Keosayan and Simonyan’s complicated love story

In early January 2025, director Tigran Keosayan turned 59. But instead of loud congratulations, the whole country heard the staggering: «my husband experienced clinical death and is in a coma». At the end of the New Year holidays, Margarita Simonyan broke a many-day silence and explained why there had long been no word from the host of the satirical program «Mezhdunarodnaya Pilorama» (“International Sawmill”) — nor from herself, who usually speaks out zealously on almost any subject. Since then, the journalist kept followers concerned about the director’s health informed. And on 26 September she published a message after which any questions dissolve into eternity: «Last night Tigran went to the Creator».

— Thank you to everyone who prayed. Please don’t call me or the family right now. Thank you all, thank you, — the journalist wrote.

Margarita Simonyan no longer asks people to pray for her husband. In the heart once occupied by the most important person there is now a deafening ring. In it sink both essence and existence, and the family idyll the couple once had to fight for.

«I had a relationship with Natasha»

Tigran Keosayan was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His father — director of «The Elusive Avengers» (6+) Edmond Keosayan — and his mother, actress Laura Gevorkyan, were household names on 1970s film posters. There was no doubt their son would follow in their footsteps. True, his first attempt to enter VGIK, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), as a directing student was unsuccessful. His father took it very hard.

— I went down in history as the only son of a prominent filmmaker who didn’t get into VGIK on the first try. Because of the worry my father had a massive heart attack, — Tigran Keosayan recalled.

A year later he did enroll at VGIK and ended up in the same class as Fyodor Bondarchuk. Two representatives of the golden youth grew close; the long-standing friendship soon turned into a creative tandem. In search of income, the young directors began shooting commercials and music videos — in the early 1990s that niche was virtually empty. For example, the video for Natalia Vetlitskaya’s song «Look into My Eyes» was their work.

However, the story of that video’s creation involved more than just work.

— They kicked Fedya out of the house, and he lived with me. I had a relationship with Natasha, — Keosayan said. — Natasha wanted a music video. She had two songs: «Magadan» and «Look into My Eyes». I decided the second would turn out better. I found a man from Saratov — he gave us money. You could say I was the producer and co-director.

After music videos, Tigran Keosayan discovered the world of feature films. «The President and His Granddaughter» (18+), «Lily of the Valley Silver» (12+), «Hare over the Abyss» (18+), «Mirage» (18+) — these films are united not only by the director’s name but also by the lead actress: Alena Khmelnitskaya.

«I was inwardly very tired of partying»

Tigran Keosayan said he met Alena Khmelnitskaya at the Lenkom Theatre.

— I often went to Lenkom — not to watch plays but, to be honest, to drink more and have fun. That’s where Alena Khmelnitskaya and I met, — the director recalled. — And then there was a memorable meeting at a gas station. I looked at her from the car: so beautiful, and at that moment I happened to need an actress for a commercial.

Getting out of the car, Keosayan greeted Khmelnitskaya and said bluntly that he saw her in his next project, and they exchanged phone numbers.

The actress was interested in the director not only professionally. And just a few days later he realized he saw in her more than a colleague and drove to her home — to propose.

— I was 27. And I was ready for marriage; I think I was inwardly very tired of partying, — Keosayan said.

In 1993 the director and the actress married, and a year later their daughter Alexandra was born.

— Sasha was always with us, went to all the film festivals, slept wherever we happened to be. She grew into an amazing girl, — Khmelnitskaya said.

The couple’s second child appeared in 2010. Again a daughter — Sofia. Later the actress admitted she had been happy in marriage only at the beginning of family life. But with each passing year she increasingly felt the chasm between her and Keosayan widen. From a family they became lovers. From lovers — friends. After that there was only a one-way road — divorce. After 21 years together, in 2014, they parted.

— It’s absolutely unimportant who initiated what, — Keosayan reflected. — If a separation happened, it means there were prerequisites; it means that long 21-year cycle ended and it was time to move into some other quality.

But, as it turned out, the director had been thinking about that “other quality” of relations with his wife long before the divorce. Lo-o-o-o-ong before.

«I thought he was crazy»

In 2004 Beslan happened. Along with the entire country, Tigran Keosayan glued himself to the TV screen, following every report from the scene of the tragedy. On the other side of the screen, the reports were being delivered by an ordinary girl, Rita, who at the time worked at REN TV (REN TV).

— I saw a couple of broadcasts, and then I was driving when I heard two nasty women on a Moscow radio station unfairly dousing her with filth, — Keosayan recalled. — I simply wrote to this person I didn’t know: «I respect you; I am so-and-so and I support you; don’t pay attention.»

The reporter replied. They immediately struck up a correspondence, and the first meeting was not far behind.

— He told me: «I have the feeling we’ve already been married about seven years.» There was nothing going on, no courtship, not a hint of any romance. «And that we are made for each other. And that it will all end catastrophically — “you will leave your man, I will leave my family”.» — Simonyan recalled. — At our third meeting he said this to me. I thought he was crazy.

They repeatedly tried to break up: he had a family, she — a career. But the more they tried to distance themselves, the more they understood they couldn’t live without each other.

— As so often happens, unexpectedly and certainly uninvited it turned out that living without each other was impossible, — Simonyan said. — That we had to see each other every day, text every minute, hold hands even when we weren’t side by side.

In 2013 Keosayan and Simonyan had a daughter.

— When I got pregnant the first time, I was frightened, because this was an out-of-wedlock child. I thought I would raise the child alone; that didn’t scare me, — Simonyan recalled. — Tigran was horrified at first too, and then he said: «See, God Himself has decided everything for us.» In the first three months there was no chance at all that our daughter would make it. There was a very strong threat of miscarriage.

Five months after the firstborn’s arrival, Simonyan became pregnant again. In 2014 she and Keosayan had a son. Five years later — another daughter. In 2020 the couple were expecting another child, but it was not destined to be born.

— I lost a child. I’ll spend some time alone with my pain. Thank you for understanding, — Simonyan wrote.

Until the very end, Tigran Keosayan stayed with his beloved. Looking at their relationship and their already large family, everyone was left with just one question — why still no marriage.

— I had never been married. But our vladyka — an Orthodox bishop — knocked some sense into me. We decided we would marry, but both my grandmothers died in the same year. We postponed it, but that date fell on an important political event. We postponed it again, and then I learned I was pregnant. And I wasn’t ready to be pregnant at my own wedding, — Simonyan explained.

The marriage was to happen only after sanctions were imposed on Simonyan and Keosayan. According to the director, he came under them because of the journalist — and she wasn’t even his wife. The editor-in-chief of RT (formerly Russia Today; RT) couldn’t refuse such a proposal. In March 2022 the couple marked the sanctions with a trip to the civil registry office.