Sandra Bullock is speaking out about the tumultuous period following her divorce from Jesse James in 2010, a time she described as "a really dark time" during which she was "trying to grieve."
In a recent interview for Interview Magazine, Bullock, 62, discussed how her 2013 film "Gravity" paralleled her personal struggles. "It was during a really dark time in my life," she told Jennifer Aniston. "I was raising and protecting a little smurf while I was trying to grieve, trying to get out of it."
Her marriage to West Coast Choppers founder James unraveled after allegations of infidelity with model Michelle "Bombshell" McGee surfaced in 2010. The scandal led to their divorce, coinciding with Bullock's secret adoption of her son, Louis. The added public attention amplified the difficulty of the situation.
Bullock recounted the extreme measures she took to shield her newborn son from paparazzi during the height of the scandal. "I was just cleaning out the closet, and I found these hockey bags for stuffing clothes in for travel," she recalled. "Child Protective Services, do not come after me, but when the poop hit the fan for me, when, we know what that is, I realized I had to get out of the house because the paparazzi were going to descend, and no one knew I had a newborn."
She described placing Louis in his car carrier, then inside a hockey bag, zipping it up, and carrying it as if it were regular sports equipment to maintain privacy. "You have to operate like the CIA," Bullock said. "If you’re surrounded by good people, you’ll be fine. But if people near you mean you harm, no matter how covert you are and how much pre-planning you do, your privacy is information that brings them cash."
Filming "Gravity," which featured Bullock as an astronaut isolated in space, was a particularly isolating experience due to the demands of the production, including being strapped to an axis rig for extended periods. "Being locked in a box by myself with no one to talk to for nine hours a day, you do a lot of thinking," she noted.
Bullock also shared that James sought treatment for sex addiction in April 2010 following the scandal and issued an apology, but it was not enough to salvage their marriage.
Bullock is also mother to her adopted daughter Laila, 12, whom she welcomed in 2015. She met her late partner, Bryan Randall, in 2015. Randall died in 2023 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.