# Wife cast in relationship with co-star not husband **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304 "2009-05-13T16:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/21 "2009-05-13T19:14:57Z")
> [@pedescribe](#): > > that would certainly be…interesting given that the two of you are different genders. i know! ---
**Author:** ![Cowboy8467](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Cowboy8467](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowboy8467)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/22 "2009-05-13T19:18:02Z")
In _Always Sunny in Philadelphia_ Charlie has an unrequited crush on the waitress who won’t give him the time of day. They’re married in real life. Also, Sweet Dee and Mac are married in real life, but they’ve never hooked up in the show to my knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/23 "2009-05-13T19:30:36Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > Didn’t Brad Pitt guest-star on _Friends_ as a former fatty that Rachel hated in high school? They were married at the time. He hated her. He formed a club. That episode is still hilarious now they’re broken up. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/24 "2009-05-13T20:01:27Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > This is not exactly the same as the situation posed in the OP, but in _Blades of Glory_, spouses Will Arnett and Amy Poehler portrayed siblings. They did, however, play a married couple on a few episodes of Arrested Development, even if the marriage was short-lived and somewhat accidental. Or was that one episode only? Everything blends in my mind. The point is, I would like to go to one of their dinner parties. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/25 "2009-05-13T20:03:55Z")
There’s Emma Thompson and Kenneth Brannagh in _Peter’s Friends_; married at the time, they did not play opposite one another. (Emma played a single woman, IIRC, and was paired up – or tried to be – with Stephen Fry’s character Peter. Ken’s character was married to a woman played by Rita Rudner.) Though they weren’t married, Emma Thompson later hooked up with Greg Wise, her co-star from _Sense and Sensibility_, although they did not play a romantic couple there either. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/26 "2009-05-13T22:28:09Z")
Alison Stern had a brief, blurry cameo as a switchboard operator in **Howard Stern’s Private Parts**. She was portrayed by Mary McCormack. Donna Dixon, Mrs. Dan Aykroyd, played Chevy Chase’s hoochie mama in **Spies Like Us**. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/27 "2009-05-14T00:02:33Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > If I discover that you also love _The West Wing_, I be forced to conclude that we’re in a Tyler Durden situation. Yep, we are. 😃 Now, to expose my ignorance…I’ve never seen _Fight Club_. Explain, please. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/28 "2009-05-14T01:48:45Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > The mother of Ben(Michael Emerson) on _Lost_ (Carrie Preston) is married to…Michael Emerson! Of course, she’s only his mother in flashbacks, but it still counts, right? Similarly, on Due South, Martha Burns played the mother of her husband Paul Gross’s character. (Earlier in the show, she played an evil Russian spy.) ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/29 "2009-05-14T02:57:19Z")
TV again - \*\*Fawlty Towers \*\*- IRL John Cleese (Basil) was married to Connie Booth (Polly) at the time, but his on-screen wife was Prunella Scales (Sybil). ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/30 "2009-05-14T03:20:00Z")
Another TV example, Corner Gas’s star Brent Butt cast his wife Nancy Robertson, as his employee at the gas station his character owned. I wonder how that one played out at home … ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/31 "2009-05-14T13:38:53Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > They did, however, play a married couple on a few episodes of Arrested Development, even if the marriage was short-lived and somewhat accidental. Or was that one episode only? Everything blends in my mind. The point is, I would like to go to one of their dinner parties. I think it was at least two, possibly three episodes - and yeah, I’d give up an arm to go to a Bluth dinner party! ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/32 "2009-05-14T15:13:24Z")
Not quite the same as the OP, since they weren’t married when the show first started, but… **Dexter** ’s Michael C. Hall [married](http://www.usmagazine.com/news/dexters-michael-c-hall-marries-costar) co-star Jennifer Carpenter last year, shortly after the third season wrapped. Considering they play brother and sister on the show, I doubt they’ll ever end up playing lovers (though I can’t totally rule it out, given how weird and creepy the plotlines can get). ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/33 "2009-05-14T15:49:20Z")
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Traffic. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/34 "2009-05-14T16:16:49Z")
> [@singular1](#): > > I think it was at least two, possibly three episodes - and yeah, I’d give up an arm to go to a Bluth dinner party! Ha! I actually meant a Poehler/Arnett dinner party, but yes, the Bluths seem to be a lively bunch as well. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/35 "2009-05-14T17:34:50Z")
In the wrestling world, Kevin Sullivan booked his wife to play alongside Chris Benoit. Nancy Sullivan and Benoit ended up getting married, and that ended badly. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/36 "2009-05-14T17:46:31Z")
From **Heroes** : Ashley Crow (Sandra Bennett, Noah/HRG’s wife and Claire’s mother) is in real life married to Matthew John Armstrong (the late Ted Sprague, he of the radioactive hands). ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304/37 "2009-05-14T17:54:19Z")
Not exactly what the OP was looking for, but in Knocked Up the writer/director Judd Apatow’s wife, Leslie Mann, played Katherine Heigl’s sister who was married to a character played by Paul Rudd (and the their children were played by Apatow and Mann’s real life children). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wife-cast-in-relationship-with-co-star-not-husband/496304.md?page=1)