Richard Gere

Gere had on-again/off-again relationships with actress Penelope Milford from 1971 to 1978, and painter Sylvia Martins to 1978 to 1986.During those years, he was also sporadically linked with Tuesday Weld, Carole Mallory, Dawn Steel, Loree Rodkin, Diane von Furstenberg, Barbara Carrera, and Barbra Streisand. He was accused of having affairs with Priscilla Presley and Kim Basinger in tell-all books written by Presley’s ex-boyfriend Michael Edwards and Basinger’s ex-husband Ron Snyder. He has also reportedly dated model Laura Bailey, Tina Chow, Dalila Di Lazzaro, and Padma Lakshmi. He was married to model Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995.

In November 2002, Gere married model and actress Carey Lowell. They have a son, Homer James Jigme Gere, who was born in February 2000 and is named for his grandfathers as well as the Tibetan name “Jigme”.

In September 2013, the two separated after 11 years of marriage. They spent three years in highly contested divorce proceedings in New York County Supreme Court. The case was settled in October 2016. In early April 2018, Gere married Spanish activist Alejandra Silva. In August 2018, they announced that they were expecting their first child.Their son, Alexander, was born in February 2019. In April 2020, the birth of their second son was reported.

Gere’s interest in Buddhism began when he was in his 20s. He first studied Zen Buddhism under Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. After having studied Zen for five or six years, he and Brazilian painter Sylvia Martins traveled in 1978 to Nepal, where he met many Tibetan monks and lamas. He then met the 14th Dalai Lama in India and became a practicing Tibetan Buddhist (specifically of the Gelugpa school)and an active supporter of the Dalai Lama.

Despite not being vegetarian, Gere has often been erroneously included on lists of famous vegetarians.