Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt's Relationship Timeline: A Look Back

Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts has been married to Danny Moder since 2002. However, once upon a time in Hollywood in the late '90s, Roberts found herself head over heels for Miss Congeniality actor Benjamin Bratt. While the unrelenting spotlight wasn't easy on the relationship (more on this later), Bratt and Roberts did a great job maintaining a distance between their romance and the public while also placating us with fun soundbites.

"All that I have to say about Julia couldn't possibly fit into one or two sentences," Bratt told People. "She's an incredible woman."

For her part, Roberts told InStyle, "He's very good-looking, and his handsomeness pales in comparison to his kindness. That is all a girl could ask for, really."

Two acts of Bratt's kindness was gifting Roberts with a purple mountain bike for her birthday and a copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer.

"We're just ecstatically happy," Bratt reportedly told Oprah Winfrey. "We're drunk with joy 24 hours out of the day. We're sickening."

Here's a look back at Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt's relationship.

1997: Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt first meet

The acting duo met at a restaurant in 1997. 

"[Bratt] walked in, and I looked up at him, and it was like something hit me over the head with a bat," Roberts told Vanity Fair in 1999. 

Fine dining in Manhattan became as emblematic of Roberts and Bratt's relationship as the iced coffee run was for exes Ben Affleck and Lindsay Shookus. They were often spotted at New York City hotspots like Le Madri, Cafeteria, and Cafe Lure.

January 1998: Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt are first spotted together

In early '98, a 30-year-old Roberts and a 34-year-old Bratt were seen out and about together, both at industry events and just hanging out off-duty. As actors, their work required time spent apart and with other love interests (albeit fictional). While this could have driven some couples crazy, Roberts and Bratt handled it with a sense of humor.

For instance, while Roberts was filming Erin Brockovich, Bratt was on the set of The Next Big Thing, where he was shooting a love scene with co-star Madonna. According to Roberts's co-star Marg Helgenberger, the actress would call and teasingly "quiz" Bratt about his on-screen romance. 

"She would report back to us after she quizzed him," Helgenberger told People. "'So, was it a good kiss? And did you like it? And how long was the kiss?'" 

The Pretty Woman star is officially a far more chill girlfriend than we could ever be.

June 2001: Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt break up

In June 2001, after nearly four years together, Bratt's publicist confirmed that he and Roberts were "no longer together," per Orlando Sentinel.

Rumors of an ensuing split circled nearly a year prior, with New York Magazine reporting, "At this point, they haven't seen each other in months. It's not necessarily over, but it's certainly hit a crisis point."

The constant media speculation about the state of their relationship certainly didn't help.

"We have decided to live our lives according to what the latest tabloid headline is," Bratt told Los Angeles Times in 2001. "Last week we were engaged, and this week we are broken up, and next week she will be abducted by aliens, and the following week we will marry, and she will give birth to an alien child. We try to keep it right."

Bratt touched on the media intervention during a 2002 interview with Vanity Fair as well. 

"I wasn't so naïve as to go into that relationship thinking, 'this will be an entirely normal experience,'" he began. "You don't build your house in a redwood grove if you don't like shade." 

He continued, "I experienced that living at that level of visibility is something that doesn't appeal to me. And I discovered it can't really appeal to anyone. Even she, as well as other people of that magnitude of fame, doesn't enjoy it." 

"It's like a fly that won't leave you alone," Bratt said of the spotlight. "It's that mosquito that buzzes in your ear when you're trying to sleep at night. You turn the light on, and you can't find it. You turn the light off, and it comes back again. It's constant and ever present, and it disrupts any chance of peace ... When you live your life at that level of fame, it gets beyond your control. By the time you realize it, you're stuck."

Soon after her split from Bratt, Roberts set the record straight on the Late Show with David Letterman in July 2001. 

"It's come to a kind and tenderhearted end, and my only regret is that the media can't accept that it's tenderhearted and kind," she said of the breakup. "[The media] has to make it messy and ugly."

Continuing in diplomatic fashion, Roberts said, "I love Benjamin. He's a good man, he's a fine man. He is, to the exultation of the female single population, not my man anymore. Sad, but true, and not ugly, not because of anyone else, parting of the ways. There you go. We're both just two kids trying to find our way in the world."