Claire Danes Interview: Public Scrutiny During Billy Crudup Affair ‘Was Really Hard’

Courtesy of Sirius XM Radio

Claire Danes tells Howard Stern that she didn’t realize the ‘consequences’ of her affair with Billy Crudup in 2003, when he left a seven-months pregnant Marie-Louise Parker for her.

Claire Danes, 36, is speaking out, 12 years later, on her affair with actor, Billy Crudup, which dominated the headlines. Many Homeland fans might not even realize that Claire was embroiled in quite the love triangle when Billy left Weeds actress, Marie-Louise Parker for Claire, 24 at the time, while she was pregnant! It was scandalous but even though Billy denied he left Mary-Louise for Claire, they ended up dating for two years. But Claire says in hindsight she was “just in love” and “needed to explore that,” even if it meant being the other woman.

“That was a scary thing,” she told Howard Stern. “That was really hard. I didn’t know how to not do that. I was just in love with him and needed to explore that, and I was 24 … I didn’t quite know what those consequences would be … But it’s O.K … I went through it.” We all have to learn from our mistakes and it seems like Claire has really grown up! She ended up falling in love shortly after with actor Hugh Dancy, whom she met in 2006 on the set of their movie, Evening.

Claire has spoken out about the affair before: “That was a choice I made to fall in love,” she told BlackBook in 2009. “It’s unpleasant to be cast in such an unflattering role, but I just had to remain steadfast.” Meanwhile, Mary-Louise claims she ended up raising her son William on her own and adopted a little girl, Caroline, from Ethiopia. She is also set to release a tell-all book this Fall titled, “Dear Mr. You.” It has letters written to all the men who made an impact both negative and positive on her life and Billy is expected to be mentioned.

HollywoodLifers, do you think Claire’s relationship with Billy was wrong?

— Chloe Melas