Here’s a twist for you: Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter may actually be the same person.

Sure, she’s a 47-year-old woman from New Zealand and he’s (as of Feb. 17) a 45-year-old guy from Los Angeles. And they’re married and parents of a 6-year-old daughter together.

So maybe they’re not the same-same.

But they are two halves who uncannily make a whole. Lynskey is the eldest of five siblings while Ritter is the eldest of his late father John Ritter‘s four kids, and both of them grew up cautiously monitoring their own behavior—to varying degrees of success, but enough so that each admittedly wasted a bunch of time trying to act a certain way, while also acting on camera.

“The way I was brought up was to not show a ton of emotion and not get angry,” Lynskey told Rolling Stone toward the end fo 2021. “I’m trying to get better at letting the anger come out at all. There’s so many years of just not knowing what to do with it. I had a therapist once say something about, ‘You’re scared that if you even let a little bit of it out, it’ll just never stop. It’ll just overwhelm you and you’ll just be furious forever.’ Which really resonated with me.”

Growing up, the Yellowjackets star said, “I wanted order so badly. Everyone was like, ‘What a dork!’ and I would say, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be nice to know that one thing was going to be consistent?’”

And introspection runs in the relationship. “For me,” Ritter said in 2019 on Really Famous With Kara Mayer Robinson, “my closest friends and the people in my life, we over-talk about our difficulties.”

As for his own familiarly human foibles, including overdoing it enough with alcohol that he was inspired to get sober more than eight years ago, “the recklessness came from being so tightly wound,” he mused to Robinson. Looking back, he said, “as I grew up I really had to not only let go of trying to be perfect but also not rail against perfection so hard that I become an awful nightmare.”

He demanded perfection, his own and others, and would warn his younger siblings that there were consequences to their actions.

“It wasn’t even something that my dad or mom instilled in me, but I did have this sense that people knew who my dad was and I could embarrass him, or I could bring shame upon the family, or whatever,” he told Robinson. “That I could mess up and it wouldn’t just affect me, it would affect him and my mom and make them out to be bad parents. There was a level of ‘I better behave’ at a certain point.”

He’s also been through a lot of therapy in his life, he shared, and he admittedly was still inclined to check his own behavior. “I still feel a little bit of some kind of pressure to appear a certain way and parts of my personality are to, like, hide away,” the Matlock star said. “I’ve gotten better at just sort of talking about my things and then letting people judge or not judge, or do whatever. It feels nice to kind of not try to pretend I’m something else.” 

Even though he almost decided he was too flawed to take a crack at dating Lynskey.

The New Plymouth native met her partner of a decade when they made the 2013 film The Big Ask and, even if they hadn’t clicked then, they would’ve had another shot at love on the set of the 2014 rom-com We’ll Never Have Paris. 

“We get along really well,” Lynskey told Screen Crush in 2016 of her real-life leading man when they co-starred in their third film together, The Intervention. “He is just such a sweet, easygoing person. It was nice, he is very easy to be around. He is such a good actor.”

However, he wasn’t particularly feeling himself when he and Lynskey met, though he dug her right away.

“At a point, I knew how amazing she was and I thought she would be incredible for someone who deserved her, basically, and I didn’t feel like I was that person. I felt a little bit too crazy,” he said on The Drew Barrymore Show in 2023. “So it was only after like, 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.”

And Lynskey certainly wouldn’t have him any other way.

Meanwhile, she has a fairly unusual challenge, in that she has a condition called misophonia in which common bodily noises, particularly the sounds people make when they’re eating, gross her out to no end.

“My dad was very, very fussy about never making any noise so I don’t know if it’s nature or nurture,” she told The Guardian in 2016. “But it’s horrible, I feel like a terrible person. Last night, my boyfriend and I had this noodle soup and it’s really hard to eat quietly. He’s paralyzed with self-consciousness because I’m sitting there, like losing my mind. But he’s a lovely eater—I wouldn’t be with him if he wasn’t!”

Ritter’s totally cool about it, though, explaining that Lynskey can have a tough time at restaurants (“She’ll freeze and her eyes will go big and she’ll be like, ‘Across the room, back corner!’”) or in a movie theater when people are chomping loudly on their popcorn, but also that it’s really sharpened his own senses. (Let’s just say, he won’t get sick over it, but if you’re chewing gum near him, Ritter will hear you.)

Besides, he firmly rejects the idea that the person you’re meant to be with should be any different from how they are.

“One of the big sort of red flags for me, again,” Ritter said on Really Famous, is that “unless I’ve been a completely ridiculous person, if someone is ever embarrassed by me, that makes me nervous.’ Cause then it’s like, you wanted me to be something in order to make strangers [more comfortable].”

Not to mention, she’s been an “amazing” partner when it comes to his sobriety journey, he told E! News in September 2023.  “If she’s going to have a glass of wine or something like that, she’ll be like, ‘Is this OK?’”

And “it’s always OK,” he continued. “Some people are not OK about being around it, but she’s so thoughtful and really lovely about it.”

Such is her reputation.

Lynskey was previously married to actor Jimmi Simpson for five years before they split up in 2012. But they remained friends, and she even suggested that he would be “amazing” in the role of her husband, which Mark Duplass ultimately played, in Togetherness. “We’re still very close,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2016. “And he’d be so right for it and the dynamic would be so interesting cause we have this history together.”

Ritter dated GLOW actress Marianna Palka for more than a decade and they stayed close enough for her to direct him in 2015’s Always Worthy and 2017’s Bitch.

Talking about the term “irreconcilable differences,” he told Robinson, “When I first heard this phrase I thought it was people not wanting to tell the truth about their divorce. But that’s a real thing and that can also happen with friends, like, ‘Oh wow, we’re just actually different and I think you need something more than I need.’”

Ritter quipped that it made “a certain amount of sense” that he both watched a lot of true crime TV and everything that Bachelor Nation has to offer since Lynskey turned him onto The Bachelor.

Firmly established as super-fans, they’ve been on the Do You Accept This Rose? podcast together, and Ritter has made multiple solo appearances on franchise alum Nick Viall‘s The Viall Files to recap The Bachelorette.  

“They’re both filled with extremely emotional people,” Ritter observed on Really Famous of both crime shows and The Bachelor. On the latter specifically, “they get these people to go to these beautiful places and they really do get their emotions involved…Their adrenaline and oxytocin is pumping, then it all just slowly falls apart and people are weeping…It’s like a weird social experiment.”

But her latest layered character, stay-at-home mom Shauna who’s living a lie (but aren’t they all?), on Showtime’s grisly, who-did-it-25-years-ago murder mystery Yellowjackets, which is back for a third season, has turned up their spotlight.

When she won Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 2022 Critics’ Choice Awards, Lynskey gave a shout-out to Ritter, “the love of my life, the greatest support,” but charmed even more when she concluded her speech by thanking their nanny, Sally.

“I love her,” the honoree said. “She’s an absolute angel. She’s with my child, and my child is safe and taken care of, and she allows me to go and do my work.”

Lynskey and Ritter welcomed their daughter in December 2018. While there a few pictures of her on Mom’s Instagram, the couple have kept the child’s name private, and they didn’t announce her birth to the world so much as confirm it the following month.

“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,” Lynskey tweeted Jan. 31, 2019, adding, “We love her so much; she’s perfect. Thanks to everyone for your sweet messages.”

Among the details she shared: “I did NOT welcome the baby ‘quietly’, I was blasting A$AP Rocky and yelling a lot,” and, “The good thing about our news being put out there is that now I do get to publicly thank the wonderful doctors and the amazing heroic caring brilliant nurses of @NSH_Maternity in Atlanta. From labor & delivery to post partum, every one was an angel and I’m eternally grateful.”

Lynskey shared on the podcast Talk Easy With Sam Fragoso in November 2021 that she did one day of work, shooting an episode of the Netflix series Easy, during her pregnancy and then took seven months off. The historical miniseries Mrs. America was her first postpartum project and the shoot was “very, very hard with an infant.”

“Then there was COVID and we didn’t do anything for a year,” she said, recalling the mixed emotions of enjoying being home with her family but worrying about pretty much everything else going on in the world. Also during that time she lost a pregnancy at 10 weeks, just a few months before she was supposed to start shooting Yellowjackets. 

“That was s–tty, and it was a really hard recovery,” she told Fragoso. “So at first it was this dreamy bubble we were in, and then, like, ‘Another baby!’ And then I had to go through—also, it’s not fun going to the doctor in the middle of a pandemic, and especially when you’re going to two surgeries, and there was a lot of horrible stuff that happened after I’d lost the pregnancy. So it ended up being miserable.” She gave a little laugh, as if at the absurd misfortune of it all. “A wonderful time, to a miserable time, and then it’s gone on for so long it’s circled back to a wonderful time again.”

Lynskey has talked more about her loss since, but that was the first time she’d mentioned it in an interview. “I haven’t said anything, only to my friends, but I think it’s a good thing,” she said, assuring Fragoso it wasn’t a taboo topic (and also selflessly asking him if he was OK with it). “I feel like people don’t talk about it enough, and it’s very common.”

Asked how she made it through, she replied, “I don’t know if I have, honestly. I think I’m holding onto it. I’m trying to get through it but I don’t think my body has finished grieving it. You know how your body hangs onto things emotionally, like ‘enough time has passed, I should be done with it,’ but I’m just not.”

Moreover, she added, she was still breastfeeding her daughter when she got pregnant and she was still carrying the weight she’d gained “even though it’s been a year. I’m just trying to be kind about it right now.” 

Which can’t have been easy when she got to work on Yellowjackets and an unnamed someone made a thinly veiled criticism about how she looked. “They were asking me, ‘What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will get you a trainer. They’d love to help you with this,’” Lynskey recounted the moment to Rolling Stone. (Her co-stars rallied to her defense.)

So-called fans of the show also seemed to have trouble believing Shauna’s affair with Adam (Peter Gadiot), of which she recalled thinking, “‘Wow, really? That’s where people’s heads are at, that the most important thing is being thin or young?’”

But trying to ignore that sort of feedback was nothing new for Lynskey, who’s been candid about past issues with self-esteem and body image.

Asked during a 2016 appearance on Talk Easy what her then-39-year-old self would like to tell her 16-year-old self, she said, “I think it would be, ‘You’re fine. Like, stop it. Stop looking for the person who’s going to prove to you that you’re wonderful or try and make your body look a particular way.’ You know, I had this idea like, ‘If I ever weigh this much then I’m going to be happy.’ I had a lot of eating issues, a lot of issues around relationships and trying to find my happiness from external things.”

Of course, finding that person who unconditionally loves you and thinks you’re the finest thing on two legs isn’t the worst. 

“I am sorry to do this and she will be embarrassed that I did this but my GOODNESS what an absolyute beaut my wife is!!!” Ritter tweeted alongside a red carpet photo of Lynskey at the Critics’ Choice Awards. “Ok I’m sorry but I mean LOOK at this human being who is also the best person I know.”

Lynskey retweeted him, adding, “I keep daring him to just tweet ‘I love my curvy wife’ but he won’t do it (I love you, best husband ever).”

Not ones to be splashy about their milestones, they married without public fanfare—reportedly in 2020—after a long engagement. 

Revealing that she had a fiancé in 2017, Lynskey told Hollywood Today Live that Ritter surprised her with a proposal “on the sofa.”

“It was sweet,” she said.

On Ritter’s Feb. 17, 2022, birthday, she paid tribute to her “beautiful husband” on Instagram, captioning a photo of him hoisting their tutu-wearing daughter into the air,” Thank you for making me cry with laughter daily. Thank you for giving our little daughter the safest, most joyful, most loving childhood. You are so fun. You are so kind, to everyone, even mean people. You are just the best person. And you are very very very very handsome and I love you with all my heart @jason_ritter.”

Lynskey said on Talk Easy in 2021 that, since becoming a mom, she no longer needed as much time as she used to require to summon the necessary emotions for a scene. Now, “my emotions are just on the surface,” she shared. “I’m probably just exhausted, but things are very accessible. It’s not like I’m thinking about my daughter and then tears will come. I just feel like a live electrical outlet.”

She admitted that, being such a doting big sister all her life, she “didn’t think there was any other love possible. I know it sounds like a cliché, but my heart expanded.”

Yet all those new depths and the expansion are on the inside, never mind the attention that has come with being on one of the buzziest shows of the year. “My life is so small,” she insisted to Rolling Stone from Atlanta, where she was shooting the Hulu true crime series Candy with Jessica Biel. “I just go to work and I go back to our little rented home.”

A small life, maybe, but full.

Speaking of which, read on and find out which other famous people are obsessed with Bachelor Nation:

They accept this rose!

You’re not alone in your obsession with The Bachelor franchise, don’t worry! Even A-listers like Amy Schumer, Jennifer Lawrence, John Mayer and more can’t resist the drama Chris Harrison and Co. provide.

The Alienist actress opened up to W magazine in July 2018 about her top TV obsession and spoiler alert it is The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. “Yes! I’m obsessed with The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. Some of the best TV I’ve ever seen was the breakup of Arie [Luyendyk Jr.] and Becca [Kufrin] on last season’s Bachelor,“ Fanning told the magazine. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out: With reality television, if it’s all set up and fake, then they’ve got the greatest actors in the world.”

The YouTube star is all about live-tweeting The Bachelorette and this season she was all of us when Becca Kufrin sent Jason home. “IF JASON ISN’T THE NEXT BACHELOR I’M GONNA LOSE MY GOD DAMN MIND. #TheBachelorette,” she tweeted in 2018 and we feel you girl.

Around 2012, the X-Files actor began tuning in to the show with his daughter. “I would watch it for clues as to what kind of guy she would gravitate towards; she didn’t know that I was watching it for that reason, but I would be the silent judgment of her picks,” he told Jimmy Kimmel. His least favorite contestant was Season 12 winner Jordan Rodgers. “My poor young daughter was mesmerized by the flip of his hair,” the actor admitted. “[But] I didn’t trust him.”

The Trainwreck star is a self-professed “huge fan” and even made a guest appearance on the show (infamously calling one of the contestants “a turd“), and was such a big hit with the crew that ABC even wanted her to become the next Bachelorette. 

Some people wear their hearts on their sleeve…The Big Bang Theory star wears her roses on her pants. Yes, Cuoco loves the show so much she had leggings custom-made, and hosts weekly viewing parties. Along the way, she’s become BFFs with former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky, too. 

The actress revealed her obsession when she forced husband Ashton Kutcher stand next to the TV when lookalike contestant Jared Haibon was on-screen. “I’m trying to figure out why mila is making me take this picture,” Kutcher tweeted.

Everyone’s favorite Friend admitted her love for the reality show, saying in an interview with Access Hollywood, “It’s a train wreck!” And she and her hubby even watch together, telling THR, “Justin and I, just for fun, watched—and two hours later, we were addicted. It was like junk food.” 

You know someone is a committed fan when their friends buy them clothing related to the show. “My girlfriends got me a T-shirt that says ‘Most. Exciting. Rose Ceremony. Ever,’” the Fargo star once revealed to Entertainment Weekly. So why does she love it so much? “The girls go so crazy over this dude they don’t know, and they’re so in love with him and dying for these roses,” Dunst said during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. “Like, you haven’t even met the guy for five minutes and you’re already ready to rip this girl’s hair out!”

The Girls star is a big fan of the show. Like, huge. In fact, she even has a Bachelor snuggie and attended weekly viewing parties with her husband Ricky Van Veen when they first got together.

“I would not be married to my husband if it weren’t for this show,” she said on Bachelor Live (which she called a “#careerhighlight” on Instagram). “We went to a weekly viewing party every week, and it was like a big group date, but with both genders equally distributed…it was how we met up.”

The Last Man on Earth star is such a fan that Chris Soules surprised him during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel. “I cannot explain my love for it,” Forte gushed, just before Prince Farming appeared. “I love it so much.”

According to president of Bachelor Nation Chris Harrison, the Oscar winner is a big fan of the franchise. “Jennifer Lawrence was awesome… I was really looking forward to meeting her,” he told TV Guide. “And then she walks up and she tells me how much she loves [the show]. I’m like, ‘You like The Bachelor?’ and she was like, ‘Duh, I’m a girl.’”

“I’m so obsessed it’s ridiculously unhealthy,” the Scream Queens star told Jimmy Kimmel of her addiction to The Bach. 

The Deadpool star promoted his superhero flick by live-tweeting the premiere episode of Ben Higgins’ season, and had also revealed himself to be a fan of Lifetime’s unREAL, a show created by former Bachelor producer Sarah Gertrude Shapiro.

A longtime fan of the show, the Kardashian matriarch appeared on Bachelor Live, where she show down rumors that she hooked up with former Bachelor Ben Flajnik. She also dished on which of her children would be most likely to go on the show. 

The Pitch Perfect star started a Twitter love-fest with future Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe during her weekly hilarious live-tweets of Chris Soules‘ season. One choice tweet? “Kaitlyn can do better. Like if my boyfriend left me for her, I’d get it.”

The actress has been known to live-tweet The Bachelor, and used to watch with former BF Justin Long. “We watch The Bachelor and The Bachelorette,” she told Ellen DeGeneres. She then described the  show as “a train wreck.”  But you can’t look away, can you?!

Maybe they split up over the outcome of one of the seasons?! Prior to their split, Penn revealed he and then-GF Theron watched the reality show together.

“We argue about whether or not we should fast [forward],” he told Jimmy Kimmel back in March. “I don’t really want to hear the conversations, I want to know the decisions. You can decide on this one or this one. And I want to see somebody cry. And then see somebody get ecstatic and then see them cry.”

While she’s dating Shadowhunters star Dominic Sherwood, the Modern Family star used the blushing emoji after meeting Ben Higgins, writing on Twitter, “You guys. I met #TheBachelor Ben. Pretty big deal.” (Her MoFam co-star Eric Stonestreet is also a fan.)

During an appearance on After Paradise, the Scandal stars admitted most of the ABC hit drama’s cast was “obsessed” with the show, including Scott Foley!

The sensitive singer isn’t ashamed of his viewing habits, telling Ellen DeGeneres on her show, “I don’t even feel like it’s my fault for liking it. It’s not a guilty pleasure. It’s designed to be a pleasure.”

The Scream Queens star loves the show so much that she actually appeared via Skype on the inaugural episode of Bachelor Live, asking Bachelor Ben Higgins why he kept calling the contestants “young ladies.”

The OITNB star and his wife Jenny Mollen became so infamous for their (sometimes controversial) live-tweets that she ended up co-hosting the Bachelor in Paradise after-show with Chris Harrison. 

The Ghost Whisperer star was such a fan that she even went on a date with former Bachelor Ben Flajnik after he first appeared on The Bachelorette! While she denied the romance rumors back in 2011, Flajnik admitted, “It was right in the middle of the time when I was deciding to be the Bachelor. When this is all said and done, ending up with a Hollywood celebrity is not something that I want.”

Even superheroes get sucked in! “It’s the greatest show on TV,” the former Spider-Man told Total Film. 

“I refuse to say it’s a guilty pleasure because I feel no guilt whatsoever,” the Parks and Recreation star told Meredith Vieira, adding that he prefers The Bachelorette over the original show. 

Bachelor & Bachelorette Status Check: Find Out Who’s Still Together!

(Originally published March 25, 2022, at 3 a.m. PT) 

Source: www.eonline.com