Vogue‘s Jonathan Van Meter does a good job of both humanizing Chapman, but also pulling out the information that many of us have been wanting to ask. It also helps that Chapman is open to being honest about her relationship with the now-disgraced movie producer.
When she is asked about if her marriage was a happy one, her response is painfully honest:
“That’s what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life.” Asked if she was ever suspicious about his behavior, she says, “Absolutely not. Never.” For one thing, he traveled constantly. “And I’ve never been one of those people who obsesses about where someone is.”
There was some speculation as to whether Chapman had faced any abuse at the hands of Weinstein, and it seems, from this interview, that at least in their home life, Weinstein presented himself as an intelligent, loving, and generous man.
“Well, he’s a wonderful father to my kids. But initially? He’s charismatic. He’s an incredibly bright, very learned man. And very charitable. He paid for a friend of mine’s mother, who had breast cancer, to go to a top doctor. He was amazing like that. He is amazing like that. That is the tough part of this . . . this black-and-white thing . . . life isn’t like that.” When I tell her that a friend of the couple’s told me that Weinstein gave Chapman confidence, she says, “Yes. Absolutely. He was a wonderful partner to me. He was a friend and a confidant and a supporter. Yes, he’s a big personality. . . . And . . . but . . . I don’t know. I wish I had the answers. But I don’t.”
Chapman also makes it plain that she doesn’t view herself as a victim. “I am a woman in a shit situation, but it’s not unique.” Part of the reason she remained so silent and away from the public was out of respect for the women who were victims of her husband’s actions.
“I was so humiliated and so broken . . . that . . . I, I, I . . . didn’t think it was respectful to go out,” she says. “I thought, Who am I to be parading around with all of this going on? It’s still so very, very raw. I was walking up the stairs the other day and I stopped; it was like all the air had been punched out of my lungs.”
It was also Chapman and her work partner, Keren Craig, who decided not to do any promotion of Marchesa during the fashion season: “We didn’t feel it was appropriate given the situation. All the women who have been hurt deserve dignity and respect, so I want to give it the time it deserves. It’s a time for mourning, really.”
Marchesa’s success as a brand, despite Chapman and Craig’s skills as a designer, will always come into question. In 2004, when Chapman was dating Weinstein, he would visit her in London and if there was a Marchesa show, he would come with some celebrity. What truly put Marchesa on the map was when Renée Zellweger wore one of their dresses for the premiere of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason in London. (The movie was distributed internationally by Miramax, which was owned by Weinstein.)
“The next morning,” says Craig, “she was on the cover of every single British newspaper with a picture of our dress.” Until 2016, according to the reporting, actresses wore Marchesa more often than any other designer on the red carpet.
ScarJo’s dress that she wore Monday was the first time the brand was worn on the red carpet since the scandal broke.
Van Meter asks Chapman if she’s been seeing a therapist, which she has been, but admits that at first, she felt “too shocked” and that she “didn’t deserve” any kind of help. “And then I realized: This has happened. I have to own it. I have to move forward. There was a part of me that was terribly naive—clearly, so naive. I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief!”
When the New York Times investigation came out, followed by the piece in The New Yorker a few days later, Chapman found herself in a daze.
“I lost ten pounds in five days. I couldn’t keep food down.” I ask her how long it took for her to absorb the information. “About two days,” she says. “My head was spinning. And it was difficult because the first article was about a time long before I’d ever met him, so there was a minute where I couldn’t make an informed decision. And then the stories expanded and I realized that this wasn’t an isolated incident. And I knew that I needed to step away and take the kids out of here.”
Which she did by filing for a divorce on October 10th, five days after the NYT piece was published.
The profile does have non-Weinstein moments focusing on her early years in theater working with the actor, David Oyelowo, who has been her friend of 25 years, designing costumes. On being a Prince-loving boarding school student putting together iconic looks with a sewing machine and an Oxfam vest.
All this in an effort to show the public that Chapman was not a talentless monster who was pushed ahead by Weinstein. Something that her friend Neil Gaiman goes on to make clear: “They [Marchesa] absolutely had a push from Harvey, but you cannot hype something from nothing and make it last. And Harvey’s hyping worked because George is actually an artist. I’ve watched her at work and been impressed and fascinated. She has a vision, and she’s really good at it.”
It’s easy for me to feel empathy for Chapman. We often look to wives and spouses of terrible people, and ask them, “How did you not know?” Well, that’s what predators and extreme sociopaths do: they are able to separate their monstrous behavior from their family life. I know, even I make that mistake and I have no problem admitting that even I did side-eye Chapman for a time, but that’s on me, not her.
Still, for the victims of Weinstein, they may always have their doubts, and they are entitled to that.
For Georgina Chapman and her children, she will have to become her biggest advocate for herself and those kids, and for that, I pity her the most. Because it is clear that is the thing that haunts her the most:
“And I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be? What are people going to say to them? It’s like, they love their dad. They love him. I just can’t bear it for them!”
But she will because there is no one else who can.
A Neil Gaiman quote ends the article quite aptly: “She’s a good person who married a bad person. Or, if you want to be less judgmental, she’s a good person who married a person who did some terrible things. And who now has to make a go of it on her own. And I know she can. And I’m sure she will.”
(via Vogue, image: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
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