Who was Val Kilmer married to? All we know about the legendary star’s marriage and divorce from British actress 

Val Kilmer, who is best known for playing the role of Iceman in Top Gun and Batman in Batman Forever, died of pneumonia at age 65 on 1 April, 2025. He was also married to British actress Joanne Whalley. The couple had an eight-year-long marriage, which was well documented by the media over the years.

Kilmer and Whalley first met in the late 1980s while filming the fantasy adventure Willow (1988), in which they starred as its lead characters. The two actors got married the same year.

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According to a report by The Things, in the early years of their marriage, Whalley scaled back her successful acting career to concentrate on raising the couple’s two children, their daughter Mercedes and son Jack. During a 2007 interview with Telegraph, she said,

"I can’t think of anything better to do than to have my kids. If I was career-oriented, I could say: 'Well, I could have done that…' But I don’t think like that at all."

She would later say the choice to leave work was the best one she ever made because motherhood was the biggest luxury to her, and she had no regrets about not working more during her children's formative years. As Whalley concentrated on family life, Val Kilmer's career continued to soar with him playing big film roles.

Their relationship got sour, and the couple separated in 1995 and got divorced in 1996. Their relationship suffered greatly as a result of the rumors surrounding his on-set relationships and his reputation as a popular sex icon.

Joanne Whalley accused the Top Gun actor of not supporting her and their children financially. Legal documents from that time showed that Whalley alleged she had struggled to find stable housing because Kilmer refused to contribute. At one point, she claimed, she and her children had to stay with friends or in some hotels.

More about Joanne Whalley’s life after divorce and Val Kilmer’s many love interests

After their divorce, the court ordered that Val Kilmer would be required to pay a settlement of $4 million as well as a monthly child support payment. But Whalley later sued again, claiming Kilmer had fallen behind on payments.

Joanne Whalley slowly returned to acting after her divorce. She also appeared in acclaimed television series like The Borgias and Wolf Hall and in projects like Daredevil and the Willow sequel series.

Though Val Kilmer dated famous names such as Cindy Crawford, Angelina Jolie, Cher, and Ellen Barkin, Kilmer stated in his memoir I’m Your Huckleberry that he hasn’t had any romantic thing for two decades. He stated,

"I haven’t had a girlfriend in 20 years. The truth is I am lonely part of every day."

Each breakup posed its own challenges, but according to him, the end of his relationship with the actress Daryl Hannah in 2001 was particularly shattering. However, Hannah has since moved on, marrying musician Neil Young in 2018.

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