Keanu Reeves has gone from young Hollywood heartthrob, to certified action star, to the “internet’s boyfriend” over the course of the last few decades. People all over the globe are drawn to the actor, both for his talent and charisma on screen, and his well known attributes of kindness and generosity in real life. There are few Hollywood stars more highly thought of than Keanu. As such, fans have been rooting for him to find love. And their wishes have been granted. Recently, his long time relationship with Alexandra Grant has been made public, and Keanu’s many fans couldn’t be more excited for him. Join Facts Verse, as we present: Keanu Reeves’ Secret Girlfriend is Now Fully Out in the Open.
While Keanu Reeves has certainly led a charmed career, the same can’t be said for his personal life. As he has grown from a working actor to a verifiable A-lister, he suffered some incredible traumas in real life. In the late ‘90s, he was dating a woman named Jennifer Syme. Tragically, the couple lost their child after it was born stillborn in the eighth month of pregnancy. As often happens, that incredibly painful event put a huge strain on their relationship, and the two split shortly after. However, after some time apart, they reconciled. It seemed as it they were back on track and dating, and perhaps would try for another child. But tragedy struck again. In April of 2001, Jennifer was involved in a car accident in Los Angeles, and died after being thrown from her vehicle. Reeves later confirmed that indeed the two of them were back together and had had lunch the day before. Jennifer’s death sent Reeves spiraling, and he struggled to deal with the loss of both his child and his girlfriend, only a 2 years apart.
It’s been more than 20 years since both of those incidents, and Keanu seemed to be struggling to find true love and happiness. He was linked for a bit to his friend, Brenda Davis, a filmmaker, as well as to model China Chow. But neither of these relationships seemed to be long lasting. And in more recent years, there was a sense that Keanu was lonely and sad. This was unfairly spread by a meme that went viral, showing him eating alone on a park bench, looking slightly forlorn. People assumed the brief moment encapsulated everything he was going through in his life. But of course, memes are memes, and a photo only shows one fraction of a second in someone’s life. They are hardly a way to make conclusions about someone’s long term emotional states. And yet as far as everyone knew, Keanu was single and yet to find long term love. So people all over were rooting for him.
Keanu Meets Alexandra
Reeves and Alexandra Grant met at a dinner party in 2009. Sparks were not immediate, and the two became friends. They then also became working partners, though it happened in quite an odd way. Apparently one night Keanu and a group of his friends were having dinner, and Keanu began talking about the “Sad Keanu” meme, and how the internet was mocking him for seeming lonely. They were all reportedly listening to downtrodden music in the moment, and the mood seemed right for Keanu to half-jokingly write a poem about it. His friend Janey Bergam, a book editor, liked the poem, and decided to pass it on to Alexandra. Alexandra is an artist, so her natural inclination was to take the poem, add art to it, and create a book. She spent several months on it, and then gave her draft back to Keanu, who loved it. And he was eventually convinced by his friends to publish it, which he did in 2011. It’s called “Ode To Happiness.” This was the first collaboration Keanu and Alexandra had, and it perhaps created the embers that would later become the fire of their love.
Friendship Turns to Love
It’s not entirely known to the public when Keanu and Alexandra’s friendship turned into love. But at some point after the book was published, and 2019, they officially became a couple. It was only in 2019 that we got glimpses of the pair in public together, sparking further speculation that they were indeed a couple. Then in the summer of 2022, they walked the red carpet together at a Hollywood event, which is a pretty good indicator that they were dating. And the next month they were seen holding hands at a Broadway show. At this point, it had been made pretty clear that the two were officially an item.
Interestingly enough, their friend, actress Jennifer Tilly had actually confirmed their relationship in an interview in 2020. At an event for the American Heart Association, Tilly talked about how, at that point, Keanu and Alexandra had been dating for several years. She further said that she’d been quite surprised by the recent revelations online that the two were a couple, seeing as how they’d been out in public together, and dating for a while.
Tilly recalls Grant telling her that she was dating Keanu, and being taken aback. Said Jennifer, “She was so cool I thought she was a lesbian.”
So what DO we know about Alexandra?
Her artistic talents
Grant hails from Ohio, though has been in Los Angeles for most of her life. As such, she considers herself an Angelino. Her talents lie primarily in the visual arts, with a focus on painting. However, she has done a number of creative collaborations that push the boundaries of visual artistry. She has worked with people like Michael Joyce, a pioneer in the medium of digital literature, as well as Hélène Cixous, a well known feminist. Grant’s work has been featured in publications as varied as Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art to the LA Times, and her pieces have been displayed in galleries in California like the Hammer Museum and LACMA, and other states as well.
She also uses her skills to help others. She started a program called grantLOVE, which sells original pieces of art with the purpose of benefitting non-profits, as well as artist projects.
More collaborations with Keanu
Since the success of their 2011 book, as well as the success of their romantic relationship, Alexandra and Keanu have continued to work together. They put out a book in 2016 called “Shadows.” It consists of photographs, taken by Grant, and featuring Keanu as a model. The focus is on movement and light. In an interview during the release, Grant praised Keanu’s ability to move his body and dance. She referred to him as an extreme performer who moves unlike anyone she’s ever seen. She also tried out a process where the two danced together, and she took photos while they did. The resulting photos create optical illusions in a very artistic way, and make up many of the pages of the photo book.
They continued their working relationship in 2017, by starting a publishing house. It’s called X Artists’ Books, and it’s geared towards publishing books that feature “thoughtful, high-quality, artist-centered books that fit within and between genres.” According to the company’s website, they consider the books they publish to be works of art themselves, as well as treasured companions.
Alexandra’s Other Talents
In addition to her skills as a visual artist, Grant is something of a renaissance woman. She speaks English, French, and Spanish. This was the result of her childhood schooling experience. She went to a British school while living in Mexico City, as well as International School of Paris. In an interview with LA Weekly, she talked about how much she loved being able to move around in different cultures as she grew up. And that once she moved to Los Angeles, she particularly enjoyed the fact that it’s a hodgepodge of so many different cultures. She remarked how much she loves the diversity of the city, whether it’s the people, the foods, the languages, or even the plant life.
Grant also spent time on the other side of the schooling process, working as a college professor for several different schools over the years. She worked at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena from 2009 to 2011, serving as an adjunct professor. During that tenure, she also led an MFA seminar at nearby Cal State Northridge. Then in 2013, she taught through the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s Distance MFA program, before moving on to do similar teaching at Syracuse University.
Their Ages
One of the most remarked about elements of Keanu and Alexandra’s relationship is their ages. And not for the usual reasons. Keanu is 58, while Grant is 49. And while in other circumstances, people might look at a nine year age gap as being quite large, in this case, people are happy about how small it is. That‘s because it’s been the trend for decades for older men in Hollywood to date younger and younger women. Of course, that’s no limited to Hollywood, but it seems to happen a lot there. So Keanu has been garnering praise all around for having a truly age appropriate relationship. Sure, Alexandra is almost a decade younger than him, but she’s far from a 21-year-old whom you might expect an aging A-list actor to be dating. It’s yet another reason why people love Keanu so much, and we everyone seems to rooting so hard for these two to have a long term love.
Fans all over the globe have been having sighs of relief for Keanu in the last couple of years, as it appears he’s found love again. No longer do they have to worry about having a “Sad Keanu” moping about in between his movies. He’s seemingly found a long term love in the form of Alexandra, and we’re all here for it.
Now it’s time to hear from you. Did you know about Keanu’s relationship with Alexandra Grant? Let us know in the comments section below!
