Renée Zellweger Reveals How She Really Spent Her Time During her Epic 6-Year Break From Hollywood — And Tells Why She 'Needed' Time Out of Spotlight
Renée Zellweger got candid about her six-year hiatus from acting.
Jan. 16 2025, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
Renée Zellweger is finally exposing the real reason behind her shocking 6-year Hollywood hiatus.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the 55-year-old actress hit a breaking point after shooting My Own Love Song in 2010, leading her to step back and focus on "getting healthy" by diving into projects unrelated to acting.
The ‘Bridget Jones' star said she took years off from her Hollywood career to get 'healthy'.
Zellweger stepped away from her career for years, making her return in 2016 with Bridget Jones's Baby.
In a recent interview to mark the release of Mad About The Boy, the latest installment of the Bridget Jones franchise, Zellweger opened up about "needing" a break and revealed what she actually did with her time off.
Zellweger knew it was time to take a break when she started to hate the sound of her own voice.
When asked the reasoning behind her reclusive few years, she told co-star Hugh Grant: "Because I needed to. I was sick of the sound of my own voice. When I was working, I was like, “Oh, my gosh, listen to you. Are you sad again, Renée? Oh, is this your mad voice?"
She added: "It was a regurgitation of the same emotional experiences."
The actress confirmed she wasn't just relaxing at home when taking time off, however.
She explained: "I wrote music and studied international law. I built a house, rescued a pair of older doggies, created a partnership that led to a production company, advocated for and fundraised with a sick friend, and spent a lot of time with family and godchildren and driving across the country with the dogs.
"I got healthy."
Zellweger has been busy promoting her new film, 'Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy'.
Zellweger then revealed how she went unrecognized while secretly working at a London publishing house to prepare for Bridget Jones's Diary.
Despite the media frenzy over her casting as the British heroine, she spent a couple of months working incognito at Picador.
Regarding how no one recognized her, the actress believed "nobody knew" who she was because she was "out of context" – or perhaps had "more chubby cheeks", adding how "it was odd".
Zellweger and Grant are returning for the fourth time as Bridget and Daniel Cleaver in the upcoming Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which succeeds Bridget Jones' Baby.
The 2016 film showed Bridget shocked to find out she was pregnant as she married her baby's father, Mark, after an on-and-off relationship.
In Mad About The Boy, which is set to be released on February 14, Mark tragically dies while working abroad, leaving Bridget a widow. The story follows her navigating single motherhood and quitting her TV job to focus on the school run.
Bridget also gets caught in a love triangle involving her current fling, Roxster, PE teacher Mr. Wallaker, and ex Cleaver (Grant).
The first film, released in 2001, was a major box office success.
Last month, RadarOnline.com revealed Zellweger was coaxed out of her retreat to promote the new film, driven by an irresistible payday offer, along with a huge bonus if the rom-com performs well at the box office.
An insider said: "Over the decades, Renée has kept the flame alive on the Bridget Jones film franchise and with good reason – these are the films that made her rich, worth a cool $90 million, and kept her rich even when she opted to not act at all for years at a time.
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"Renée has real profit participation points on the back end of these movies and a rock-solid relationship with her fellow producers and with the creator of the franchise, novelist Helen Fielding."
They added: "The upside of all of that is how smoothly this fourth movie came together. You almost never see a fourth movie in a successful series get up and running like this, and that's down to Renée's creative leadership and continued relevance."
'Retired' Renée Zellweger can't turn down Bridget Jones paydays, insiders say.
Thanks to the super-success of the previous Jones flicks, "Renée has fully earned the total control she has over these films", the source noted.
"But the downside for Renée and her team is that the promotion of these movies is entirely on her shoulders, and it all comes down to how many interviews she can do, how many red carpets she can walk and how much unpaid media she can generate.
"It's a challenge for a person who is naturally shy like Renée is, but at the end of that long road is a payoff on par with what guys like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt can earn on one of their hit movies!"
