We Have No Choice But To Stan Keanu Reeves’ Rumoured Girlfriend, Alexandra Grant

The days of Sad Keanu are over. On Monday night, Keanu Reeves was photographed holding hands with a longtime friend and rumoured girlfriend, artist Alexandra Grant, on the LACMA Art + Film Gala red carpet.

Normally, it would be hard to see our Internet Boyfriend in the arms of another woman — but when it comes to Reeves, if he looks happy, then we’re happy. 

We hear you, skeptics in the back row: Celebrities get together all the time! Why the fuss over these particular red carpet photos? 

This pairing is undeniably special. After learning the details of Grant and Reeves’ relationship, it’s hard to resist converting their love story into a rom-com (starring Reeves and Helen Mirren, Grant’s doppelganger). Essentially, after years of being single, Reeves is likely dating a gray-haired, elegant, intelligent woman who created a series of paintings based around Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone. We have no choice but to stan. 

Reeves has not been publicly linked to a romantic partner in nearly two decades, and for tragic reasons. His last relationship was with actress Jennifer Syme. In 1999, Syme, eight months pregnant, gave birth to a stillborn child. The baby is buried in Los Angeles, with the name Ava Archer Reeves on her tombstone. The couple broke up soon after the loss of their child. In 2001, 28-year-old Syme died in a car accident. 

This experience profoundly changed Reeves. “Grief changes shape, but it never ends,” Reeves told Parade back in 2008. “People have a misconception that you can deal with it and say, ‘It’s gone, and I’m better.’ They’re wrong. When the people you love are gone, you’re alone.” 

Then 40 years old, Reeves said he wanted to get married and have kids — but was still working through his grief. “That’s at the top of the mountain. I’ve got to climb the mountain first. I’ll do it. Just give me some time,” Reeves said. 

Candid, thoughtful responses like these are one of the many reasons why Reeves is so beloved. Over the years, Reeves has forged a reputation for genuine humbleness and kindness, simply by being himself. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t touch women in photographs to make sure he doesn’t cross boundaries, and buys an ice-cream just to give a star-struck teen his autograph.  

So of course the Internet rejoices when it seems that Reeves has found happiness, or “climbed that mountain.” For many, the fact that Reeves, unlike Leonardo DiCaprio and Dennis Quaid, broke with Hollywood tradition and is dating someone relatively close to him in age, added to the rejoicing — Reeves is 55, and Grant is 46. 

If Reeves is a big deal in Hollywood, Grant is a big deal in the art world — solidifying a trend of celebrities linking up with people in that world (see: Jenny Slate, Jennifer Lawrence). 

Grant is a Los Angeles-based visual artist whose work has been displayed in galleries all over the world. According to her website, Grant “probes ideas of translation, identity, dis/location, and social responsibility” through “an exploration of the use of text and language in various media — painting, drawing, sculpture, film, and photography.” She thinks of art as "portals for mental travel."

Grant has other ventures as well. In 2008, she founded the grantLOVE project, which donates the proceeds of original artwork and merchandise to charities. She also directed the documentary film Taking Lena Home (“Lena” being a stolen tombstone Grant bought, and “home” being Omaha, NE). 

Their relationship began as a different kind of collaboration. They worked together on two books: Ode To Happiness (2011) and Shadows (2015), which Reeves wrote and Grant illustrated. 

These books are magnificently esoteric. Take Shadows’ question-filled description on Amazon, which sounds like something one would say at 3 in the morning as an undergrad: “What exactly is a shadow? Is it light tracing an object or the shape a body throws when it comes between a light source and a surface? Is it a metaphor for the intimate, darker side of a person's nature — as Carl Jung postulated — and the unconscious side of one's self, where daemons and secrets are kept hidden or repressed? Is it an allegorical place between darkness and light, death and living?”

In 2017, Reeves and Grant founded a publishing house called X Artists’ Books to publish books more like their own projects, blends of art and prose (some, like Zus, which costs $1,300, are art in themselves). Grant wrote the book The Artists’ Prison.  

Reeves has not confirmed the relationship — but Grant’s knowing glances to the camera all but did.