Tragic Details About Laura Dern

Trigger Warning: The following article contains mentions of sexual assault.

Since she appeared in her first film as a child in the '70s, it was clear that Laura Dern was destined for greatness. As the daughter of movie star parents — Diane Ladd from "Chinatown" and Bruce Dern of "The Great Gatsby," both released in 1974 — countless opportunities were available to her from early on. However, as Dern told Willie Geist on "Sunday Today" in May 2018, an acting career wasn't necessarily what her mother wanted for her. "I think the quote of my mother's was, 'Be a lawyer, be a doctor, be a leper missionary, but don't be an actress!'" she remarked.

Dern ended up pursuing her acting career behind her mother's back, going on auditions secretly and eventually filing for emancipation. She landed her breakout role in David Lynch's 1986 classic "Blue Velvet." Throughout her incredible five-decade career, Dern has had a stunning transformation and won an Oscar, but life hasn't always been easy for her — she's also endured several unfortunate circumstances.

The "Jurassic Park" star has dealt with the deaths of loved ones, health issues, and heartbreak. Before she was even born, her family struggled with unthinkable tragedy. Here are the tragic details about Laura Dern's childhood and adulthood.

Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern were just starting out as actors in Hollywood when they tied the knot in 1960. Not long after, they welcomed their first daughter, Diane Dern, to the world, but tragically, she only lived for 18 months. Ladd recounted the tragic incident to CBS News in May 2023, saying her daughter had been under the care of a nanny, who sadly hadn't been paying close enough attention. "She fell into the pool," Ladd said. "She hit her head and knocked herself out. And it all happened instantly. And she died, and you will never get over that. I don't care what you say to yourself. I don't care who says what. The child is not supposed to die before the parent."

As they mourned the loss of their first daughter, a rift formed between Ladd and Dern, as they couldn't afford to move and remained in the same house where the tragedy took place. Eventually, the struggling actors had Laura, but they ultimately divorced when she was just 2 years old. Later in the same CBS News interview, Laura explained why she'd never spoken to her mom about her late sister. "I had not asked because I thought I was gonna hurt you," she said. "And that was a lesson that I would want to share with everyone, that if we talk it out, there is healing of all kinds."

After her parents divorced in 1969, Laura Dern was raised by both her grandmother and mother, who was continuing her work as an actor. Sadly, this left the young girl feeling lonely throughout her childhood, but being away from home was a necessary sacrifice. As Diane Ladd told CBS News in May 2023, she was facing the struggles common among single parents. "How to pay the rent, how to get my daughter what she needs," she said. "And worse, because you gotta go out for an interview, and you gotta hold your head up. You better not have a rip in that stocking. You better have those shoes not run down. You gotta put on an image."

In the same interview, Dern said she knew her mother loved her, but still struggled with loneliness. "One of the hardest things for me as a working mother in the same profession when I became a parent was that I held guilt that I still don't know what's my children's loneliness or my own," she said. Dern had no siblings to keep her company, and her father remained mostly out of the picture for many years, though she ended up spending more time with him as she got older. Eventually, Dern joined her gorgeous movie star mom on-screen in "White Lightning" and "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," giving the two more time together.

In a town where looks are everything, Laura Dern's mother was horrified to learn that her daughter had developed scoliosis at 9 years old and might have to wear a back brace. In a 1999 interview with Redbook Magazine, Dern explained that she was diagnosed with an extreme case of the condition, characterized by a sideways curvature of the spine. The mother-daughter duo refused to accept this outcome, so Ladd took Dern to several other alternative specialists, including chiropractors and osteopaths.

Amazingly, within several months, Dern's scoliosis had been corrected. "My mom took me there twice a week, and within six months I was absolutely fine," she said. "I never had to wear a brace." The doctors considered the correction of Dern's spine to be a miracle, but the young girl was just relieved to not have to go through the ordeal of wearing a back brace.

As she explained in the 1998 book "A Healer Among Us" by Jon Stevens, "No parties, no dances, no boys, no activities — those things are your life when you're a kid. So when I heard the news, I was just so relieved and thrilled and joyous. All the hard work had paid off."

Hollywood faced a massive social shift in 2017 with the #MeToo movement going viral, and countless entertainment industry figures spoke out about their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault. Laura Dern was one of them. In light of the Harvey Weinstein allegations, she appeared on "The Ellen Degeneres Show" in October 2017 and talked about being sexually assaulted when she was 14 years old.

"I was one of the lucky ones because I was raised by actors who told me their stories and told me what to look out for, and I realized that I was still justifying behavior," she said. "And it was my mom who said, 'No, no, no, Laura, that was sexual assault.'" Dern said she realized how our culture justifies and condones such behavior as if it's normal. Although she hasn't provided details on who her alleged assailant was and whether they were a prominent figure in the industry, she experienced the tragic event while she was still an up-and-coming actor.

Everything changed for Laura Dern when the opportunity of a lifetime fell into her lap. She had just enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and had been there for two days when she auditioned for David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" — and was offered her breakout role. While speaking on the "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" podcast in July 2024, Dern explained she went to the head of the psychology department and asked for a leave of absence. "Absolutely not, you can't take a leave," they replied.

She had offered to double up her classes, do extra work, and even get a tutor to help make up for the lost time, but the department head still wouldn't budge. Dern later went to the head of the film department, who offered to take a look at the script, but warned her that a leave of absence may still not be permitted. "The next day [he] said, 'First of all, if you make this choice, you are no longer welcome at UCLA, you'll be out.'" she continued. "'But secondly, having read this script, that you would give up your college education for this is insane.'" Dern left UCLA to pursue the film, which ended up being the best decision for her acting career. But to this day, it upsets her that to get a master's degree in film at the school, you have to study "Blue Velvet."

If you can believe it, Angelina Jolie has been at the center of more love triangles than just Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. In 1997, Billy Bob Thornton was going through his fourth divorce, and Laura Dern had just broken things off with Jeff Goldblum when the two actors began their relationship. The Hollywood couple were engaged in 1999 when Thornton met Jolie while filming "Pushing Tin," in which they played a married couple.

Thornton and Jolie decided to make it official, so without Dern's knowledge, they got married in Las Vegas in May 2000. It was a heartbreaking realization, as Dern told Talk Magazine (via ABC News) in January 2006, "I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again," she said. "It's like a sudden death. For no one has there been any closure or clarity." To make matters worse, the two women had been personally acquainted, as Dern once worked as Jolie's babysitter many years prior.

The sudden betrayal from Billy Bob Thornton kicked off a difficult decade for Laura Dern. Sadly, the actor struggled for many years following the incident, partly due to the immense pressure of societal standards she thought she hadn't met when she was expected to. Speaking with The Times in November 2021, Dern explained why her 30s were so hard for her. "The world has told you you're a woman now and you're supposed to be a grown-up, and it's the introduction of a biological clock," she said. "It's the introduction of culture telling you you're supposed to find him, her, some kind of partnership. It's your belief that you're supposed to already be at a finish line ... I found it brutal."

Although Dern's roles continued to come in, there's always been a double standard for women in Hollywood to take on different roles as they get older, and her 40s were looming over her. On top of concerns about her love life, Dern worried about the future of her career, as she told Allure in July 2019. "Twenty years ago, someone told me, 'Have fun now, because once you're 40 things will change,' and yet my parents, who were also actors, told me, 'Well, you love playing complicated, deep characters, but you don't really get to play those until you're 40,'" she said.

The clouds started to settle for Laura Dern when she decided to open herself back up to love. She met musician Ben Harper in 2000 at one of his concerts, and they had Ellery, their first child together, the following year, shortly after Harper's divorce from his previous wife was finalized. The couple went on to have Jaya in 2004, and finally tied the knot in December 2005.

Dern and Harper were fairly private when it came to their relationship, so it was a shock when the musician filed for divorce in 2010, with the couple separating in January of that year. They briefly reconciled a couple years later, but ultimately the divorce was finalized by 2013. If there was one silver lining that came out of their split, it's that Dern went on to win awards from the Oscars, BAFTA, Golden Globes, and many others in 2020. Specifically, for her performance as Nora Fanshaw, a divorce lawyer in "Marriage Story," for which she drew inspiration from her own divorce.

During her speech following her Golden Globe win, Dern explained how her own experiences informed her performance, per Variety. "[The cast and crew] all felt personal about [the script] and so to my amazing divorced parents, and my amazing step parents, and my amazing children who came from love despite an ending in a marriage, we're so privileged to redefine what family looks like," she said.

When "Big Little Lies" aired on HBO in 2017, it was an instant success. The ensemble cast of the psychological drama series, many of whom portrayed upper-class mothers, scooped up several Emmy nominations. But for some, the performances came at a price. Similarly to Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern struggled with the weight of her role on "Big Little Lies," and she found playing the uptight and proudly wealthy Renata Klein to be emotionally taxing.

During an October 2019 interview with Vanity Fair, Dern spoke about the pros and cons of working on such demanding projects. "It is such a luxurious job, to be able to inhabit those spaces and be free of shame about it, to get all of that rage out," she said. "But what I haven't said probably enough is when you're in it emotionally, it's taxing. If you're inhabiting a person like that who runs on empty at all times, it definitely catches up with you."

The actor went on to say that she'd begun taking her work home with her, so to speak. "My son said to me the other day, 'You know, Mom, I never think about the work you're doing, but, man, when you were doing "Big Little Lies," you were so tired every day,'" she recounted. "Renata is definitely exhausting — because you're also improvising and you have to be high-strung."

Laura Dern's relationship with her mother, Diane Ladd, wasn't always perfect, and a lot has been left unsaid between the two actors over the years. However, it was a health scare that brought them closer together, and even inspired them to jointly write a memoir titled "Honey, Baby, Mine," released in 2023. It all started when Ladd was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 2018. The lung disease, Dern believes, was the result of exposure to pesticides and caused damage and scarring to her lung tissue.

Tragically, Ladd was given just six months to live, and Dern quickly took on the duty of caring for her mom. "They didn't know what they could do, except if we could get her to walk, it would help her expand her lungs," she told CBS News during their May 2023 joint interview. They walked together and had long conversations, which Dern recorded and later used for piecing together their memoir. When asked why she shared their private conversations with the world, she replied, "I think we share the longing for the people we love — and anyone — to have the experience we had. Which was to know each other better, more deeply." As of this writing, Ladd has thankfully proven the doctors wrong.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a frightening time for everyone. There was uncertainty around everything from how long the lockdowns would last to whether you'd have enough toilet paper, or what would happen if you got sick. Laura Dern was one of the many people who dealt with anxiety during the pandemic, especially as the daughter of someone with a chronic lung condition.

The actor spoke with Prevention.com in July 2020 about her concerns throughout lockdown. "I think the most difficult part of quarantine personally for our family was the worry of the unknown and the worry for my mom, who has a lung condition," Dern explained. "I don't know if everybody in the world has anxiety around the unknown, but for me, I like to know the plan. I like to know even with a moment of great hardship of grief or loss ... [what's] going on."

Finding ways to cope with her anxiety became important. Around this time, Dern even teamed up with the mindfulness app Calm, which she spoke about with People in April 2020. "I look at how to manage stress," she said. "Being an actor, how I stay centered in a moment and cut out all the noise ... that's required. You tune out everything around you when you're working. As adults, we don't give ourselves a place to relax."

Back in 1985, just before Laura Dern became a household name, she starred in the romance thriller movie "Smooth Talk," playing a teenager who's vying for male attention. She performed alongside Treat Williams, who'd already made it big in the 1979 movie "Hair," and he served as the dangerously handsome antagonist. He had a profound impact on Dern, so when he tragically died in a motorcycle accident in June 2023, she had to write a tribute to the actor.

Dern shared an Instagram post a day after his death, alongside a photo of the two on the set of "Smooth Talk." "Brilliant Treat," she wrote. "You loved art and acting and living and loving your incredible family immeasurably. Thank you for all the characters and profound creative inspiration you gave us all. From the depths of hard-hitting film to the most extraordinary musical theatre experiences. And thank you for the gift of an honest, consistent, inspired and continual friendship along our paths in this life."

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).