Maria Bello Explains Why She and Dominique Crenn Are ‘Finally’ Getting Married After a 5-Year Engagement (Exclusive)

Maria Bello is ready for the wedding!

The actress, producer and writer, 56, tells PEOPLE exclusively that she and her longtime partner, Dominique Crenn, are set to make things official this spring.

“We are such terrible planners, I must say, both of us. In addition, we work all over the world,” says Bello. “But we finally have a wedding planner, we have a date, we have a location. And our save date says, ‘Yes, we’re finally doing it.'”

Maria Bello and Dominique Crenn in 2023.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Bello and Crenn — a breast cancer survivor who was first diagnosed shortly after the couple fell in love — got engaged in 2019.

“Dom and I went through the three C’s: cancer, covid and now commitment. I never got married. Even my son’s dad. I never decided to take that step,” says Bello, who shares son Jackson, 22, with Dan McDermott. “And that’s also an exciting thing in the second half of my life, deciding who I want to be with, choosing the person I want to be with.”

The guest list for the event is “medium-sized,” according to Bello, and more than anything, she’s just looking forward to this next chapter.

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“Get together [when you’re young], you are crazy about each other, it’s passionate, sex. And all of a sudden when you turn 50, you’re like, ‘Let’s go watch Netflix and relax, and what’s for dinner, honey?'” Bello says of “different commitments at different times” in life.

“My biggest commitment is to my son, but now this new commitment is consciously entering the second half of life with someone who is really fucking hard.”

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Crenn (58) is a celebrated French chef, and Bello moved with her to Paris so that Crenn could open a restaurant there called Golden Poppy.

Crenn was also the first female chef in America to receive three Michelin stars for her San Francisco restaurant, Atelier Crenn.

Although the couple continues to visit France, Bello is back working and spending time in Los Angeles, and in January she was nominated at the 75th Emmy Awards for her role in the hit Netflix series Beef.

Maria Bello in Netflix’s ‘Beef.’

Andrew Cooper/Netflix/Courtesy of Everett

As for the first person she told about her big prize?

“I’m here at the visa office [in L.A.], the French embassy, ​​and I got a ‘Congratulations’ message from my producer. And I said, ‘For what?’ She said, ‘You just got nominated for an Emmy.’ I looked up at the woman behind the counter and said, ‘S–s. I was just nominated for an Emmy.’ And she’s like, ‘Good for you.’ She didn’t care,” Bello recalls with a laugh.

The Emmy Bello nomination is the first in her nearly 30-year career. It is also in the running for a Critics Choice Award.

“Having a performance recognized and being honored to be a part of that great group, it’s a really great feeling,” she says, “but it’s no longer a feeling of having to prove myself. It’s a feeling of celebrating the journey.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education