Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter’s love story closely resembles a Hollywood romance — complete with a workplace meet-cute that led to their happily ever after.
The duo first met while filming 2013’s The Big Ask and went on to star in two more movies together before announcing in February 2017 that they got engaged. Less than two years later, Us Weekly broke the news in January 2019 that the Yellowjackets star and the Parenthood alum welcomed their first child. Lynskey confirmed her daughter’s arrival later that month, revealing that the little one was born in December 2018.
“We feel lucky to have been able to have our news just be for friends and family for a while, but I guess the story got out, so! Yes!” the Two and a Half Men alum tweeted in January 2019. “We love her so much; she’s perfect.”
She went on to jokingly clarify a few details that were circulating, writing, “I would like to correct a couple of things that have been stated in articles online: 1) Jason was NOT in Boy Meets World and wow that would have been pretty easy to check. 2) I did NOT welcome the baby ‘quietly,’ I was blasting A$AP Rocky and yelling a lot.”
Since welcoming their baby girl, the couple have continued to keep their relationship and home life somewhat private. They have, however, poked fun at each other on social media from time to time.
Scroll down to relive Ritter and Lynskey’s sweetest relationship moments:
The pair met while filming The Big Ask and started dating shortly thereafter.
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The duo starred in We’ll Never Have Paris alongside Simon Helberg, Zachary Quinto and Judith Light.
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Two years later, the lovebirds acted alongside one another in The Intervention. Lynskey played Annie, while Ritter portrayed Matt.
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The actress announced her engagement during an appearance on Hollywood Today Live, calling Ritter her fiancé. Lynskey said that the actor kept it simple when he proposed, asking her to marry him while they were on the sofa. “It was cute,” she said at the time.
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Us broke the news that the couple welcomed their first child one month prior.
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The Togetherness alum confirmed her daughter’s arrival via Twitter, writing, “@JasonRitter and I had a daughter in December. We love her so much; she’s perfect. Thanks to everyone for your sweet messages.”
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“Extraordinarily grateful for many things right now, but most of all for these two,” the Up in the Air actress wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of her fiancé and their daughter, shortly after the first COVID-19 lockdown went into place in Los Angeles. “Stay safe everyone ❤️.”
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“This is a belated Father’s Day post to thank @jason_ritter for being the most loving, committed, funny, funny, funny, kind, sweet, caring dad this little girl could hope to have,” the Mrs. America alum wrote in a social media tribute to her man. “Thank you for being there for us every day, my love. We are so lucky.”
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“A little girl who knows she has the best dad in the world ❤️ @jason_ritter ❤️,” Lynskey captioned a sweet snap of her little one cuddling with Ritter.
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“I am so proud of my incredible wife @melanielynskey for her @CriticsChoice Award nomination!” the Tale actor gushed via Twitter after Lynskey earned a nod for her role as Shauna on Yellowjackets. “I don’t even care if it sounds like a brag! It is one! No time to pretend otherwise! She is so amazing in everything, but if you haven’t started watching #Yellowjackets, why?? SO GOOD! 🐝.”
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Lynskey shared a sweet snap of her “cute husband” via Instagram after he was called a Yellowjackets’ “celebrity superfan” by the show’s marketing team. “I made him stand in the snow to take this picture of him in the awesome sweatshirt they sent him. Neither of us are sure if they know he is my husband,” the actress added.
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Ritter stood up for his partner as she faced body-shaming from social media trolls, tweeting, “If anyone has any further unsolicited comments about *anybody* else’s body, they can feel free to write them in permanent ink onto their own foreheads and swan dive directly into the sun.”
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While accepting the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series at the Critics’ Choice Awards, Lynskey gushed over her husband, calling him “the love of my life” and her “greatest support” in her speech. Though Ritter didn’t attend the event, he made sure to celebrate the Yellowjackets star on social media that night. “I am sorry to do this and she will be embarrassed that I did this but my GOODNESS what an absolyute [sic] beaut my wife is!!!” he wrote via Twitter, alongside a photo of Lynskey on the red carpet. “Ok I’m sorry but I mean LOOK at this human being who is also the best person I know.”
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In an interview with SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show,” Lynskey revealed why she and Ritter had such a spontaneous wedding.
“I was going to Canada for Yellowjackets and I was on the phone with somebody and they said, ‘Oh, he won’t be allowed in,'” the Two and a Half Men alum explained. “I was like, ‘We have a child. What? I can’t leave for six months,’ so I was like, ‘We have to get married tomorrow.’”
The Don’t Look Up star continued: “We got married on our front porch of our little rental house in Atlanta. Nice lady came and married us. We had two friends there.”
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During an episode of Hulu’s Candy, Ritter appeared on his wife’s show in a guest star role. The actor was joined by Justin Timberlake — who is married to Lynskey’s costar Jessica Biel. The two men played Collin County officers investigating the real-life murder of Betty Gore.
This marks the fourth time that Lynskey and Ritter have worked on the same project.
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Lynskey shared a supportive article about The Tale, Jennifer Fox’s 2018 film memoir about her past sexual abuse. Ritter plays a predator alongside Elizabeth Debicki, and the couple manipulates a young girl into believing they’re in a relationship. The dark movie impressed Ritter’s wife.
“This is (in my opinion) the best movie my husband has ever been in,” she shared via Twitter. “I think it’s absolutely amazing (and he’s so so great in it). And young Laura Dern is played by Isabelle Nélisse, (sister of [Yellowjackets star] @Sophie_Nelisse!) in one of the bravest & most astonishing performances I’ve ever seen.”
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Ritter celebrated his wife’s Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in July 2022. “Ahhhhh!!!!! Congratulations to the most incredible person through and through! I am so proud of you!! It has been so inspiring to watch you give one beautiful performance after another, you deserve every recognition that has come/is coming your way! Also I love you!” he wrote via Twitter with a photo of all the nominees, Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Laura Linney, Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya. He added in a follow-up tweet, “This is for/about @melanielynskey i should clarify! I was too excited.” Lynskey replied, “You could rightfully say all of these things to any one of these amazing women (apart from ‘I love you’, please) ❤️❤️❤️.” The actress later gushed about her husband’s sweet reaction to her nomination. “He’s so excited. We had a little cry. I mean, it’s really sweet,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “He made some toast for me while I was in the middle of talking to people. He made some toast that he cut into the shape of the word ‘Emmy,’ which took a lot of time I think. And it was really cute. So yeah, he’s really happy. And it’s nice [that] he’s not the only Emmy nominee in the house anymore.”
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The New Zealand native — and Ritter — loved her mint-green Christian Siriano gown as they attended the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards.
“I feel like [Siriano] made something that was for me [and] my body, like, I feel like a princess because I have this princessy [tulle dress] but I also do feel like a little bit of a bad bitch,” Lynskey told Laverne Cox during E!’s red carpet show. “It’s so fitted … and my husband’s like, ‘That’s sexy.’ So, that’s what you want.”
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During an interview with Us, Ritter gushed about his wife’s recent success in the acting world.
“It’s so, so exciting. And over the course of our relationship — at the beginning of our relationship, I was seeing her do a lot of independent movies, and I could not wait until I would be able to see what she did in one thing or another,” he told Us. “But it’s just so exciting to see her doing the kinds of roles that she got to do in the independent movies. You know, interesting, gritty, cool, unexpected things, and see people respond to it the way they are. It’s just amazing and well-deserved.”The actor also recalled getting to work with Lynskey on their self-tapes during the COVID-19 pandemic.”It is nice if we are having a problem or if we’re nervous about a scene or if something’s sticking. I really feel like I can ask her. I’m so inspired by her. I think she’s such a wonderful actress,” he continued at the time. “So I feel lucky that I have such a wonderful actor right in the home that I can say like, ‘Hey, just outta curiosity, what would you do in this situation?’ And she really, you know, she really makes me better and helps me. I don’t know how much I help her, but for sure she really helps me.”
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Ritter came to his wife’s defense after model Adrianne Curry body-shamed Lynskey for not looking like a “post apocolyptic [sic] warlord” on The Last of Us. “You … you could have just … not tweeted it. But you did, and people are upset with what you said,” Ritter wrote in response the next day, sarcastically quipping, “Whatever happens now, DO NOT LEARN ANYTHING FROM THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!! Dig your heels in deeper, and double down! BECOME the victim! You can do this!! I believe in you!!” Lynskey, for her part, also clapped back at Curry, writing, “I am supposed to be SMART, ma’am. I don’t need to be muscly. That’s what henchmen are for.”
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“I feel so fortunate. I don’t have anything to complain about, you know?” Lynskey told Entertainment Tonight at the Yellowjackets season 2 premiere, gushing about her husband. “I’ve had a lot of great happy times in my life, Jason is the greatest human being, I love our daughter, I love the show. Everything’s coming together in a way that [makes me] feel so fortunate.”
Later that month, Ritter opened up about how his alcoholism affected the early days of his romance with Lynskey. “I knew how incredible Melanie was early on,” he said during an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, recalling how he knew his wife was The One. “But it’s not as cute of a story as you would like to think. It was messy and interesting and weird. But mixed in [with] the mix was I was dealing with some alcoholism issues. … It was only after maybe a year into not drinking where I started to go, ‘Oh, maybe I can promise some things to someone else. Maybe I can be this person.’ I knew that she was incredible. It was working on myself enough to feel like maybe I could be The One for her too.”
Lynskey held back tears — and held her husband’s hand as he spoke — before praising him for his decision to change his life. “He worked so hard,” she said. “He did so much work on himself, I’m so proud of him.”
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“Happy anniversary to my love @jason_ritter, you wonderful kind beautiful man. I still smile every time I remember our very tiny wedding,” Lynskey gushed via Instagram on March 31, sharing a throwback wedding photo. “Sorry if I look too glamorous in this photo guys, it is what it is #uggslippers.”
Ritter, for his part, replied that his spouse looked “so beautiful” that “it was crazy.” He added: “I love you and I am so grateful @aliahn and @williamjacksonharper could be there making up 67% of our guests, not including our daughter. I love you and am looking forward to growing my hair back into that same haircut one day so we can get married again!”
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Lynskey gushed over her beau while representing Yellowjackets at PaleyFest in L.A., and teased that her costars liked him more than her when he filmed his guest spot on the Showtime series.
“It was great. But I came back to work and everybody was like, ‘Your husband’s the nicest person in the world. He’s our favorite.’ And I think previously I felt like I was some people’s favorite,” she joked to Us. “It was a little bit of a heartbreak. Everyone was like, ‘We still love you.’ And I was like, ‘I know he’s nicer. He’s nicer than me. He’s easier to be around. He never complains.’ So he became the new favorite. It was hard for me to give up the title, but I was also happy. We’ve worked together a few times and it’s always been really fun, but I mean, I’ll do anything with him. He’s so talented. I love his face. I love looking at his face.”
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