Sylvester Stallone and his wife, Jennifer Flavin, have proven to still be going strong since their decision to try and make things work after Flavin filed for divorce last August.
Stallone posted to his Instagram on Christmas last month a video of himself, two of his daughters, and Jennifer flaunting their new slippers and enjoying themselves.
“Hope everyone’s having a wonderful Christmas day !” he captioned the video.
Sly posted again on New Year’s a “then-and-now” photo of the Stallone family, picturing the daughters gathered as children in the top photo and as adults in the bottom.
“Please have a Happy New Year ! Enjoy it because it goes way too fast !!!” he wrote.
In what seemed like a shocking and possibly messy divorce to come, Stallone and Flavin seem to have made it work after having celebrated 25 years of marriage last year.
Jennifer and Sylvester married in 1997 after welcoming their first daughter, Sophia Rose, the year prior. They first met in 1988 and dated for six years before Stallone broke up with her via a FedEx letter. This would be the first, and seemingly only relationship-ending situation the couple endured since they met, up until last August.
In the letter, Stallone omitted the true reason for the break up, in which Flavin found out a little later that he had been having an affair with supermodel Janice Dickinson. A month before the break up, Dickinson gave birth to a baby girl which she and Sly suspected to be his.
Flavin told People that the news hit her “like a ton of bricks”.
“I was disappointed,” she said. “You can’t just write somebody off in a letter after six years. It’s not like I was going to try to beg him to come back to me or anything. I just wanted to talk.”
But via a paternity test, Stallone learned he was not the father to Dickinson’s daughter and promptly ended the relationship. A year later, he reunited with Flavin who was willing to give the Rocky star a second chance.
In the coming years, they welcomed two more daughters, Sistine Rose and Scarlet Rose, and their family life hit no bumps for a long time. That is, until August last year when Jennifer filed for divorce.
The announcement came as a surprise to Stallone, but a source told People that the couple had “been unhappy for quite some time”. They added that they “keep having disagreements that Jen feels will never resolve,” and that Jennifer “got sick of spinning in a circle.”
Another source provided People with an explanation as to why Jen thought divorce was her only option.
“When Jen filed for divorce, she felt she had no option. She felt unheard and was very frustrated,” the source detailed. “She had been telling Sly that she was going to file, but it seemed he didn’t believe her. It pretty much came as a shock to him. He never wanted a divorce. He always wanted to work things out.”
And just a month after the divorce file, “work things out” is exactly what they did.
“They are amazing together when they are happy,” the source for People added. “Their friends can’t imagine them getting a divorce. It really seems they will be able to work things out though. Everyone is happy that they are giving their marriage a second chance.”
“He has been working hard to win her back. They love each other,” they added. “They want to keep their family together.”
Their most recent update came in October, where another source (possibly the same one) told People, “Everything is being dealt with in a very mature way and it seems to work. Jen is very happy. Sly is the love of her life. She was just frustrated and needed changes. She is getting those changes now. She loves that Sly is making an effort. She feels heard and appreciated.”
Reflecting on their brief separation, Stallone told The Sunday Times, “Let’s just say that it was a very tumultuous time. There was a reawakening of what was more valuable than anything, which is my love for my family. It takes precedence over my work, and that was a hard lesson to learn.”
Sources:
https://people.com/movies/sylvester-stallone-wife-feels-heard-now-source-exclusive/
https://people.com/movies/sylvester-stallone-jennifer-flavin-relationship-timeline/
