Meg Ryan Opens Up About to Engagement to John Mellencamp & Her Return to Rom-Coms

Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp
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The mom of two also got candid about her retirement from acting.

At 57, Meg Ryan is ready to enter the next phase of her relationship with John Mellencamp

The actress got engaged to the 67-year-old musician in November, a year and a half after rekindling their romance. They first started dating in 2010, but broke up after five years together. 

"What’s great about now is that John and I are so free to have fun," Ryan says of getting engaged in her 50s in a new interview with The New York Times Magazine. "Maybe that freedom is about being a million years old. But I sometimes think relationships are for aliens. Who does it? Who can do it? I don’t know how any of us ever do."

During her interview, Ryan also opens up about her retirement from acting following her success in romantic comedies in the '90s. 

"[Rom-coms were] probably [my strong suit]," she admits "I liked doing the alcoholic in When a Man Loves a Woman; I liked doing In The Cut; but I was very happy going to a set that was about: How do you find the funny thing? I like that again now, working on a romantic comedy."

The former actress reveals that she's in the process of writing a rom-com. "It’s at Working Title Films. I’ll just leave it at that. Getting the green light, David. My God. You feel like you’re jinxing it if you’re talking about it. Hopefully it’s for me to direct. I’m aware now that romantic comedies are confections, but they have construction. There’s architecture," she shares. "It’s not something I was aware of back then."

Ryan, who made her directorial debut with the 2015 World War II-era drama Ithaca, says retirement from acting came when she realized, "I wasn’t as curious about acting as I was about other things that life can give you." "I wanted to live more," she confesses. 

The mom of two opened up more about her retirement at the In Goop Health wellness summit last June. See more in the video below. 

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