Grief-Stricken Keanu Reeves Lived Alone In Hotels After Baby And Partner Died

Nov 06, 2019

Hollywood favorite Keanu Reeves, 55, just made his first public appearance with artist girlfriend Alexandra Grant, 46, and has since left fans cheering them on from across the globe. 

A little known fact about Keanu, however, is that before finding love with Grant, he lived something of a “nomadic” life. For about two decades, following the tragic loss of his unborn daughter Ava and former-fiance Jennifer Syme, the 55-year-old lived a lonely life out of a suitcase and in hotel rooms. The deaths of Symes and their daughter, however, was not the only time the actor was stricken with grief. 

Keanu’s childhood saw his father abandon his family. According to the Honolulu star, Samuel Reeves struggled with a drug addiciton for 20 years, with him even getting arrested for the intent of selling heroin at Hilo Airport. As a result, he left the family when Keanu was just 13, leaving him with his mother and sister Kim. 

According to an interview Keanu did with the Guardian earlier this year, the actor is still estranged from his father. 

Tragedy struck the Reeves family once again with Keanu’s sister Kim being diagnosed with leukemia in 1991. Since her diagnosis, Keanu reportedly spent much of his time by his sister’s side until her eventual remission in 1999. 

“When she was in the hospital he was there with her all the time, sitting at her bedside, holding her hand. Sometimes, it’s almost like he doesn’t trust himself to have a relationship with anyone,” a close friend of Keanu said at the time, accoridng to the Mirror. 

In 1998, at a party for his band Dogstar, Keanu met Jennifer Syme and they quickly began a relationship. The two got engaged and revealed Jennifer was pregnant with a daughter, to be named Ava. In 1999, however, she gave birth to a stillborn baby. The aftermath of their child’s death proved to take a deep toll on their relationship, leading to their eventual break up just weeks later. 

Although broken up, the former couple remained close friends until Jennifer’s tragic death. In 2001, Jennifer died in a car accident during a party at Marilyn Manson’s house at the age of 28. 

Despite all of the adversity in Reeves’s life, the actor turned his grief into a siphon for success. The actor even uses the fruits of his labor to help our society’s most vulnerable people.

“Well, for the character and in life, it’s about the love of the person you’re grieving for," he explained, "and any time you can keep company with that fire, it is warm. I absolutely relate to that, and I don’t think you ever work through it. Grief and loss, those are things that don’t ever go away. They stay with you.”

In 2010, the actor admitted that following those tragedies he started living out of hotels, with his belonging eventually being contained in just one suitcase. 

"Sounds quite bohemian and gypsy-like, doesn't it?" he joked. "I'm down to one bag now, and smaller rooms in hotels."

Those days, however, seem to have come to an end, with Keanu finally buying a place of his own and settling down in Hollywood Hills and of course, finding love with new girlfriend Alexandra Grant. 

What do you think of Keanu Reeve’s new girlfriend? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!