All About Norman Reedus' Partner Diane Kruger & Their 2 Kids
The Bikeriders star shares his passion for two wheels and the open road with his better half.
Whether he’s slaying zombies in his own The Walking Dead TV spinoff or soldiering in sci-fi isolation through Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding video game landscape, Norman Reedus and his grizzled outlaw’s visage strike one of the most recognizable figures anywhere onscreen.
Reedus and the open road simply feel like they were made for each other — which of course makes him a perfect fit for the all-star cast of Focus Features’ new '60s-set motorcycle gang movie, The Bikeriders. Often seen atop a two-wheeled scoot across his varied acting roles (and even devoting an entire docu-series to his favored gassed-up pastime in Ride with Norman Reedus), he’s a natural behind the upcoming film's 1960s-vintage handlebars alongside costars Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, and Jodie Comer.
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As fate would have it, Reedus has an actual ride-or-die partner in Diane Kruger, the German model-turned actor who’s been at Reedus’ side since the pair’s real-life romance first fired up in 2015. Together, the duo have become one of Hollywood’s most hotly-buzzed celebrity couples in recent years — especially after becoming engaged while welcoming the birth of their first child. How did the two first meet? Keep scrolling for the answer to that and more, as we dive in for a detailed peek at Kruger, her life with Reedus, and her fascinating screen career.
Who is Diane Kruger?
Born in 1976 in the western portion of a Cold War-divided Germany, Diane Kruger attended Catholic school and studied dance in her youth, before moving off to Paris and beginning a career in modeling. Signing with Elite in the early 1990s, Kruger enjoyed an extended stint as one of the iconic, globally-recognized faces behind an entire alphabet's worth of trend-setting fashion brands — from Armani all the way to YSL.
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By the early 2000s, Kruger had moved into acting, where her 2004 roles in Troy (as Helen) and Wicker Park (as Lisa) marked her breakthrough roles. That same year, she portrayed Abigail Chase in the first National Treasure film (a role she’d later reprise in 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets), leading her into a string of big-screen turns throughout the 2010s beginning with her memorable performance as Bridget von Hammersmark in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds (2009) and, by 2015, in the gritty drama Sky.
How did The Bikeriders star Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger meet?
Starring opposite Kruger in Sky was none other than Reedus, touching off a relationship that kindled in earnest after Kruger’s breakup, in 2016, with actor and then-boyfriend Joshua Jackson.
Spotted soon thereafter together on red carpets, at sporting events, art openings, or just about anywhere else where celebrity couples turn heads, Kruger and Reedus were all but inseparable in the public spotlight from 2016 onward, culminating in 2021 — years deep into their already-established relationship — with Reedus popping the big question right at the very end of a shared motorcycle excursion (of course!) while riding together through the Deep South.
Do Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger have children?
Reedus and Kruger had been a couple for more than five years when their engagement became official, so by the time Reedus produced the fateful engagement ring (which he’d stashed inside his riding boot to keep safe from a Savannah thunderstorm), the pair was poised to cement their future together not just as a couple — but as a full-fledged family of four.
That’s because kids were already in the picture when Kruger said “yes” to Reedus in 2021. Reedus himself had long been a dad, since 1999, to son Mingus Lucien, whom he fathered with ex-flame Helena Christensen (the hugely popular Danish model and former Victoria’s Secret Angel). On top of that, Reedus and Kruger were themselves knee-deep into shared parenthood, with the couple welcoming their first child together — a daughter named Nova Tennessee — in November of 2018.
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Reedus was 30 when he first became a father back in 1999, but Kruger was 42 when she and Reedus (then aged 49) welcomed Nova Tennessee into the world. Having her first child later in life proved an unscripted blessing, as Kruger would later confide to People, one that the happy couple found a way to commemorate through their choice of a unique name that represents new birth.
“I had her [Nova Tennessee] late in life at 42, and [Norman] had a child when he was much younger,” Kruger explained. “‘Nova’ in Latin means new beginning, and a nova star keeps changing and is reborn. And we love Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains; we do motorcycle trips there… I thought it wasn't going to happen, and she came into my life when I was ready ... I'm grateful that happened for me and our family. She's changed my world and the way I look at everything.”
Catch Norman Reedus alongside Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Boyd Holbrook and more when The Bikeriders rolls into theaters nationwide beginning Friday, June 21. Grab your tickets here!
