Why Maya Rudolph Calls P.T. Anderson Her Husband, Even Though They're Not Married

From Oprah Magazine

• Maya Rudolph and her longtime partner, acclaimed director P.T. Anderson, have been together since 2001.

• They share four children: Pearl Minnie, 13, Lucille, 9, Jack, 7, and Minnie Ida, 5.

• Rudolph, a Saturday Night Live alum, is expected to play vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the upcoming season.

Whether in Saturday Night Live in the early 200s or in recent movies like Wine Country, comedian Maya Rudolph has been making us laugh for years. But there's one place her jokes won't venture: Her relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson, the acclaimed director of movies like Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood.

Rudolph, 48, and Anderson, 50, have been together since about 2001, but have only spoken publicly about their long-term relationship a handful of times. However, they're often spotted walking the red carpet hand-in-hand for Anderson's oft-nominated films. His most recent, Phantom Thread, received six Academy Award nominations in 2017.

Back when they started dating, Rudolph—who is the daughter of legendary singer Minnie Riperton—was one of the cast-members of Saturday Night Live. Anderson, then a budding director, was coming out of a high-profile (and allegedly toxic) relationship with singer Fiona Apple. A 2012 Grantland retrospective called Anderson and Apple, who dated for three years, "the coolest, dorkiest, sexiest, and most indelible celebrity power couple of the ’90s."

Though they've never shared their origin story, it's possible that Anderson and Rudolph's worlds collided in 2000, when Apple was a guest on Saturday Night Live. In addition to attending the live event to support his then-girlfriend, Anderson wrote a sketch. Ostensibly, they could have met backstage.

Come 2003, Rudolph was in Anderson's entourage for the release of his movie Punch Drunk Love. Two years later, their oldest daughter was born. Many years, children, and award show nominations later, and Anderson and Rudolph are still together. Here's what you need to know about this accomplished show biz couple.

They're not married, but they call each other "husband" and "wife."

In a 2018 profile for the New York Times (which, by the way, is definitely worth a read), Rudolph shed some light on her relationship with Anderson. Though the couple never officially married, Rudolph began calling Anderson her "husband" after the birth of their first child in 2005.

"People know what that means. It means he’s the father of my child, and I live with him, and we are a couple, and we are not going anywhere," Rudolph said. Similarly, Anderson referred to Rudolph as his "wife" during an interview with Collider.

The couple have four kids together.

She's a comedy legend. He's an eight-time Oscar-nominated director. And they're both parents to four kids. Rudolph and Anderson's oldest daughter, Pearl Minnie, was born in 2005 and turned 14 in August. Her younger siblings are Jack, 11; Lucille, 10; and Minnie Ida, 7.

Speaking at The Cut's How I Get It Done conference, Rudolph opened up about the idea of "balance" between working and motherhood—and how she doesn't have any. “There is no such thing,” Rudolph said, per People. “When I started having kids, I never stopped working. I would take breaks, of course, but I didn’t change my creative life.”

Rudolph's mom, singer Minnie Riperton, died at the young age of 31, when Rudolph was a child. She's surrounded herself with help. “Humans were meant to live in villages, and as women, we need help and we need each other,” Rudolph said. “I don’t have my mom. I have amazing women in my life who help me raise my kids and that’s a choice I made … I created my own family, basically.”

Being a father has changed Anderson's career, too. "As I have got older and become a father, there's less and less time for films," he told The Independent in 2008.

Rudolph and Anderson are known for this one particular photo.

Sure, Anderson and Rudolph have graced many a red carpet. Take this picture of them at the Oscars in 2008, looking spiffy alongside Paul Dano, Daniel Day-Lewis, and his wife, Rebecca Miller.

However, only one photo has become legendary. Tweeting from the Phantom Thread account, Anderson sounded off about the paparazzi photo in which he and Rudolph look particularly glum.

The Phantom Thread is inspired by their marriage—kind of.

Phantom Thread was about a powerful, creative man in a relationship with a woman who deliberately made him ill—look out for the mushroom-laced tea!

While speaking to Collider, Anderson revealed that the premise of Phantom Thread was inspired by Anderson's own prolonged illness. "I remember that I was very sick, just with the flu, and I looked up and my wife (Maya Rudolph) 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 said. "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."

Heads up: Rudolph's husband in the Sling commercials is not Anderson.

So, Maya Rudolph starred in a number of SlingTV commercials. In a few, a husband appears. This man is not P.T. Anderson. The confusion is understandable: Other celebrities, like Nick Offerman and Megan Mullaly, have starred with their actual spouses in SlingTV commercials.

Anderson has a front-row seat to Rudolph's renowned humor.

Maya Rudolph is known for her SNL impressions (including Beyoncé, Sen. Kamala Harris, and Donatella Versace), comedic acting, and being a born Oscars host. She's a force in comedy—and Anderson gets to live with her. During a Reddit AMA, When asked how often Maya makes him fall down laughing, Anderson responded, "Every day."

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