One of Australia’s most famous exports, Simon Baker, was born in Launceston, Tasmania to a high school English teacher mother and a mechanic father.
When the actor was nine-months-old, the family relocated to New Guinea but soon after, his parents’ marriage ended and The Mentalist star fell out of touch with his dad.
Simon’s childhood was defined by the beach.
(Image: Getty)“I grew up kind of – not literally, but sort of – fatherless. My stepfather raised me, but we didn’t get on that well, and I pulled away,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Simon’s childhood was defined by the beach as he spent his formative years in Lennox Head, near Byron Bay, NSW.
“I was pretty close to my mum, but my environment at the beach, which was a male environment, was really my community. That was a lot of what formed me. And I’ve maintained those relationships. I still go back there now – to that place, those people. It’s incredibly important to me.”
While it may be hard to believe, Simon’s acting career began largely by accident. As he was waiting for his friend to audition for a commercial, the Tassie boy was asked to audition himself and ended up landing the role.
He went on to make a name for himself in Home and Away, E Street, The Mentalist and, of course, The Devil Wears Prada.
While his professional career was flourishing, Simon was having similar luck in his personal life, marrying Rebecca Rig in 1991. Seven years later, they married. But in 2021, it was confirmed they had officially separated after almost 30 years together.
“I was pretty close to my mum,” Simon told The Sydney Morning Herald.
(Image: Instagram)In their joint statement at the time, the former couple made it clear that their focus going forward was their three children, daughter Stella, 28, and sons Claude, 23, and Harry, 20.
“We remain close friends and our three children will always be the most important focus in our lives,” the actors said, as per People.
It’s not a surprise that their separation was reportedly amicable, considering how much love they had for each other when they tied the knot.
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“Marrying her was the best decision I ever made,” Simon gushed to The Daily Telegraph in 2015. “She’s the greatest woman any man could ever hope to make a life with.”
And make a life they did, along with their three kids, though Simon previously confessed that being a parent is “not easy”.
Simon shares three kids – Stella, Claude and Harry – with Rebecca.
(Image: Getty)“There are times when you do it, when you’re successful, and there are times when you’re not,” he told Stellar.
“That’s the challenge… you just have to be consistently there. And when I say ‘there’, I mean in a way where you allow them to be themselves, and you let them know, and you make them aware that you love them, right?”
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