Times have been difficult for Natalie Portman and husband Benjamin Millepied after their decade-long marriage was thrust into the spotlight when reports emerged claiming the latter was embroiled in an affair with a younger French woman, apparently a 25-year-old climate activist.
However, in the midst of all this, the Oscar-winning actress, 42, gave an interview for Dax Shepard's "Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard" podcast (who is himself one half of a famous Hollywood pairing with wife Kristen Bell).
While most likely recorded prior to the affair reports (which broke on June 2), she offered more insight into their marriage and guarded family life.
Natalie and Benjamin, 45, a French ballet dancer and filmmaker, are parents to son Aleph, 11, and daughter Amalia, six. They've been married since 2012.
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The actress and host Dax got into a discussion about the French lifestyle, when she revealed that they'd made a big family move.
While stating that she had still not perfected a French accent, she said: "We actually moved back to Paris recently," which took the host by surprise.
"Oh, I didn't know that," he exclaimed, before adding in a hurt tone: "We're not neighbors anymore?" to which Natalie responded: "We're still neighbors, but also not."
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Natalie and Benjamin first moved to Paris in 2014 after the latter became the director of the Paris Opera Ballet and lived there for two years before returning to Los Angeles in 2016.
They moved to the City of Light with their son Aleph, who was barely three at the time, and welcomed their daughter after returning to the States.
In the podcast, she and Dax even joked about her mocking her husband while trying to imitate his French accent, to which he added: "Or are you in the one relationship with no mocking?"
The mom-of-two responded: "He actually doesn't have much of an accent in English. He obviously speaks French like a French person."
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The Thor: Love and Thunder star made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016 to gush about life back in Los Angeles compared to Paris.
"Everyone smiles a lot here. It's so nice. They're more cool in France," she said. "I didn't realize I got used to it until I got here and I was so surprised!
"Someone would smile at my child and I'd be, 'What a good person.' People are really lovely here," Natalie added. "I feel there's a lot of rules of politeness and codes of behavior there you have to follow. It's a lot looser here."
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She even got into the nitty gritty of shopping in France, explaining: "A friend of mine taught me that when you go in some place you have to say 'bonjour' before you say anything else, then you have to wait two seconds before you say something else.
"So if you go into a store, you can't be like, 'Do you have this in another size?' or they'll think you're super rude and then they'll be rude to you."
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