- Maya Rudolph is an actress, comedian, Saturday Night Live alum, and briefly a member of The Rentals.
- Paul Thomas Anderson is a filmmaker and son of the late horror host, Ernie “Ghoulardi” Anderson.
- They have been together for two decades and have four children.
Maya Rudolph, 50, and Paul Thomas Anderson, 52, have had a successful romance since 2001, and it’s still going strong. Although the actress has been in the spotlight with her successful career over the years, her husband has quite a background of his own. The lovebirds have appeared at numerous events together and haven’t been shy about talking about their love in various interviews, despite keeping their personal lives as private as possible, so it’s clear that these two share a special bond.
Paul is known for his movies Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk, Love, and There Will Be Blood, which earned him a Best Director nomination at the 2008 Academy Awards. He was also nominated for Best Director in 2018 (Phantom Thread) and in 2022 (Licorice Pizza). He also worked with the band Haim, directing the music videos for their songs “Summer Girl,” “Now I’m In It,” “Hallelujah,” “The Steps,” “Man from the Magazine,” and “Lost Track.”
Similar in the music world, Maya briefly played keyboards in The Rentals, the band that Matt Sharp of Weezer formed in 1994 (she can be seen in the video for their song “Waiting“) In 2023, Maya partnered with M&Ms to replace the “spokescandies” as the new face of the brand, following Tucker Carlson complained that the Green M&M wasn’t sexy enough (“M&M’s will not be satisfied until every last cartoon character is deeply unappealing and totally androgynous, until the moment you wouldn’t want to have a drink with any one of them,” he said during one rant. “That’s the goal.”) The trolling campaign culminated in a Super Bowl commercial where Maya rebranded the candies “Ma&Ya’s,” put her face on the treat, and made them clam-flavored. Shortly afterward, M&M’s brought back the candies, and everything was as it once was.
Find out more about Paul and his romance with Maya below!
How did Maya and Paul meet?
Maya and Paul have never publicly shared how they met, but sparks started flying in 2001 following Paul’s breakup with singer Fiona Apple. Maya admitted she didn’t want to share how they met with the public because she wanted to keep it between them. “No, it’s a sweet thing … Too personal. I don’t want to share it,” she told The Guardian in 2015.
Paul is an impressive filmmaker.
Paul was named one of the best filmmakers in the world by The Guardian and has directed several popular films and even music videos throughout his long career. Some of the movies he’s worked on include Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, and Licorice Pizza. His music videos were produced for many epic artists, including his ex Fiona, Radiohead, and HAIM.
Paul has been nominated for a whopping eleven Academy Awards over the years, but as of 2022, he has yet to win one. People involved in his films have won some, though, proving he knows how to pick the kind of talented cast and crew to make a memorable project.
Maya and Paul aren’t technically married.
Although the two have never officially said “I do,” Maya still refers to Paul as her “husband,” and Paul refers to her as his “wife.” In an interview with The New York Times, Maya further elaborated on why she has used the term “husband” instead of “boyfriend” since she suddenly blurted it out to someone at a restaurant after the birth of their first child in 2005. “He likes ‘husband’ because people know what that means,” she said, referring to Paul. “It means he’s the father of my child, and I live with him, and we are a couple, and we’re not going anywhere.”
Do the lovebirds have kids?
Maya and Paul have four kids together. They include daughters Pearl, born in 2005, Lucille, born in 2009, Minnie, born in 2013, and son Jack, born in 2011. Pearl has appeared in Paul’s film Licorice Pizza and the HAIM music video for their song “Lost Track.” In 2017, Maya gushed over being a mom. “I find being a parent endlessly fascinating and challenging in the most wonderful way, and every day is different than the next,” she told Parade. “It just requires a lot of thinking and not being so hard on yourself and trying to be the best possible version of yourself, which is really hard to remember. It’s a good exercise.”
Paul’s 2017 film, ‘Phantom Thread,’ was sort of inspired by their relationship.
Paul confirmed the movie, which is about “a renowned dressmaker whose life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman named Alma, who becomes his muse and lover, was somewhat inspired by his romance with Maya. “I remember that I was very sick, just with the flu, and I looked up, and my wife looked at me with tenderness that made me think, ‘I wonder if she wants to keep me this way, maybe for a week or two,'” he told Collider in 2018. “I was watching the wrong movies when I was in bed, during this illness. I was watching Rebecca, The Story of Adele H., and Beauty and the Beast, and I really started to think that maybe she was poisoning me. So that kernel of an idea, I had in my mind when I started working on writing something.”