Elizabeth Chambers says marriage to Armie Hammer imploded during COVID lockdown

Elizabeth Chambers is lastly prepared to speak about “the events” — her divorce from Armie Hammer and the following rape allegations in opposition to him by his former associate.

On the heels of the Call Me By Your Name actor’s first interview, revealed by Air Mail on Saturday, through which he once more denied having non-consensual intercourse with any previous companions, Chambers opened up to Elle about their troubled marriage imploding during COVID lockdown, listening to the allegations in opposition to Hammer for the primary time as the remainder of the world did and the place issues stand right now as they co-parent their two youngsters.

Chambers, an leisure information correspondent who now owns the BIRD Bakery chain, met The Social Network actor, 4 years her junior in 2007, they married in 2010, had daughter Harper in 2014, son Ford in 2017 and people early years have been “completely magical,” she advised the outlet. Until they weren’t. While she did not pinpoint precisely when issues began to crumble, she did say, “Marriage is always going to be difficult … especially if you throw success and fame into the mix.”

Hammer, the grandson of an oil tycoon whose appearing profession hit a excessive level together with his Golden Globe-nominated function in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, has admitted to an extramarital affair with a lady he met on social media which started in 2016. The subsequent yr, he publicly preferred a bunch of tweets about bondage, which made headlines.

Elle famous that Chambers would not speak about their intercourse life or his proclivities, however would say that “boundaries are everything” in a relationship. As partnerships evolve, “Your partner is learning things about themselves. They’re growing, you’re growing; you hope that you’re growing together.” She additionally stated that for many of their marriage, they noticed famed psychotherapist and relationship/sexuality specialist Esther Perel.

The couple introduced their separation, after 10 years of marriage, in July 2020. She advised the journal they have been St. Barts on trip when COVID circumstances began to pop up within the U.S., so that they went to the Cayman Islands, the place Hammer’s father and stepmother lived. Quarantining collectively was not an excellent recipe, which Hammer himself has acknowledged, evaluating it in 2020 to being a wolf “caught in a snare” that needed to “chew his own foot off.”

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Chambers had a less complicated take: “He was the worst,” she stated. He ended up leaving her and their youngsters to journey again to California and assist a good friend restore a motel exterior Joshua Tree National Park.

“My heart was broken in nine million pieces, and I still drove him to the airport,” Chambers stated. “You can give, you can love, you can be there for someone, but you also need to hold people accountable for their actions.”

In addition to engaged on her personal initiatives, she was busy elevating their youngsters — whereas her estranged husband — from whom she remains to be not formally divorced — loved his newly single standing. He began seeing a string of girls. In January 2021, unverified social media messages through which Hammer allegedly described sexual fantasies that included violence, rape and cannibalism have been leaked. Multiple ladies accused him of emotional manipulation. In March, one lady got here ahead and publicly accused him of sexual assault, claiming he raped her for greater than 4 hours in 2017. Hammer’s lawyer denied it. The Los Angeles Police Department started an investigation into his accuser’s declare. A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office advised Elle {that a} “specially assigned prosecutor is working with law enforcement to investigate the allegations,” however investigators have “not yet presented a case against Mr. Hammer to our office.”

Of that point, Chambers stated, “I used to be studying issues as the general public was. I used to be like, ‘There are no words. What the f***?'”

Her sister Catherine was interviewed for the piece and said her sibling was trying to piece together her own timeline while being contacted by Hammer’s accusers via social media DMs.

“She put on her support hat to be there for these women who had gone through terrible, terrible situations that were brought on by her former husband, but Elizabeth chose to be there for them rather than for herself first,” Catherine said. “She listened to horrible, deep, dark details regardless of what it meant for her own life.”

Chambers said “the dissolution of my family was literally my biggest fear of my whole life.”

Hammer spent six months in treatment in 2021 for drug, alcohol and sex issues. The exes still spend time together as they work to co-parent. She’s planning to move back to California, from the Cayman Islands, to improve that relationship. (Hammer was reportedly living in one of Robert Downey Jr.’s guest house in L.A. after he finished treatment.)

“I support Armie through his journey and I always will,” said Chambers. “All I’ve ever wanted is for him to be sober, healthy, and happy. And he is that. He’s really present when he’s with the kids, and that’s all I can hope for. All you want is for your children to have two solid parents, right? That’s always the goal, so anything I can do to support that, I will.”

As for her own love life, she revealed she is “in love” with the 26-year-old European physical therapist she has been dating for the last year, Ricardas Kazinec. While her children don’t knew they are a couple — because she doesn’t want to upset their healing from the divorce —her new man is helping heal “my body, my heart and my mind.”

But she’s taken what she’s learned in her marriage into future relationships, saying, “I’m not taking any bulls*** from anyone. You stand up for what you deserve, for what you know is right.” She’s also trying to separate herself from her ex-husband’s alleged behaviors. “The last thing I ever want to do is let someone else’s actions, which don’t have anything to do with me, make me indignant. It’s not going to assist me, and it is not going to assist anybody round me.”

Over the weekend, Hammer’s first interview since he was accused of rape and emotional abuse ran in Air Mail. He insisted had a consensual relationship together with his accuser which concerned “consensual non-consent” function play. He claimed the rape she alleged was not simply consensual however “her idea.”

He claimed he disclosed the affair to Chambers after the girl threatened to inform her. He additionally stated he requested Chambers for assist, saying, “I don’t like who I’m becoming. I’m f***ed up every single day, all day. I’m miserable, I’m unhappy, and I’m having an affair. And I don’t know how to stop any of these things, and I can’t do this alone.”

In the interview, Hammer spoke about his curiosity in BDSM, and related it sexual abuse he stated he skilled, by a youth pastor at his household church when he was 13, and stated it “set a dangerous precedent” for his future relationships.

Hammer stated that his relationships have been consensual, although acknowledged that his conduct in direction of his companions exterior of his marriage could possibly be “one million percent” thought of emotionally abusive. “I’m here to own my mistakes, take accountability for the fact that I was an a**hole, that I was selfish, that I used people to make me feel better, and when I was done, moved on,” he stated. “And treated people more poorly than they should have been treated.”

The lady who accused Hammer responded to his interview through Instagram calling him “manipulative” and saying he’ll do no matter it takes to “evoke sympathy” from the general public.