “I was trying to be responsible to my family or my marriage. I just didn’t pay attention to business. I can’t be a responsible parent and only be there three or four months a year."
His daughter Mercedes said after her dad’s cancer battle: “We all spend so much time together. Even just getting to meet all my dad's friends from before I was born — there are so many beautiful things that happen when you need help from people.”
