Sandra Bullock is speaking out about the "really dark time" following her ex-husband Jesse James' 2010 cheating scandal. In a conversation with Jennifer Aniston for Interview magazine, published Tuesday, Bullock described the process of "trying to grieve" the end of her marriage.
At the time of the scandal, Bullock was raising her newly adopted son, Louis, whom she adopted in late 2009. She recounted the lengths she went to in order to shield him from the paparazzi, humorously noting she did not want "Child Protective Services ... [to] come after" her. To avoid detection, she placed her infant son in his car carrier inside a hockey bag, then carried the bag to her car, making it appear as if she was transporting sports equipment.
Bullock said that filming "Gravity" in 2011, a role where she played an astronaut stranded in space, felt "meaningful" because it "was paralleling" her own life situation. She described the experience as being "in a locked box by [her]self with no one to talk to for nine hours a day ... do[ing] a lot of thinking."
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Bullock, who adopted her daughter Laila later, explained that raising her children in the public eye has required operating "like the CIA." She stated that privacy is valuable information that can be exploited by those who mean harm. She alluded to a recent incident where such a betrayal "broke my heart," though she did not provide specific details.
Bullock and James married in July 2005. James subsequently entered a treatment facility following their breakup. In a 2017 interview with the Daily Mail, James acknowledged his infidelity, stating, "Yeah, I did cheat on my wife, yeah, I stood up and took accountability for it and apologized. And that's end of story. ... It's part of life."
Bullock has largely remained private about the scandal over the years. She moved on with photographer Bryan Randall in 2015. Randall passed away in August 2023 at the age of 57 after a private battle with ALS.
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Currently, Bullock shared her anxieties about her children growing up and leaving home, expressing that she "keeps saying, 'We'll keep this house. I'll do the laundry. You can stay here.'" She admitted to feeling lost when her children are not with her and is "praying" they won't fully leave the house.