Has Scarlett Johansson's colourful lovelife made her Hollywood's biggest 'player'?

According to those close to her, actor has a “masculine need” for romantic freedom

As much as we love her, we cannot deny that Scarlett Johansson has a 15-year-old trail of famous broken hearts behind her – a list which includes Ryan Reynolds, Jared Leto, Sean Penn, Jude Law, and the likes. “Scarlett likes to be in control,” Page Six quoted a fellow actor of the Hollywood beauty as having said. “Then, when she gets it, she gets bored.”

Case in point: even before her second divorce from French journalist Romain Dauriac in September, the actress had gotten with Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost. Since then, the duo has been spotted here and there, with Scarlett playing the dutiful girlfriend to the 35-year-old comedian.

PHOTO: FILE

Many say it’s not surprising that Scarlett was drawn to Colin, a Harvard grad. “Colin’s smart, successful, and unpretentious,” they feel, and his dating history includes only one other celebrity. Scarlett, however, has been espousing various versions of a quote gave: “I don’t think it’s natural to be a monogamous person.”

In June, she was with entertainment lawyer Kevin Yorn. She’s also been linked this year to her Avengers co-star Chris Evans. But Colin apparently has put her “on a pedestal” where it’s all about her, said an SNL insider. But what will he do when she gets bored?

Scarlett Johansson bounces back from failed marriage and heartache

Since her teen years, Scarlett has rarely been single. In 2003, the then-19-year-old paired off with actor James Holzier. But reports from the next year included a fling with The Conjuring star Patrick Wilson, Jude and Benicio Del Toro.

The Lost in Translation star revealed what makes her tick. “Long ago, I had someone in my life who was forever unavailable . . . but, like, so attractively unavailable,” she told Cosmopolitan. And next on her list is another player: Jared.

PHOTO: US WEEKLY

“When Scarlett was with Jared, they were very playful,” said a source. “He was super-cool, easygoing . . . loved to have a good time. He liked to joke around. She thought he was funny.”

But even though Jared is 13 years her senior, Scarlett eventually grew bored again.

Another source pegged her next romance — with Black Dahlia co-star Josh Hartnett — to the fact that actors get lonely on set. “They spend a lot of time in hotel rooms, alone.” The two shared a low-key romance from 2005 to 2006 until scheduling conflicts led to their split.

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IN 2007, rumours swirled of a hookup between Scarlett and Justin Timberlake after she appeared in his song What Comes Around Goes Around. But that changed when she got with Ryan the same year. The two kept their engagement a secret for months and when they wed in September 2008, she was just 23, he was 31.

During the marriage, Scarlett landed a role that would make her the highest-grossing actress in the world: Black Widow. Months later, Ryan announced his own superhero movie, Green Lantern.

And apparently, he grew jealous of his wife’s career. “They weren’t on equal footing and it created tension.” Sources also spoke of Ryan being disciplined and highly scheduled while Scarlett was more laid-back, which sometimes led to screaming matches.

PHOTO: US WEEKLY

Also, the husband and wife were rarely together: she was on Broadway eight times a week and Ryan was filming in New Orleans. “He was afraid she was having affairs,” said a publicist. “Meanwhile, he got close to Blake Lively (now his wife).”

The couple divorced the next year. That led to her rebound with the ultimate bad boy, Sean Penn. A friend of Penn’s said, “He’s like Scarlett’s male counterpoint: Neither one of them’s single for long, but marriage doesn’t suit [them].”

In classic Hollywood style, he was nearly twice her age: 50 to the actress’ 26. Penn’s pal added he doesn’t trust women. “Sean feels like they haven’t treated him right. And they all feel the opposite.”

Scarlett’s next paramour, Manhattan ad exec Nate Naylor, was an attempt to avoid actors. The two were together through 2012 but she moved on within a year. The shift away from Hollywood dudes continued when Scarlett met the man who would become her second husband: Romain.

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Much of their courtship was in NYC but they lived part-time in Paris by the time their daughter Rose Dorothy was born in 2014. They married in October that year.

Surprisingly, given her reluctance to walk red carpets with past significant others, Scarlett was okay with parading Romain at event. But these attempts to involve her civilian husband in her movie-star life could not save the marriage, however. “She went into her marriages optimistically,” said one Hollywood agent who knows Scarlett. “With Ryan: too hard to be with another actor; with Romain: too hard not to be.”

A French source revealed, “Romain was a stay-at-home dad on Mom’s schedule — he had to fly to sets whenever Scarlett beckoned. Eventually he got tired of being a back-seat husband.” Insiders claim that he was shocked when Scarlett went public with divorce proceedings earlier this year and declared their union “irretrievably broken.”

PHOTO: PEOPLE

But once the A-lister is done, she is done. As an actress close to Scarlett once said, “She’s a bit bad in real life, too. Scarlett just does what she wants.”

For now, sources say that Colin is in the catbird seat, adding it’s a big deal that the Avengers star has already met his family, and he’s met her friends. Still, Colin probably shouldn’t get too comfortable. “Scarlett [has] that masculine need for romantic freedom,” said her stylist. “She’s one of the few women in Hollywood who wants and needs that freedom.”

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