The Real Reason Scarlett Johansson Fired Her Mom As Her Manager

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

As Scarlett Johansson relayed to Vanity Fair, she fired mom Melanie Sloan, her manager until 2009, because she felt she needed to move more independently away from her family after her first marriage to Ryan Reynolds (per the New York Post) in 2008. "Once I got married, I felt that I needed to cut the cord," Johansson said. However, this was not for lack of love. According to a Daily News source, Johansson simply thought Sloan's legal woes in 2012 as reported by the New York Post were due to her "living outside her means." In addition to the commissions Sloan made off Johansson's promotional campaigns for brands like Moet Champagne, the source said Johansson initially provided her mother with "an allowance" and a "generous severance package" upon Sloan's termination, but turned the spigot off partly because she felt her mom's partner, Gilles Arondeau (a production designer, per his IMDB), wasn't pulling his weight. "Scarlett will not let her mother starve," the insider source disclosed. "She just won't support her extravagant lifestyle while Gilles isn't working." 

In a 2017 Entertainment Tonight interview, Johansson and Sloan proved they were still as close as ever. With her mom as her date to that year's amfAR New York Gala, Johansson told ET, "I couldn't imagine having a better date tonight," adding that Sloan has "been incredibly inspiring for me in many, many ways." Sounds like Sloan's termination was already water under the bridge!

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