Steve Martin caused a frenzy on Instagram recently when he shared a photo that may have seemingly confirmed Martin Short and Meryl Streep are dating. On October 19, the funny man showed himself alongside his Only Murders in the Building co-stars, Short and Streep, via a screenshot of a Glamour Magazine article. In the photo, Martin included a giant red circle with a line through it over his own face. He didn’t include a caption, leaving much up to speculation.
“Are u confirming this relationship?!,” one commenter said. Another wrote: “Did he just hard launch the relationship.” Another man chimed in: “I’m taking this as confirmation. I’ve never been so invested in celebrity couple rumors.” While another added: “Is this the couple reveal we’ve been waiting for?” another added.
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Martin’s post is more than likely a joke. But fans have been questioning the nature of Short and Streep’s relationship since they were seen sitting together at the 2024 Golden Globes.
It was reported in 2023 that Streep and her longtime husband, Don Gummer, separated after 45 years of marriage. They’d quietly split six years before that.
“Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than 6 years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart,” a representative for Streep said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time.
Prior to the pair confirming their separation, they had not been publicly together since the 2018 Oscars. Despite such, Streep continued wearing her wedding band.
Gummer, a sculptor from Louisville, Kentucky, met the Oscar-winning actress through her brother in 1978. They married just six months later at her parents’ home. Despite her fame, her relationship was kept out of the spotlight.
During a 2002 Vogue interview, Streep spoke about their long-lasting marriage, saying the secret to their success was “goodwill and willingness to bend — and to shut up every once in a while. There’s no road map on how to raise a family: It’s always an enormous negotiation,” she continued. “But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can’t imagine eschewing one for the other.”