Billy Crudup gave a sweet, albeit fleeting, shoutout to Naomi Watts at the Critics Choice Awards on Monday.
The newlyweds only just made their first red carpet appearance together, after tying the knot last June, at the Golden Globes last week.
Watts didn’t appear to be with Crudup at this awards ceremony, as the actor took his son Will Parker with him instead, but the Australian actress wasn’t far from his mind.
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As he took to the stage to accept his Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award for his role as Cory Ellison in The Morning Show (called Morning Wars in Australia), he thanked his family and his co-stars in a candid speech.
“I certainly wasn’t prepared for this,” Crudup told the audience, right after Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki won her Critic’s Choice Award for The Crown.
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“This morning I had a minor panic attack and tested out some thoughts to my son about the importance of criticism you know profound, insightful, passionate criticism and in the marriage of producing art, and he said ‘Dad, if you say anything about that, I’m going to kill you’.
“So I’m gonna save you that dissertation and just thank the people that have really been there for me – my son over there my 20-year-old amazing son Will Parker, my wife, my mum, my brothers, my family all those that support me.
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“My great colleagues, the fellow nominees and the critics and my teachers and all the professionals that support me, how about those guys.
“And then the cast, the crew, the producers, the writers, the directors of The Morning Show and Apple, you really gave me something that I didn’t expect at this point in my life, but I’m genuinely profoundly grateful. So thanks for letting me have tonight.”
Crudup’s son – who shares his first name with his father and has taken his mother Mary-Louise Parker’s surname – is also an actor and filmmaker.
Crudup and Parker began dating in 1996 after meeting in the Broadway production Bus Stop.
But just months before Will was born, in December 2004, the couple split, with claims in the New York Post that the Spotlight actor had left Parker, then seven months pregnant, for actress Claire Danes.
His rep and Danes both denied the report, with the latter telling People, “Claire has been friends with Billy for 10 years.”
Ultimately, Crudup and Danes, who co-starred in Stage Beauty in 2004, went on to date for four years.
Watts and Crudup began dating in 2017, after meeting on the set of their Netflix series Gypsy. They tied the knot over five years later, in June 2023.
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