Jeremy Renner casually let slip his relationship status with Canadian model Sonni Pacheco, and contrary to recent reports, they are definitely not broken up.
The “Avengers” star revealed that Pacheco, the mother of his 18-month-old daughter Ava, is now his wife. He wants to keep his family life private, a difficult task for a paparazzi magnet.
“I have tried to protect my family’s privacy, my wife’s privacy,” Renner told Capitol File. “I don’t need her to get hammered with my life.”
Renner and Pacheco were broken up before their daughter’s birth. He reportedly allowed his ex-girlfriend to live in his home during her pregnancy, along with close friend Griffin Hadley. Pacheco delivered Ava on March 28, 2013.
He had never felt pressured to get married, he told Elle last November. He also admitted it wasn’t something he thought about often.
Renner’s little family vacationed with his “Avengers” co-star Robert Downey Jr. and his family (wife Susan and 2-year-old son Exton) earlier this year. The two families enjoyed a May weekend in Nashville at a music festival and a day at the zoo, according to the Daily Mail.
The guarded actor knows the paparazzi will follow him, but he’s not willing to disclose his personal life just to quiet the media speculation.
“Privacy issues are important because I want her to go about her day without being bothered,” Renner told Capitol File. “Paps follow me around . . . that’s fine. But . . . I don’t like being followed when I’m with my family. I’ve been talked about a whole lot, because the less I put out there, the less people know, and it makes it interesting, I assume.”
Renner’s latest film “Kill the Messenger” will premiere on Oct. 10, 2014. He’ll reprise his role as Hawkeye in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” out in May and will return to the “Mission Impossible” franchise for the fifth installment next Christmas.
