Elizabeth Chambers talks Armie Hammer divorce in new show: 'Absolute hell'
Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers’ relationship is back in the public eye.
Less than a year since the former couple settled their divorce, their relationship is a topic of discussion in the Bird Bakery founder and television personality’s new Freeform reality show “Grand Cayman: Secrets in Paradise.”
Chambers is among the ensemble cast for the “docusoap” that follows a group of on-the-rise locals in the Grand Cayman island.
“Grand Cayman has been a sanctuary for me,” Chambers says in a preview for the reality show, premiering April 9. “I moved here with my husband and children three years ago but things have changed since then.”
Chambers and Hammer, who share two children together, split in 2010 after 10 years of marriage and settled their divorce a couple years later.
Controversy surrounded the “Call Me By Your Name” actor when he faced allegations by multiple women that he physically and emotionally abused them, which Hammer has denied. The actor, however, said in a 2023 interview with Air Mail that he had an affair with a woman he met online in 2016.
Chambers speaks about the divorce on the show. “I went through a very public divorce that was riddled with scandal. Stories were coming out each day and horrific articles, and I was learning about them as it happened," she said.
She said that going through her divorce in the public eye was "absolute hell."
Here’s a look back at Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers’ relationship timeline, from dating to divorce.
2006 - 2008: Armie Hammer and Elizabeth Chambers meet and begin dating
The pair met after a mutual friend invited her to one of Hammer‘s outings in Los Angeles, per an interview Chambers did with Elle. At the time, she was an anchor and correspondent at Current TV, Al Gore’s former news channel. He was rising in his acting career.
“I remember she pulled in and got out of the car and I felt like I’d been knocked over,” Hammer told Vulture in 2017.
Chambers had a boyfriend when she first met Hammer, who is four years her junior.
While the Elle article says they met in 2007, Chambers postedin 2016 that she and Hammer had had “10 years of best friendship,” meaning they have known each other since 2006.
Hammer told Vulture about the moment their relationship became romantic
“Our friendship continued to grow and grow until one day when I was like, ‘I can’t be friends with you anymore. You’ve got to break up with your boyfriend, and we’ve got to start dating,’” he told Vulture.
Chambers did break up with her then-boyfriend.
2010: The couple gets married
After nine months of dating, Hammer proposed to Chambers. According to Elle, the actor asked for her hand in marriage while in Texas and pulled the engagement ring out of his cowboy boot.
They got married on May 25, 2010 at the All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills. Their reception took place at a vineyard in Malibu.
“When we finally got together, Armie really wanted to get married,” Chambers told Town & Country in 2012. “He sat me down and said, ‘Look, we don’t have to do this. We could just go our own ways, and then one day you’ll be 40 and divorced and we’ll run into each other, and we’ll laugh and go out to dinner and have this same connection, and we’ll wonder why we wasted all of that time. Or we could just do it now and enjoy the ride.’”
2012: Chambers opened Bird bakery
The TV personality opened her first bakery in San Antonio. She called the moment “full circle” because it was one block from Circle Street where she was born.
She currently has locations in Dallas, Colorado and Grand Cayman.
On April 1, 2024, she celebrated the bakery’s 12-year anniversary.
2014: They welcome their first child
The pair announced that they were expecting their first child together in June 2014. At the time, Chambers told E! News,“We feel incredibly blessed and are looking forward to starting this new chapter in our lives.”
Chambers gave birth to a baby girl, daughter Harper on Dec. 1, 2014.
It wasn’t until later in the coming weeks that they shared the first photos of their baby girl on social media.
2017: They welcome their second child
Hammer and Chambers welcomed their second child together, a boy named Ford Douglas Armand Hammer, on Jan. 15, 2017, in Los Angeles, according to People.
The mom of two first shared the news of their son’s arrival in a Jan. 18 post on Instagram.
“Beyond grateful for the prayers and for this ultimate blessing. We couldn’t be more in love,” Chambers wrote alongside a photo of herself in a hospital bed, holding her newborn and daughter, while Hammer was next to them.
2020: Chambers and Hammer announce their split
On July 10, 2020, the pair released a joint statement announcing that they had decided to split after 10 years of marriage.
“Thirteen years as best friends, soulmates, partners and then parents. It has been an incredible journey, but together, we’ve decided to turn the page and move on from our marriage,” the statement read. “As we enter into this next chapter, our children and relationship as co-parents and dear friends will remain our priority.”
“We understand this news lends itself to public dialogue, but in the interest of our children and our family, we’re asking for privacy, compassion and love during this time,” the statement concluded.
In a September 2020 interview with British GQ, Hammerdescribed the tension brewing at his home amid the COVID-19 lockdown while living on the Cayman Islands.
“I was in an apartment with my dad, his new wife, Elizabeth and our two kids,” he told the magazine. “We couldn’t leave the apartment, couldn’t go in the pool, couldn’t do anything. So it was a really concentrated family time, which is really great with the kids, but it was intense.”
The living situation was “big personalities all locked in a little tiny place,” he said.
“It was tough, man. I’d never dealt with anything like that before in my life ... I don’t think I handled it very well. I think, to be quite frank, I came very close to completely losing my mind. I just felt completely powerless.”
2021: Allegations against Hammer emerge
In March 2021, a woman accused Hammer of raping her in 2017. The actor’s attorney, Andrew Brettler, said in a statement at the time to NBC News that Hammer denied the allegations of rape, adding all of Hammer’s sexual relationships “have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.” The actor did not deny he had a relationship with her.
The woman, who identified herself as Effie, said she began an affair with the then-married actor in 2016 that lasted until 2020. She alleged the actor physically and emotionally abused her and employed “manipulation tactics in order to exert control” over her.
LAPD in 2021 confirmed that detectives were investigating that claim. NEW: The Los Angeles County D.A.’s office decided not to file sexual assault charges in 2023.
Amid the allegations, Hammer was dropped from his agency, William Morris Endeavor, and was recast in films and projects he was attached to, like a production of “The Minutes” on Broadway.
“I have loved every single second of working on ‘The Minutes’ with the family I made from Steppenwolf. But right now I need to focus on myself and my health for the sake of my family. Consequently, I will not be returning to Broadway with the production,” Hammer said in a statement in April 2021.
2022: Chambers speaks outs after Hammer's scandal
In an interview with E! News released on Sept. 21, 2022, Chambers said she watched “House of Hammer,” a docuseries about the sexual assault allegations against Hammer, and his family history.
“I did not plan on seeing it, but I did drop the kids off at school one day and came home and watched it with my support system around me,” Chambers told E! News. “It was obviously heartbreaking on so many levels and very painful. But at the same time, it exists. The past is the past and all we can do is take this as a moment to learn and listen, and hopefully process and heal in every capacity.”
About the documentary series’ content, she said she “definitely was surprised, but I think that’s to be expected.”
At the time, an attorney for Hammer declined to comment to TODAY.com on Chambers’ interview with E!
Chambers said during her interview that she was asked to be a part of the docuseries but declined, saying, “All that’s mattered and does matter is the kids and our family, and that was not something that was going to be in line with my goals for them.”
February 2023: Hammer speaks out on the allegations
Hammer broke his silence on the allegations against him in an interview with Air Mail. In it, he denied any criminal wrongdoing but said that he did have an affair.
According to the actor, his affair with Effie lasted from 2016 until the summer of 2017. He told the outlet that they continued to communicate via text until 2020.
The actor also said he was emotionally abusive to his previous partners. In the article, Hammer said that he was sexually abused when he was 13. “What that did for me was it introduced sexuality into my life in a way that it was completely out of my control,” he told Air Mail.
This article is touched on in the premiere episode of “Grand Cayman.”
May 2023: Hammer doesn't face criminal charges
In April 2023, police presented the 2021 sexual assault caseinvolving Hammer to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, a source familiar with the investigation told NBC News at the time.
A source familiar with the investigation told NBC News that the LAPD forwarded findings stemming from sex assault allegations made in 2021. Though it was not immediately clear why it took two years for the DA’s office to receive the case.
However, by May of that year, the district attorney’s office said Hammer would not face criminal charges in connection with the sexual assault allegations. According to the DA, there was insufficient evidence to charge Hammer with a crime.
“Due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” the district attorney’s spokesperson Tiffiny Blacknell said in a statement on May 31.
In a since-deleted Instagram statement, the “Social Network” actor thanked his supporters and those who helped him.
“I am very grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed,” he wrote. “I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”
June 2023: Hammer and Chambers settle their divorce
According to court documents filed on June 20, 2023, the pair reached a settlement on their divorce.
The court documents, obtained by TODAY, showed they asked the judge to sign off on the agreement that they came to, but do not go into specifics of their settlement.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
