Aubrey Plaza Offered Rare Insight Into Dating a ‘Director’ Months Before Husband Jeff Baena’s Death

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

“I would stay away [from dating actors],” Plaza, 40 quipped during a September 2024 appearance on SiriusXM’s Howard Stern Show. “I’m married to a writer/director. I’ve never, like, really dated an actor [or] been with an actor for a long time.”

She added, “I think about that and I 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 there are so many actor couples and you’re, like, ‘Wow, look at them. They must really laugh it up.’”

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

Per the medical examiner’s website, Baena’s case status is listed as “open” with an exam already scheduled. A cause of death has not been revealed nor has Plaza publicly addressed his passing. Us Weekly reached out for comment.

The Agatha All Along actress and Baena first crossed paths in 2011, later tying the knot to mark their 10th dating anniversary.

“A lot of things happened during COVID for me. Yes, we got married. Big deal,” Plaza recalled during a December 2021 appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. “We got a little bored one night. We got married and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s real, look it up.”

She added at the time, “We were in the lockdown. Things got a little crazy, especially in my house. My husband got really into tie-dying and when I say tie-dying, I mean 50 shirts a day.”

Plaza and Baena wed at home.

“I created a very quick love altar in our yard. Facts of our love, little stones, smoke, fire. Things of that nature,” she recalled to host Ellen DeGeneres. “Then the man from Alhambra showed up in a Hawaiian shirt with a briefcase [to perform the ceremony]. … I can’t remember a lot of it, it was fuzzy. But I’m pretty sure it’s legal.”

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

“This character is me,” Plaza quipped to GQ in November 2022. “It’s probably the first project that I’ve ever done that I’m like, whoa, this is really close to home. … I don’t have kids. I’ve been with my husband for 12 years. I relate to being in a relationship that has peaks and valleys, and going through a rough patch and comparing yourself to another couple that seems perfect.”

In addition to their respective solo careers, Plaza and Baena also worked together on the movies Life After Beth, The Little Hours and Spin Me Round.

“She’s awesome. I’d be working with her if she wasn’t my wife, but luckily she is my wife,” Baena told Reel Talker in August 2022. “The opportunity to do something creative [together] where we’re both fulfilled — how rare is that?”