For a whole generation of cinema fans, Meg Ryan was the queen of romantic comedies. Her distinctive blonde shag hairdo framed her face, which became famous for romantic movies like “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail.” In the 1980s and 1990s, everyone in America fell in love with her. She was the nice, down-to-earth girl next door. Her performances weren’t just good; they were important cultural events that changed the course of movie history.
But when Meg Ryan was at the height of her celebrity, she did something that astonished a lot of people who followed her. She left the dazzling lights of Hollywood. It was really personal: her family.
Ryan decided that her kids needed her more than the movie business did after a very public and difficult divorce from actor Dennis Quaid, with whom she has a son named Jack. She turned her focus totally and became a full-time mother with the same passion she brought to her acting jobs.
This wasn’t just a little break. Ryan didn’t go out in public too often, which showed what was important to her. She adopted her daughter Daisy from China in 2006, which made her family greater. Taking her kids to school, telling them bedtime stories, and all the little but vital things that come with being a parent were the main things in her life.
Ryan was building a whole, private life away from the camera while everyone else was wondering where she had gone. She didn’t care about making money at the box office; she was happy just raising her kids.
Meg Ryan doesn’t perform in movies as much these days, but she isn’t done with acting. She has gracefully entered her 60s and sometimes walks the red carpet, where she looks cheerful and gorgeous. She has tried out new creative routes by directing and developing projects when she isn’t in front of the camera.
The woman we see now is proof that she had a good life on her own terms. She told herself a different story, one about being a mother, enjoying solitude, and becoming a better person. She found a happy ending that was all hers by doing this.