Julia Roberts says Richard Gere's Pretty Woman character is dead now

But don't worry, Vivian's taken over his business.

Vivian Ward may have wanted the fairytale, but Julia Roberts’ idea of what happened to the couple after the ending of Pretty Woman honestly sounds more like a tragedy.

During an interview with CBS Mornings on Tuesday, the Leave the World Behind actress was asked what she thought several of her most beloved characters would be up to these days. Spoiler alert: things took a serious turn for Vivian’s beau, Edward (Richard Gere). 

"I think he passed away peacefully in his sleep from a heart attack, smiling,” Roberts told interviewer Gayle King. “And now she runs his business.”

Edward worked as a stern businessman in the 1990 rom-com, which saw him pay sex worker Vivian to masquerade as his girlfriend at several high-profile work functions over the course of a single week. Along the way, the pair fall in love, further complicating their deal. 

While Roberts was quick to kill off Gere in Pretty Woman, she was much kinder to his Runaway Bride character, who she thinks would still be in a committed relationship with her commitment-phobic character Maggie.  “They stay together. He doesn't die in this one," she joked. "They're gonna stay together."

Also still going strong? Her Mystic Pizza character Daisy and her partner Charles (Adam Storke). Roberts added, “Let's hope they're still together and they have a bunch of cute little kiddos.”

And speaking of little ones, her movie star Notting Hill character Anna would’ve certainly had a few with bookstore owner William (Hugh Grant). "She's retired. She has six children and has maintained her waist size, amazingly,” she said. “He runs the bookshop still. And now there's a little knitting annex to the bookshop that she runs.”

Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in a scene from the film Pretty Woman 1990
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in 'Pretty Woman'.

Buena Vista/Getty

While she's setting the record straight, Roberts also confirmed that her character Darby was definitely dating Gray (Denzel Washington) by the end of the 1993 film, The Pelican Brief. "To me, the end of the movie, they're absolutely together,” she said. King then added, “They're watching TV. She's watching him on TV.”

"Yeah. And then the journalist says, ‘Well, your source seems too good to be true,’” Roberts said. “And he says, in a way that only Denzel can, ‘She just might be.’ And then in slow motion, I put my head down with my cheeks pink, and that says it all to me.”

Roberts noted that she thought everybody believed that the pair were an item by the end. “I think he's in love with her,” she said. “She's in love with him.”

Watch Roberts discuss where her characters would be now in the clip above. 

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