Natasha Lyonne and Fred Armisen have officially called it quits. The Russian Doll star confirmed the breakup to The Hollywood Reporter in a profile published on Friday, April 15, telling the outlet that she and the Saturday Night Live alum recently split after nearly eight years together.
The Orange Is the New Black alum revealed the breakup while speaking to THR about the long-awaited second season of her hit Netflix series. Asked if she was based in Los Angeles at the moment, the 43-year-old actress told the outlet, “I’m not. I had been there living with Fred [Armisen] and during COVID” before she went on to reveal that she and Armisen broke up over a disagreement about swimming pools.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“I honestly think we broke up because I wanted a swimming pool,” she continued. “We love each other just about as much as two people can love each other and we’re still talking all the time, but Freddy doesn’t like a swimming pool. It might seem like a mundane reason for a breakup, but during that pandemic, you’ve got to get your laps – I’m like Burt Lancaster in The Swimmer. So, I got myself a house with a pool out in Los Angeles. So that’s the real scandal. I guess I finally am an actual bicoastal.”
Lyonne and Armisen were first linked in 2014 after they were spotted attending several pre-Emmy Awards events together. A source told Us Weekly at the time that the pair acted “very flirty” and talked “very closely” throughout the night. The following year, the pair walked the red carpet together. Lyonne later revealed that she and Armisen first met through Armisen’s former Saturday Night Live colleague Maya Rudolph.
“I was going through a rocky road, as we know,” she told Glamour of the pair’s first meeting, adding that she was in her “Grey Gardens phase.” Lyonne shared that Rudolph and Armisen stopped by her apartment to find her chain-smoking wearing only a silk robe and sunglasses. “I pulled out a copy of [Legs McNeil’s] Please Kill Me, autographed it, and was like, ‘Welcome, kid. Fred-what a name. Happy birthday. Enjoy the book.’ He still has it.”
In recent years, the two sparked rumors of a split. After they were last spotted together at the 2020 Golden Globes, photos obtained by the Daily Mail in September 2021 showed Lyonne walking hand-in-hand with a mystery man at the Malibu Chili Cook-Off. Lyonne previously dated actors Edward Furlong and Adam Goldberg. Armisen, meanwhile, was previously married to singer Sally Timms from 1998 to 2004 and actress Elisabeth Moss from 2009 to 2011.
