Exes Sean Penn and Jewel Reunited Last Week — and It Nearly Went Unnoticed
Jewel and her “dashing companion” Sean Penn at the Nashville Shines for Haiti Concert. (Photo: Getty Images)
Jewel made big headlines last fall when, in her memoir Never Broken, she revealed a secret romance with Sean Penn early in her career. However, the pair reunited last week — the first time they were ever photographed together at a public event — and it mostly went unnoticed.
The exes both attended the Nashville Shines for Haiti Concert, which benefited his J/P Haitian Relief Organization, on April 27. According to the Tennessean, which didn’t note their dating history, the 55-year-old Oscar winner was “her dashing companion” at the event and even helped her “slip her foot back into her black, red-bottomed platform stiletto.” It was no secret she was there — she even gave an impromptu performance.
The one photo of them together at the event includes the co-hosts, Newman and Johnathon Arndt. (Photo: Getty Images)
Of all the pictures from the event on the Getty Images photo site, there’s just one of them together — along with the event co-hosts Newman and Johnathon Arndt. Jewel and Penn both had sly smiles on their faces.
The Alaskan singer, 41, wrote in her book that she fell in love with Penn in the mid-’90s, during his brief break from his future second wife, Robin Wright. They kept their “burgeoning relationship very quiet” because, as a rising star, she wanted to be known for her music, not who she was dating, but he became her “de facto roadie,” accompanying her on tour. They also went together, on the down-low, to the Venice Film Festival.
One of the photos of Penn and Jewel together that was featured in her book. (Photo: Access Hollywood Live)
When we interviewed Jewel in fall 2015, she said she was still in touch with Penn. In fact, she gave him a heads-up that she was going to go public about their short-lived romance. “I let him know that the book was coming out, let him read it, and let him know what was in it as a courtesy,” she told us.
Despite making the scene together at the benefit, Jewel had been dating Indianapolis Colts quarterback Charlie Whitehurst in recent months. In January, they went public with their romance, and they took a trip together to Necker Island the next month. However, there are no recent photos of them together.
Penn’s love life has been much more interesting. On April 13, he was photographed with Minka Kelly, 35, at another charity event — the launch of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The duo, who had first been linked last year, looked quite cozy, with Penn draping his arm around the actress as they posed for photos. People magazine reported that they “appeared to leave together.”
Penn and Minka Kelly in April. (Photo: Getty Images)
Penn, whose engagement to Charlize Theron, 40, ended last year (though she did not ghost him), also made headlines this year for attending another charity event with a different ex. In January, his first wife, Madonna, 57, was at his annual Sean Penn & Friends Help Haiti Home gala. There have been countless rumors about them over the years — mostly because he is always going to her concerts — and they looked happier than they did while they were married when posing for photos with two of her children.
Madonna and Penn looked so happy together — along with her kids David and Mercy — in January. (Photo: Getty Images)
While hanging with exes — or more? — at charity events seems to be Penn’s game these days, don’t expect to see him doing it with second wife Wright any time soon. He has called their marriage “a fraud,” and she said their sex life wasn’t very good.
