Renée Zellweger

Zellweger was engaged to actor Jim Carrey from 1999 to 2000 after they worked together on the comedy Me, Myself & Irene. In 2003, she had a brief relationship with musician Jack White. On May 9, 2005, she married country singer Kenny Chesney in the Virgin Islands, but she filed for an annulment four months later, which was finalized in December 2005.

From 2009 to 2011, Zellweger was in a relationship with actor Bradley Cooper, whom she met while filming the supernatural thriller Case 39. She later dated musician Doyle Bramhall II from 2012 until 2019. In June 2021, she began dating English television presenter Ant Anstead after appearing on his series Celebrity IOU: Joyride.

Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, was a Swiss-born mechanical and electrical engineer in the oil refining industry, and her mother, Kjellfrid Irene, was a Norwegian nurse and midwife of Kven and Sámi descent. Zellweger grew up in Katy alongside her older brother, Drew, and attended Katy High School, where she participated in cheerleading, gymnastics, drama, and soccer. In 1986, she earned third place in a natural science essay competition organized by the Houston Post for her paper on the Karankawa people.

She enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature. While taking a drama elective in college, she became interested in acting and began earning small parts in locally shot productions and commercials, securing her Screen Actors Guild card through a Coors Light commercial. Her earliest screen credits included minor roles in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused and Ben Stiller's Reality Bites, followed by leading roles in the low-budget Texas productions Love and a .45 and The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre opposite Matthew McConaughey.

Zellweger achieved widespread recognition in 1996 when director Cameron Crowe cast her as single mother Dorothy Boyd opposite Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. The romantic comedy became a critical and box-office hit, earning her a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. She followed the role with performances in One True Thing alongside Meryl Streep and the black comedy Nurse Betty, for which she won her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

In 2001, Zellweger earned international acclaim and her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress by portraying the title character in the British romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary. She received a second consecutive Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe for her performance as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago in 2002. The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe for playing the resilient farmhand Ruby Thewes in Anthony Minghella's American Civil War drama Cold Mountain.

During the mid-2000s, Zellweger starred in films including Cinderella Man, Miss Potter, Leatherheads, and the animated features Shark Tale and Bee Movie. After completing the road drama My Own Love Song in 2010, she stepped away from screen acting for four years. She later explained that constant filming without breaks had left her exhausted and that she needed time away from Hollywood to lead an ordinary life and gain new experiences.

She returned to feature films in 2016, starring in the courtroom drama The Whole Truth and reprising her signature role in Bridget Jones's Baby. In 2019, she starred in the Netflix anthology series What/If and took on the role of Judy Garland in Rupert Goold's biographical drama Judy. Zellweger performed her own vocals live for the production, earning universal acclaim, her fourth Golden Globe, and her second Academy Award, this time for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She subsequently headlined and executive produced the 2022 NBC true-crime miniseries The Thing About Pam and returned for the fourth franchise installment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.