Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin have been happily married for over two decades, which is a rarity in Hollywood.
The Hollywood actor trusts his wife more than anyone – and she showed off her ageless looks in a sexy bikini at the weekend while on holiday with their daughters, Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet.
However, it seemed highly unlikely that the couple would even speak again, let alone make it down the aisle after they split in March 1994.
As part of the Daily Star’s look back at Hollywood action heroes, we revisit how Sly awkwardly sent Jennifer packing by FedEx.
Having first clapped eyes on each other at a chance meeting at a Beverly Hills restaurant in 1988, the world-famous actor and aspiring model started dating.
They had somewhat of an unorthodox relationship, with Sly admitting there were “no strings attached”, and Jennifer confessing she was “not naive” about what may happen when she wasn’t around.
But the actor had gushed about his partner, telling the Toronto Sun “Jennifer has made all the difference [in his life].
She was convinced their romance was in a good place until a knock at the door on March 14, 1994.
Jennifer had been due to join her partner on the set on The Specialist in Miami, but this was shattered when a FedEx package with a nasty surprise inside was delivered.
Completely out of the blue, she discovered that their relationship was over after five-and-a-half years together.
The model was unceremoniously dumped by her long-term partner by what she described as a “sloppy” six-page handwritten letter.
“I cried a lot. I called all my friends. And I cleaned my apartment about five times. I had so many pictures and things to get rid of,” she told People Magazine in May 1994.
Stallone and Flavin had been seeing each other for more than five years (Image: Reuters)
What left her most upset was the manner in which Stallone had decided to drop the bombshell.
“I was disappointed,” she added.
“You can’t just write somebody off in a letter after six years. It’s not like I was going to try to beg him to come back to me or anything. I just wanted to talk.”
But what the letter did not reveal was that Stallone had been having an affair with another woman.
A few days later, the Jennifers’s agent revealed that her now ex-partner had been seeing another model – Janice Dickinson – behind her back.
Janice had given birth to her daughter, Savannah, in February 1994 and flew to Miami to introduce her to Stallone.
It was widely reported at the time that Sly was the father, and Savannah was even given his surname when she was born.
Stallone and Dickinson at a Paris fashion show in July 1994 (Image: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” said Flavin to People Magazine.
“I had no idea this was going to happen. We talked about us having children, about when I was going to get pregnant. We were already picking names, marking down names that he liked and I liked.”
Stallone and Dickinson got engaged for a short period, but they split up when a DNA test proved that he was not the biological father.
Jennifer was determined to move on with her life after being dumped in such a brutal manner.
“But since the news I’ve just been carrying on with my life. I mean, we broke up, and it’s a major part of my life,” she said.
“It was hurtful, but you learn by your mistakes, and you pick up the pieces and carry on.”
While Stallone started dating an Austrian model, Andrea Wieser, before briefly getting engaged to swimsuit model Angie Everhart in April 1995.
Sylvester Stallone and his family on the red carpet (Image: WENN)
But these relationships did not last and the Rocky actor rekindled with Jennifer in the summer of that year.
He was noted as becoming an “impeccable” partner to Jennifer – with the model giving birth to their first daughter, Sophia, in 1996.
They finally made things official in May 1997 when they got married in a glamorous London ceremony.
After exchanging vows in the Dorchester Hotel, they were whisked away to the stunning Blenheim Palace to have their marriage blessed in a chapel.
They spent their first night as husband and wife at the palace before heading off for their Irish honeymoon.
In a statement released shortly afterwards, Stallone said: “I have had two great things happen to me in the past year: the birth of our beautiful daughter Sophia Rose, and now my marriage to Jennifer, who is a great mother and I know will be a wonderful wife.”
Stallone with his daughter Sistine, wife Jennifer, and daughters Sophia and Scarlet (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
The couple went on to have two more daughters, Sistine and Scarlet, leaving the action hero in a house full of women.
“Everything in the house is female. The toys, the housekeeper, all the dogs. The one dog I have that’s male is neutered. I’m next,” he joked in a Telegraph interview in 2010.
“But I’ve never had more fun. I learnt that from my wife. It took me 19 years to realise she’s always right. I realised that women have a knack, at least Jennifer, for making incredibly erudite, wise, smart decisions.
“I always leap without looking. She always looks and never leaps. She’s incredibly safe.
“So now finally, I say: ‘Honey, you make all the decisions. Done, done, done. I trust you.’ I never had that before. Ever.”
When confronted over some of his past relationships, Stallone admitted he had made mistakes, but also got things right that counted.
“I consider my life 10 percent on target, and 90 percent mistakes,” he explained, before adding: “But those 10 percent counted.”
The couple are still happily married to this day, with Sly regularly gushing about his wife on social media.
In August this year, he posted a heartwarming message on Instagram to celebrate her birthday: “THE HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS TO MY TRUE LOVE, JENNIFER! The greatest wife and mother in the WORLD!!”
Posting more photos of the pair, he added: “I am so proud of My wife Jennifer, that I can’t stop celebrating her birthday! Your are the heart and soul of this family. I love you and we love you forever!!!”
While in July, Jennifer shared a snap of the couple from December 1988 on his birthday.
She wrote: “Happy birthday to the love of my life! My forever best friend”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
