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After her breakup, Natalie Portman discovered love in an unlikely location. The Black Swan actress revealed that her initial encounter with Rihanna during her divorce from Benjamin Millepied was precisely what she needed.
On July 15, Natalie appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. "I think every woman going through a divorce should get to have Rihanna say to her that she's a bad b---h," Natalie stated. "That was—that's precisely what I needed."
Jimmy then aired the video of the "Umbrella" singer and Natalie's first meeting, in which Rihanna called Natalie "one of the hottest b---hes in Hollywood forever" and said that although she doesn't usually get enthusiastic about meeting new people, Natalie was an unusually charming person.
“It was,” she said, “a formative moment in my life."
After more than ten years of marriage, Natalie and Benjamin—with whom she shares a son, Aleph, 12, and a daughter, Amalia, 7—finalized their divorce in March. Natalie's mention of her divorce is her first public statement on the subject since then.
The news that Benjamin, whom Natalie met on the set of Black Swan, had an affair was also confirmed more than a year after it was first reported by a number of media outlets. Natalie only ever responded to the rumor by telling Vanity Fair in February that "it's terrible, and I have no desire to contribute to it."
But until her late-night appearance, Natalie had been largely silent about her divorce, but when it time to celebrating her 43rd birthday in June, the Academy Award winner did provide some insight into the community behind her.
She said at the top of her June 9 Instagram post, "This year, on my birthday, I want to celebrate my gratitude for my friends who lift me up again and again." The post included a carousel of photographs from all around the world.
And a great degree of normalcy plays a part in that magic of friendship.
"My life in Los Angeles is very different from Hollywood's," Natalie told Vanity Fair. While many of my pals are not in the entertainment business, I do have some friends in the field, and we don't conduct industry-related activities together. We're enjoying dinners in our backyard at home instead of attending parties in Hollywood."
