Robert Downey Jr. and wife Susan steal the spotlight with rare couples’ appearance

Their appearance comes as the duo were honored at the Spring Gala following their work on the play McNeal by Ayad Akhtar in 2024.  

“Thank you to Bart, Lear, and the entire Lincoln Center Theater team for this great honor,” Robert and Susan said in a statement.

“We look forward to being back at the Vivian Beaumont in May, reuniting with the incredible theater community that embraced us wholeheartedly. Our McNeal experience was a creative journey that continues to inspire us long after the run.” 

“It is a true privilege to honor Robert and Susan Downey at this year’s Lincoln Center Theater Spring Gala,” added Kewsong Lee Artistic Director of the Lincoln Center Theater, Lear deBessonet. 

“Together, the Downeys embody a rare combination of excellence and service. Their commitment to both storytelling and philanthropy speak to who they are at their core. We are honored to celebrate them and the extraordinary impact they continue to have on our field and beyond.” 

Robert and Susan, who met in 2003 on the set of Gothika and married two years later before welcoming their kids, Exton and Avri, launched their production company, Team Downey, in 2010. 

“Susan holds one pillar, and I hold the other, and this creative arc of tension just flows between us,” the 61-year-old actor told The Hollywood Reporter. 

“Our feeling was, if we wanted to spend time together, have a life together, then we should just go ahead and make movies together,” Susan added. 

“There have been times, at the end of the night, when I’m brushing my teeth, when Robert will have a brainstorm, and I’ll be like, ‘I can’t take this right now,'” she quipped. “But otherwise it’s pretty organic. We don’t really divide work from life.”

“Before I met Susan, I didn’t even know what producers did, except yell at you when you did something they didn’t like,” Robert said of their working relationship. “Now that I understand what they do, she’s the only one I want.”

Robert and Susan met on Gothika, which he starred in alongside Halle Berry, and she helped produce through Silver Pictures. Susan previously shared that she found him “interesting but weird” while working with him, until they began to fall in love.