They have been married for almost three decades and are one of the most successful power couples in Hollywood.
But film director Baz Luhrmann, 63, and production designer Catherine Martin, 61, live completely ‘separate lives’.
This week, the Australian star gave a rare insight into their marriage and how they make it work in Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast.
While he’s known for being notoriously silent about his private life, Baz has insisted their relationship is ‘absolutely real’ despite it not being traditional in so many ways.
He also said that he understands the public fascination with his 29-year marriage.
‘I can understand it. I mean, my stuff is really camp, and our relationship is, well camp in one regard. I use that theatricality and there’s an underlying seriousness to it,’ he said.
Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin have been married for almost three decades and are one of the most successful power couples in Hollywood
But despite being married 29 years, the pair live completely separate lives (pictured in 2001)
‘CM and I, people say, ‘well, when did you get married?!’ I said, ‘I don’t remember. I just know we’ve always been together and it’s a truly real relationship’.
‘I love her and if she was gone tomorrow, I don’t know what I’d do. But we also are very distinctly different individuals.
‘We understand each other. The relationship works in a way in which it works for us. It’s not traditional in so many ways.
‘My kids make lots of jokes about me.’
Baz and Catherine met in 1988 at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, where she was studying design.
Recalling their first meeting, Catherine revealed she was late as she was preoccupied with sewing.
She then thought she’d blown it when there was no answer at his office, located above an old brothel in the red-light district.
The designer told Vogue: ‘All of a sudden I felt a hand on my back and I just screamed.
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Baz and Catherine met in 1988 at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, where she was studying design (pictured in their younger days)
Award-winning production designer Catherine works on all of Baz’s movies (pictured with Elvis actor Austin Butler at the Costume Designers Guild Awards)
‘I turned around and there was Baz and… his best friend and cowriter on so many of the projects, Craig Pearce, both in towels.
‘They were barefoot in the middle of King’s Cross in a towel.’
After their meeting, they collaborated immediately, with Catherine working on the stage production and later the 1992 film adaptation of Strictly Ballroom.
From there, Catherine has worked on every single one of his films, winning two Academy Awards for her work on Moulin Rouge! and another two for The Great Gatsby.
Most recently, their latest project is a newly designed private dining and events carriage for the Belmond British Pullman train.
It’s set to launch early summer of 2026 from London Victoria.
Baz and Catherine went on to tie the knot on January 26, 1997.
The pair are proud parents to two children: Lilian Luhrmann, 22, and William Luhrmann, 20.
The pair are proud parents to two children: Lilian Luhrmann, 22, and William Luhrmann, 20 (pictured wth daughter Lilian)
William lives a private life out of the spotlight, while Lilian studied popular music, technology and digital media at The University of Queensland.
When asked by Elizabeth on her podcast how their children tease them, Baz replied: ‘They just mock me a lot. It keeps me very grounded. Sometimes they call me RuPaul.
‘I mean, I don’t know, like in a fun way.
‘But we have this absolutely real relationship, but we also have our commitment to each other, which is, I think what real marriages are, which is their contracts with each other that, you know are good for each other.
‘There are things you can change and things you can’t.
‘But weddings are actually advertisements to everybody else that you are together.’
Though they have a happy family together, Baz previously revealed that he and his wife sleep in separate beds.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘We worked out a long time ago that we both need space.
‘We are surrounded by our teams of staff all day, every day, whether traveling, at work, and at our homes.
‘I was finding I was saying things in passing that weren’t properly thought through, things would become fraught.
Though they have a happy family together, Baz previously revealed that he and his wife sleep in separate beds
‘We both needed time to ourselves.’
In 2024, Baz was spotted at Taylor Swift’s Sydney concert, in the singer’s star-studded box alongside her NFL star fiancé Travis Kelce, Katy Perry and fellow filmmaker Taika Waititi and his wife Rita Ora.
He was seen dancing like no one was watching, his wife notably missing despite the fact they live on the Gold Coast, a short one hour and 20 minute flight from Sydney.
At the time, the couple moved into ‘a shack’ in the Miami beach area, downsizing from a larger home they were residing in after they relocated to the glitter strip in 2020 to make their sixth film Elvis.
In an interview with The Australian’s Wish magazine, Catherine spoke about doing long distance with her husband.
She said the pair speak regularly on the phone when he is in New York and she stays at their seaside Gold Coast shack.
Catherine said she enjoys the ‘work/life balance’ on the Gold Coast, where she goes for daily long morning walks on the beach and classes at her local Pilates studio.
‘I called Baz this morning, I was walking on the way to Pilates and he was marvelling at the weather, because he’s in New York,’ she said in the interview.
Giving insight into their marriage, Baz said in a viral TikTok: ‘During that journey of marriage, the person I’m married to and I found our own really genuine and authentic concept of what our contract to each other should be’
During this time they listed their Gilded Age townhouse in New York for $28million as they downsize to their ’empty nester’ home in Australia.
‘Since the pandemic and making the movie Elvis in Australia, our work has kept us mostly away from our New York City base,’ Baz told New York Post’s Gimme Shelter.
‘We shot Elvis entirely on the Gold Coast in Queensland and will continue to develop shows to be shot there.’
That same year, Baz gave an insight into his very unique and private marriage to Catherine.
He said in a viral TikTok video: ‘During that journey of marriage, the person I’m married to and I found our own really genuine and authentic concept of what our contract to each other should be.
‘But I think more importantly, marriage is not so much about what exists between you and another person, it’s about advertising to other people that you love and care as to what the deal is.
‘My own general philosophy is, if you care about someone and they’re your friend, but they fall in love with someone else or they like someone, there has to be some degree of acceptance.’
