For nearly a decade, Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor have been one of Hollywood’s most quietly iconic couples.
The “Ratched” star, 49, and the “Two and a Half Men” star, 81, have been linked since 2015, when they went public with their romance.
While they kept the details of their relationship more private in the beginning, in recent years they have been more openly expressing their love for each other on social media.
“So worthy- of all good things, And of ALL my LOVE!” Taylor wrote about Paulson on Instagram in April, celebrating her partner’s recent Tony nomination.
Paulson responded with an all-caps comment: “I LOVE YOU COMPLETELY.”
Taylor recently stopped by TODAY with Hoda & Jenna to chat about her new off-Broadway play, “N/A,” in which she plays a character inspired by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
She also took a moment to praise her girlfriend’s recent Tony win. Earlier this month, Paulson took home her first Tony for her leading role in Broadway’s “Appropriate.”
“I mean, I just went crazy. I was very nervous, because you know, awards can turn out any old way,” Taylor said. “She certainly deserved it, I think it was the performance of the season.
“And I know she wanted it,” she continued, beaming. “I mean, how can you not want to win the Best Actress Tony award on Broadway? And I thought, she’s just got to do that. I willed it and willed it, and fortunately it came true and I was overjoyed.”
When Hoda told Taylor how much Paulson had made her laugh in a previous interview, Taylor praised her partner’s sense of humor.
“People don’t realize how funny she is,” she said. “When she comes on these shows, she’s so goofy and crazy.”
Read on to learn more about their relationship, and what they have said about each other over the years.
They met at a dinner party in the mid-2000s
According to a 2016 New York Times profile of Paulson, she and Taylor met at a dinner party about a decade previously.
Paulson said was dating someone else at the time, but remembered thinking Taylor was “probably the most exquisitely beautiful woman I’d ever seen.”
After working together on a campaign for a reproductive rights organization a few years later, they began exchanging messages on Twitter, according to The New York Times.
Taylor revealed in 2015 she was in a relationship with a younger woman
In a 2015 appearance on WNYC’s “Death, Sex and Money” podcast, Taylor shared that she was in a relationship with a much younger woman.
She also explained why she did not want to share her girlfriend’s name at the time, and opened up about her sexuality in general.
“I feel very, very shy of it,” she said. “I’ve been really wrestling with this lately because most of my relationships have been with women, and I don’t like talking about them because I don’t like talking about the politics of it all because I’m not political about it.”
She continued, “It’s awkward because if I talk about relationships in my life … I’d like to be able to just say that, without having to stop and say, ‘So, have you come out?’ No, I haven’t come out because I am out. I live out.”
Paulson said it felt ‘surreal’ when their relationship went public
After the news broke in December 2015 that Taylor and Paulson were an item, Paulson said it felt “surreal” to see so many people reacting to their relationship.
“My choices in romantic partners have not been conventional, and therefore the idea that it is ‘other’ makes it compelling,” she told The New York Times in 2016.
Paulson, who has been in relationships with both women and men, also discussed her reluctance to label her sexuality.
“If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that’s going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don’t want to feel that,” she said. “What I can say absolutely is that I am in love, and that person happens to be Holland Taylor.”
Paulson has said Taylor is ‘everything’ to her
Paulson and Taylor often gush about their love for each other on social media.
In January 2021, Paulson celebrated her girlfriend’s birthday with a loving note on Instagram.
“All roads lead me to this face, those eyes, that soul. You are, quite simply- everything to me,” she wrote in the caption. “Here’s looking at you, kid. Today. Tomorrow. Always. (If you don’t like this picture, you are an idiot, so don’t get mad when you see it. I even made it black and white since you prefer it. So shhhhhh. It’s a perfect picture of a perfect person) HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING.”
Paulson shared an equally heartfelt message for Holland on her birthday two years later.
“You are sitting at the counter not 15 feet from me, drinking your chocolate coffee as usual. I am happiest this way-YOU near,” she captioned her Instagram post.
She wrote later in her message that Holland had “changed” her in “all the important ways.”
“Sharing my life with you has made everything else make sense,” she wrote. “Happiest Birthday to you, Holland V. Taylor. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for loving me. I will never be the same.”
Taylor has said there is ‘no one more beautiful’ than Paulson
Taylor often shares sweet messages about Paulson on social media.
“No one more beautiful,” she captioned a photo of her partner on X in 2021. “No one.”
She also shared a loving note in honor of Paulson’s birthday in December 2020.
“Yes, but listen- y’all have no idea…Happy Birthday to my one and only. I’m grateful you were born, @mssarahcatharinepaulson,” she wrote in the caption.
Taylor was also at her partner’s side when Paulson won her first Tony award in June.
“Holland, thank you for loving me,” Paulson said in her Tonys acceptance speech, according to People.
The couple has opened up about their age difference
Taylor and Paulson are 32 years apart, which was a topic of speculation online when they first went public with their relationship.
Paulson, however, isn’t letting comments about their age difference bother her.
“If anyone wants to spend any time thinking I’m strange for loving the most spectacular person on the planet, then that’s their problem,” she said in a 2018 cover story for Modern Luxury, according to People’s exclusive preview of the interview. “I’m doing just fine.”
Paulson has also said there’s a “poignancy to being with someone older.”
“I think there’s a greater appreciation of time and what you have together and what’s important, and it can make the little things seem very small,” she told The New York Times in 2016.
Taylor also opened up about dating a much younger women in her 2015 interview with WNYC’s “Death, Sex and Money” podcast.
“There’s a very big age difference between us which I’m sure shocks a lot of people, and it startles me,” she said.
“But you know, it’s not a statement original to me — I’ve heard it as a joke once in my past, but as they say, ‘If she dies, she dies,’” she joked.
Paulson says one ‘secret’ of their successful relationship is not living together
In a May 2024 interview on the “Smartless” podcast, Paulson revealed that she and Taylor don’t share a home.
“Yeah, we don’t live together. That’s the secret to it … Holland and I, we spend plenty of time together, but we don’t live in the same house,” she said.
She said having their own, separate spaces has been helpful for their long-term relationship.
“We’ve been together for a long time now, and I think part of it has to do with, we’re together when we want to be and we’re not when we don’t,” she said.