Some men might look upon their eighth decade as a time to unwind and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, surrounded, perhaps, by the comforts of the familiar. Richard Gere, however, is not some men.
Once Hollywood’s ultimate romantic hero, at the age of 75 the actor (snowy locks aside, his youthful visage belies his years) has chosen to up-sticks and move 3,500 miles from the US to live in the Spanish city of Madrid.
Why? For love, of course.
And who would expect anything less from the man who, as the star of films like An Officer And A Gentleman and Pretty Woman, swept his leading ladies off their feet – and set the pulses of a legion of women racing?
The actor, whose proficiency in the local lingo is still, it would seem, a work in progress, has been busily making himself at home in the Spanish capital with his 41-year-old Spanish wife Alejandra Silva and their two young sons.
Almost as well known for Buddhism and his vocal activism in pursuit of a Free Tibet as he is for his Hollywood credits, Gere made the leap across the Atlantic late last year and, as The Mail on Sunday discovered last week, the European city has warmly embraced its newest celebrity resident – and is being patiently encouraging as he grapples with the language.
The couple sold their Connecticut ranch for £8.6million and are reported to have bought a sprawling three-storey mansion – complete with swimming pool and wine cellar – in the affluent neighbourhood of La Moraleja.
Clearly the move has been a hit with Alejandra, who was born in Galicia but raised in Madrid, where her businessman father, Ignacio Silva, is the former vice president of football club Real Madrid.
On November 29 she posted a photograph of sons Alexander, five, and James, four, emptying plastic storage boxes to decorate an enormous Christmas tree.
‘This year finally in Spain,’ she declared in the accompanying caption. Notable were the empty shelves in the background – suggesting there was still a lot of unpacking to do.
On Christmas Day, the MoS has learnt, the family – Gere is also stepfather to Alejandra’s eldest son Albert, 12 – were visitors to the legendary Chocolateria San Gines, Madrid’s top spot for that most beloved of Spanish snacks, chocolate and churros.
The cafe has been making the ‘dipping doughnuts’ since 1894, but manager Jesus Figuera was still nervous when the celebrity group walked in. Gere, wearing a baseball cap, apparently went unnoticed by the other clientele.
‘It was a very busy day that afternoon at San Gines, but they entered discreetly from a car that dropped them off outside,’ he told the MoS. ‘They looked perfectly at home with all the other customers around them and Richard looked very happy.
‘He was very humble, very pleasant and smiling all the time. They were talking among themselves and saying how tasty the chocolate was, and Richard asked me questions about where the chocolate was from in a mix of Spanish and English. Where you couldn’t understand him, his wife and the other people they were with would let him talk, but then help him out by explaining in Spanish.
‘But he made the effort to speak Spanish and that, along with the fact they left their plates and cups clean, showed me Richard looks very much at home here.’
The couple are also reported to have enjoyed meals at upmarket restaurant Aurea, just a short distance from their front door.
Earlier this month, Gere and Alejandra – who’s known as Ale – were on the coast, at holiday hot spot Malaga, dining with actor Antonio Banderas and watching a performance of his musical Gypsy.
Generous with praise, Gere joked: ‘Although I don’t understand everything in Spanish, I loved the show.’
Alejandra had been yearning for home for some time, it seems. They’d had a six-month debate about where to live after they married in 2018, a battle he won – at first.
But as Gere told chat-show host Jimmy Fallon: ‘My wife is Spanish and she gave me about seven years here, so we’re going to spend some years in Madrid.
‘We are happier than ever. She, because she is at home and I, because if she is happy, I am happy.’
He said Alejandra was already planning Sunday lunches for 35 people, following in the footsteps of her late grandmother, who was the ‘glue that held all together’.
Food – and their adored children – seems to be the glue that holds this couple together. ‘Richard is a very devoted and present father,’ Alejandra told Spanish Elle magazine. ‘He loves to read them stories. He’s a great dad.’
Not, however, much of a cook. ‘He doesn’t cook, I do it,’ she said. ‘When I cook, he plays the guitar.’
So far, so idyllic. If this is marital bliss, it took its time coming. After all, it was 1982 when Gere swept a factory worker off her feet to the strains of Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’ Up Where We Belong (and of course to the immortal cries of ‘Way to go Paula!’ from her colleagues) in An Officer and a Gentleman – the year before Alejandra was born.
And she was seven when he gallantly came to the rescue of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
The actor, whose breakthrough role was in American Gigolo in 1980, was married to supermodel Cindy Crawford for four years (1991-1995), before tying the knot for a second time, to actress Cary Lowell, with whom he has a 24-year-old son, Homer, named after Gere’s father, who died aged 100 in 2023. They separated in 2013 after 11 years of marriage.
Alejandra, meanwhile, grew up in a wealthy enclave on the outskirts of Madrid with her two sisters. She went to the elite Mater Salvatoris school and enjoyed a brief sojourn on British shores, at the private Catholic boarding school Leweston, in Sherborne, Dorset.
Back in Madrid she studied advertising and marketing at university and worked at an advertising agency before working in marketing at an aviation company.
Once a member of Madrid’s glitterati, she had a brief relationship with Real Madrid defender Roberto Carlos before marrying geologist and businessman Govind Friedland, son of mining tycoon Robert Friedland, in 2012.
After their marriage ended three years later, Alejandra was running a hotel in the chic Italian resort of Positano, once home to film director Franco Zeffirelli, when she met Gere in 2015.
He was already a friend of her family, having met Alejandra’s father ‘Nacho’ while filming an advert on the island of Formentera in 2000, when she was 17.
Gere, who won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of slick lawyer Billy Flynn in the screen adaptation of the musical Chicago in 2002, once joked that she thought he was George Clooney when they met.
By Alejandra’s account, their relationship blossomed quickly after he bombarded her with flowers until she agreed to go on a date with him. ‘It wasn’t long until [we] both felt we were meant to be together,’ she said.
In an interview with the Spanish magazine Hola! in 2016, she declared: ‘Richard has been like my hero in real life. We were there for each other.’ Both Buddhists (she converted after meeting him), the couple believe in reincarnation.
‘I was a little lost, without light, and meeting him gave meaning to my life,’ she has said. ‘It was like feeling that someone was holding out their hand to me and showing me the true path… we have known each other for many lives.
‘Everyone can see there’s an age difference, and everyone knows what it means to be a Hollywood star, but there is such a big karmic force, the problems disappear.’
Now there’s a storyline for a film. A truly international one at that.
The relationship went public after they were spotted on a yacht off the coast of Sicily in June 2015, when they were both in the process of divorce.
They married in 2018, first in a civil ceremony in Spain, then a more lavish celebration at Gere’s ranch, outside New York, during which he sang to his bride in Spanish, they danced a flamenco – and she wore no fewer than three dresses.
At the time she said she felt the ‘luckiest woman in the world’, and declared it felt like ‘I’m in a true fairytale’.
Gere has been equally effusive: ‘I have found the quiet and happy life that I have always sought,’ he told one interviewer.
‘I’m the happiest man in the universe – how could I not be?’ he told another. ‘I’m married to a beautiful woman who is smart, sensitive, committed to helping people,
who’s fun, patient who knows how to forgive, who’s a great cook – and who makes the best salads in the world!’ Love indeed.
He was six months short of his 70th birthday when they welcomed the arrival of their first child in February 2019. The imminent arrival was confirmed when Alejandra posted a photograph online of the Dalai Lama, no less, with his hands reaching out to her growing bump.
Their second son swiftly followed, in April 2020.
The couple also share a passion for humanitarian work, with both effusive in their support of the Spanish homelessness NGO Hoga Si. Their goal, they say, is to ensure that within five years no one sleeps on the street in Spain.
One man who applauds that is Padre Angel, a Catholic priest and philanthropist who offers food and shelter to the homeless through his organisation, Mensajeros de la Paz, as well as at a nearby restaurant called Robin Hood.
He has a long-standing relationship with the couple, who have visited his church, and this week told the MoS: ‘I still maintain contact with Richard and his wife, and we send each other WhatsApp messages every so often. Richard is someone who helps with welfare issues whenever he can.
‘I’m happy they’re living in Spain now… Above all they are helping raise awareness among the authorities, government and other people that we can all help to make a better world.’
The couple received awards for their work in a different field, shortly after arriving in Madrid, in November. They jointly received the Elle Eco Award 2024 for their work with the Sierra a Mar project in Mexico, an initiative focused on conservation and sustainable development on a stunning stretch of coastline.
It was this award that triggered the interview that appeared in Elle last week. In it Alejandra again returned to the subject of karma.
‘We are like soul mates,’ she said. ‘We have the same values – we see the world in the same way and from the first moment we felt like we have known each for a long time. And this only happens once, if it happens at all… We were united by the karma of our past lives.’
As Senor Gere bids a warm ‘Hola’ to his new life in Spain and ‘Adios’ to Hollywood, there will no doubt be many women cheering: ‘Way to go, Alejandra!’
Additional reporting: Gerard Couzens
