Aubrey Plaza Offered Months Of Understanding About Marriage Before Jeff Baena’s Death

Aubrey Plaza briefly her marriage with her husband Jeff Baena three months before his sudden and unexpected death.

“I wouldn’t go [from dating actors],” Plaza, 40 teased during a September 2024 appearance on SiriusXM The Howard Stern Show. “I am married to a writer/director. I’ve never, like, dated an actor [or] you’ve had an actor for a long time.”

He added, “I think about that and think, like, ‘Oh God, I don’t want to be with myself’ or, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ But then, sometimes, I see a couple of characters and you’re like, ‘Wow, look at them. They must really be laughing.’”

Plaza married Baena in 2020 after ten years of dating. He died on Friday, January 3, at the age of 47, according to medical examiner’s records viewed by Us Weekly.

Related: Aubrey Plaza’s husband Jeff Baena has died at the age of 47

UPDATE – January 4, 2024 at 7:01 pm EST: The medical examiner’s records have been updated to reveal that Baena died by suicide at her home in Los Angeles, California, on Friday, January 3. Original story: Aubrey Plaza’s husband, director Jeff Baena, has died at the age of 47, according to medical examiner’s records reviewed by Us Weekly. […]

According to the medical examiner’s website, the status of Baena’s case is listed as “open” with an examination scheduled. The cause of his death has not been disclosed and Plaza has not spoken publicly about his passing. Us Weekly reached the comment.

I Agatha Everything Goes the actress and Baena first crossed paths in 2011, later tying the knot to mark 10 years of dating.

“A lot of things happened during the COVID period for me. Yes, we got married. It’s a big story,” Plaza recalled during a December 2021 appearance on the show The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “We were bored one night. We got married and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s true, look at it.”

Related: Aubrey Plaza and Late Husband Jeff Baena Relationship Timeline

Aubrey Plaza and Jeff Baena were together for more than a decade before her death in 2025. The two started dating in 2011 but they did not confirm when they met or when their love story started. Plaza and the Horse Girl director have worked together on films including Life After Beth and Joshy in 2016 and […]

He added at the time, “We were locked up. Things got a little crazy, especially in my house. My husband really got into it and when I say tying, I mean 50 shirts a day.”

Plaza and Baena got married at home.

“I built an altar of instant love in our yard. The facts of our love, small stones, smoke, fire. Things like that,” Ellen DeGeneres recalled. “Then a man from Alhambra appeared wearing a Hawaiian shirt and carrying a bag [to perform the ceremony]. … I don’t remember much of it, it was vague. But I’m sure it’s legal.”

Plaza was then able to use their newly married life as inspiration for her character The White Lotus season 2. (Plaza played Harper, who was married.)

“This character is me,” laughed Plaza GQ in November 2022. “It’s probably the first project I’ve ever done where I’m like, wow, this is so close to home. … I have no children. I have been with my husband for 12 years. I relate to being in a relationship that has its ups and downs, and going through a rough patch and comparing yourself to another seemingly perfect couple.”

In addition to their solo careers, Plaza and Baena have also worked together in movies Life After Beth, Small Hours again Spin Me Round.

“He’s beautiful. I would have worked with her if she wasn’t my wife, but luckily she is,” Baena told Reel Talker in August 2022. “It’s an opportunity to do something smart. [together] where we are both fulfilled – how rare is that?”