Keri Russell split from her husband (and father of her two children) last December. There seemed to be something shady happening, but no one would put their finger on it right away. Then, just a few weeks after the divorce announcement, Page Six claimed that Keri’s costar in The Americans, Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, was “the reason” why Keri’s marriage didn’t work out. It was all gossip, rumor and speculation, but Keri and Matthew played it sort of safe, not outright denying it but playing little word games to tamp down the rumors. Except that People Magazine is now saying they’re definitely together. Matthew Rhys is totally a homewrecker.
They’ve dodged relationship rumors for months. But now – unlike their spy characters on The Americans – the secret (love) life of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys has been revealed.
PEOPLE has learned that Russell, 38, and Rhys, 39, are a couple.
The two stepped out for date night on Thursday, stopping into New York’s The Public Theater, where they watched the Steven Soderbergh-directed play The Library. They sat together and theatergoers spotted Russell stroking Rhys’s hair and the two whispering before they left together.
When asked about his rumored relationship with Russell, Rhys told PEOPLE last month, “That’s the best [rumor] I love.” He stopped short of confirming the relationship, but said his mother even asks about the rumors. “I tell her, ‘You have to take off your Google alerts,’ ” he said.
The couple’s recent theater date wasn’t the first time they were seen getting close. Earlier this year the two took a stroll through Brooklyn Heights. “They were walking super close together and laughing, even stopped to look at some furniture on the street,” an onlooker said of the pair at the time. “They looked very much like a couple.”
The new romance comes after Russell’s announcement last December that she and Shane Deary, her husband of nearly 7 years, were separating. The former couple have a son River, 6, and a daughter Willa, 2. The actress’s rep told PEOPLE at the time, “The separation is amicable and their focus is on their children.”
Well, it might be love. Or is it just boning? My take is that it’s probably love – Keri is now a single mother who basically left her husband after a torrid affair with a costar. Will Matthew step up to the plate? Perhaps. Rhys is sort of “famously single” and I suspect, much like Michael Sheen, he wants to stay famously unmarried. But hey, maybe Keri doesn’t want to marry him either. Maybe they’ll just figure it out and everything will be okay. But I just thought you’d like to know – sometimes married actresses have torrid affairs, just like the dudes.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Keri looks different and not in a good way. Is anyone else seeing Maria Shriver in these pictures?
She does look quite different – her face is much thinner? Good call on MS, btw.
@Nick:
Hahahaha!!! And yeah, a little bit in the last pic! 😉
YES! total Maria Shriver face (aside but related: Those Kennedy Genes are NOT good on women, huh?!)
I noticed in the last season of “Felicity” that she began to look much harder. She looks quite bitchy and drawn and unapproachable now.
What the hell is going on with his hair in the first picture? It looks a bit like an on ramp. I don’t get his appeal but I do like their show, it’s very entertaining.
The difference is this will not kill his career like Sienna Miller.
Does he have a big career? I’ve never seen him on the cover of anything. And Keri is good, but she’s no Jude Law in terms of celebrity. If Sienna had an affair with a lower profile married man, and kept a lower profile herself, she might have been given a pass. A little more talent and a lot more luck choosing roles wouldn’t have hurt, either.
Jude was already established and viewed as a good actor by the time his affairs with Sienna and his children’s nanny went down, but his career faltered somewhat as well.
He doesn’t.
IMDB lists 38 acting jobs. Some movies were big, but he wasn’t playing big roles in them.
What gets me about this relationship is as soon as the show is done they will take other jobs. 1 of them will have great chemistry with a costar and the cycle will continue. It’s more common than not your relationship will last after your on screen love ends.
This is a worse career move than when she cut her hair for Felicity.
He did a big ticket BBC drama over Christmas. Played Darcy in a continuation of Pride & Prejudice by crime writer PD James. I was quite surprised to see him in it because he’s not on anybody’s radar really. And it was a strong cast: Anna Maxwell Martin, Matthew Goode, Trevor Eve, Penelope Keith.
Not sure, but I took Tiffany’s comment as referring to Sienna Miller’s affair with Balthazar Getty, who was Rhys’ costar in Brothers & Sisters. Getty went back to his wife but he’s barely done any work since the affair.
Balthazar Getty ruined his career with that affair. He was hot stuff in Brothers and Sisters too..
I always knew Kerri’s marriage wouldn’t work.
#1 – Her husband was a carpenter, and not one for the stars, so I always saw money and power eventually becoming an issue.
#2 – She never seemed to have anything in common with him. I always looked at them and wondered how they hooked up.
#3 – She is BFF with Jennifer Garner and another actress I can’t name. I can see him feeling not so macho next to Ben Affleck.
Those things seem petty but when you are in a relationship, after a while they are magnified. This Rhys guy is on her level.
Yes Starr. That is what I was referring to.
Sixer, I saw that adaptation! I kind of thought it was woefully miscast, in all roles. Thoughts?
I loved it. I love Anna Maxwell Martin, and Matthew was surprisingly good as Darcy. Wickham nad Lydia were also very good.
I saw pretty much every Jane Austen adaptation and most movies influenced by her and I think this was really good.
Kerri was in Austenlad which was quite charming, too.
They generate serious heat together on The Americans. Not surprised at all.
This. Their chemistry is absolutely what carries this show.
Yeah, I wasn’t surprised at the news, either. They have enough chemistry on the show that it was easy to believe it wasn’t all acting.
I agree, they’re pretty great together on the show. It’s just sad for her husband and family, hopefully they can keep it all amicable.
“Matthew Rhys is totally a homewrecker.” LOL!!!
But any sentence with “homewrecker” in it is incomplete without the words “Sienna Miller”. So to fix it, “Matthew Rhys AND Sienna Miller are totally homewreckers”.
LOL They played a married couple cheating on each other in The Edge of love.
I was trying to remember the name of that movie, Aria! I saw it a few years ago. Thank you! 😉
Loved that movie. I didn’t know it was him. He looks different now and in a good way.
Best!
We don’t know exactly what happened. Maybe her marriage was over before she began dating her costar. Maybe not.
They look hot together and they have great onscreen chemistry.
Agreed. I had a relative who was more or less crucified for what people thought was an affair and then I learnt years later that he and the “wife” had been officially separated and yet somehow living together for months before he met woman number 2. I gather its not an unusual arrangement where there are kids involved. I prefer not to judge situations I know zero about now.
And we also don’t know what’s going on with the husband….he’s not famous, so how do we know that he didn’t cheat first, or how long they were separated?
LOL ladies: Let’s imagine out of thin air some excuses/justifications for a married woman to commit adultery. Take a look at threads of married men cheating on CB & gals crucify the guys (deserving). News flash! Male or female, there is no justification for adultery (even for a single party)! They are both trash. Shoot I thought Keri was a decent person – Oh well, just more Hollywood prostitutes getting paid to have on screen affairs at the expense of their families (“It’s just an act, not really having sex, despite our mouth and hands on my co-actors junk”). Get divorced finalized before dating.
Well, she looks much less tense and cranky than before.
They are both fabulous in the show!
Hope it works out for them. If it doesn’t, they might look more tense and cranky than ever while still having to work with each other.
This is true!
People forget that she is a former Disney child star, too. I’m just saying you may think these people can grow up and live normal lives, but there’ s gonna be cracks in the foundation. I hate to judge her, b/c I’ve always been a fan, but I think cheating is wrong. Especially when there are very young children involved.
+1 And more evidence that growing up in that environment might be detrimental to even the most seemingly normal and grounded people. If her marriage was over, she should’ve ended it, or at least waited until the ink was dry before going public with the other man, out of respect for her family.
+2 Good to share your values Pix & mercy!
He’s not exactly the first co-star she’s dated. She was with Scott Speedman for a long time, and then before that she was with the guy she costarred with on Malibu Shores (I can’t believe I know that) for a long time. And it could be that her marriage wasn’t working out anyhow – television actors make good money but work long hours, and that’s gotta be hard on a marriage.
Love Scott Speedman. This guy isn’t doing it for me in his photos.
Scott Speedman can always have it! OMG
That’s sad. So much commitment and investment with her husband and kids and she leaves him —mistake. This “affair” will be short lived. Bad choice. So many hearts to be broken on this one down the road.
Yeah tell that to Tom Hanks, who left his wife and son for Rita Wilson ,25 years ago.Tom and Rita = homewreckers?
They’re the exceptions, not the rule.
Lol tell this to LeAnn and Eddie.
“Rhys is sort of “famously single” and I suspect, much like Michael Sheen, he wants to stay famously unmarried.”
That’s fine, but he should stick to unmarried women, and probably those without children if he’s not into long term commitment.
The biggest shame here is for Kerri’s husband. There aren’t many pics of him, but in the few I’ve seen, the man is FINE. It pains me to see such hotness done wrong (potentially).
They DO have great chemistry on The Americans! Som I am sort of not surprised by this. Love that show so more gossip about them please 🙂
I love the show too. I finally watched an interview with him and heard his real voice. I wish they’d utilize that in the show somehow, that would be cute.
This chick always goes for her costars this isn’t a surprise I don’t watch the show though but I watched her last two TV shows(Malibu Shores and Felicity)
That’s weird because he definitely denied it a lot and said they were just friends in some interview promoting the new season.
Lol, I love when they call men homewreckers. It is only fair.
i’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – he is a step down in my opinion. the only “love” they have for each other right now is “Twilight” love. Meaning, after their tv show is over, so is their “love.” sorry, too many quotations?
I liked him in “Scapegoat”. Well…another day, another broken marriage in Hollywood. How all parties make the best of it.
This reminds me of when Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux got together. For a good two months, they were both denying like crazy that they were together to PEOPLE, until they apparently were.
Have never watched the show, so will go on posters’ observations re their chemistry. She should have stopped at Scott Speedman- he is so gorgeous!
That being said- nothing good can be said about busting up your home. If the marriage was so awful, shouldn’t have needed an affair to end it.
I’m very disappointed that Matthew is moving or being moved even further into the closet. The real story is that he’s gay, not a homewrecker. He and Luke Evans have the same manager, and this is what it’s come to for both of them. Sad 🙁
i believe ms russell is the home wrecker here, no? i know celebitchy likes to cut the ladies a lot of slack, but you would hang a dude by his nuts for doing what she’s done.
THIS. She’s the married one, with kids and a gorgeous husband. Its her responsibility not to fall for other people. It is always the married party’s responsibility to keep their relationship intact, not a third party’s
Agree completely & what Mugsy responded EXCEPT for the 3rd party’s responsibility. Married or single, BOTH are adulterers, both played their part & are responsible for breaking up a marriage.
Love the show and loved her in Felicity. Marriages don’t last these days..Who are we to judge really??
if he doesnt want commitment, fine, its his life. but he needs to stay away from married people.
obviously its way more on her, good luck explaining to your kids why you screwed up their childhood and left a big stain on all of their relationships in their lives for some dude.