Ali Wong is speaking up about how she’s been dealing with the spotlight on her relationship with fellow comedian Bill Hader amid the success of her hit Netflix show Beef.
In an interview with Variety, Wong said the popular show has led to a heightened interest in her personal life, including her relationship with the “Barry” star.
“It’s so weird. I can’t even explain it,” she told Variety of her growing fame. “I have never, ever been snapped by paparazzi until this year.”
“I was talking to someone recently and they said, ‘I think it’s so alarming when it happens because you feel like you’ve been caught when really, you’re not doing anything wrong,’” the 41-year-old recounted.
She added: “It was someone giving me, in hindsight, advice about their former relationship with a famous person. They had spent so much energy hiding, and that defined the whole relationship. That’s still staying with me, and it’s quite an adjustment.”
Wong also ruminated over the fact that her soaring stardom affects her mum who, just like her fans, keeps up with entertainment news.
“I haven’t even discussed it with her, but that must be so surreal for her,” the actor said. “I’m trying to get used to it.”
Wong first announced her divorce from tech entrepreneur Justin Hakuta in April 2022. The pair have two daughters: Mari, seven, and Nikki, five.
Hader wed director Maggie Carey in 2006, and they welcomed three daughters together — Hayley, Hannah and Harper — before they called it quits in 2017 after more than a decade of marriage.
In April, Wong and the Saturday Night Live comedian reportedly reconnected after briefly dating in the fall. That same month, they were captured getting cozy and sharing a kiss on a walk together.
Wong shared that starring in Beef has opened up more opportunities in her career. She also noted that no longer being single has changed her stand-up routine.
“It feels good. It’s nice because a lot personally has happened in the past year. I’m not single now, but I was single for a long time after I got divorced. It was so compelling to talk about my life as a single woman,” Wong told Variety.
She added: “When practicing, I was in the habit of talking as if I was still single. What’s strange is now [my romantic life] is public information. For me, stand-up is still an abstraction of truth — it does not represent the whole me. Out of respect for my relationship, I have to practice putting them in the past tense.”