Who Has Phoebe Bridgers Dated?

Phoebe Bridgers shot to a new level of fame with the release of her second solo album, Punisher, in 2020, which turned out to be the perfect pandemic listen. Bridgers has since gone on to perform on SNL and has racked up four Grammy nominations: Best New Artist, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Alternative Music Album. As Bridgers gains more public interest, fans are curious about her romantic life. Bridgers, who identifies as bisexual, tends to be private about her romantic life but has been in a few high-profile relationships.

Most recently, Bridgers has been linked to Normal People star Paul Mescal. The alleged couple has played coy about the nature of their relationship, but they connected over social media and have been seen together in Mescal’s native Ireland. Bridgers called Mescal “the cute boy” who gave her “pitter-patter in my heart” in an interview with NME, and while Mescal didn’t mention Bridgers by name, he spoke about his girlfriend in November in a GQ interview. “To have someone to lean on through such a mad, mad time has been invaluable,” calling his unnamed partner a “life-saver”. “Really, I don’t know where I’d be without her.” Mescal also starred in the Phoebe Waller-Bridge-directed music video for Bridgers’ song “Savior Complex.”

There were also rumors that Bridgers was romantically involved with indie rocker Conner Oberst, with whom she collaborated on the side project Better Oblivion Community Center. Neither of them has confirmed whether their relationship was romantic, but Oberst waxed poetic about Bridgers’ success in an interview with Pitchfork in August 2020. “She totally knocked it out of the park [with Punisher]. I don’t think there’s any limit to her talent,” Oberst gushed. “She’s just so f—ing real and such a hard worker. People can’t really f— with her. She’s gonna do her thing and it’s gonna be awesome to witness. I just love her so much. There are very few people you meet in life that change you: I remember my life before I met her and after.”

Bridgers was linked to close friend Emily Bannon in 2018 and 2019. They attended the the 2019 GQ Men Of The Year Celebration together, but never confirmed whether their relationship was romantic. Bridgers also dated her drummer, Marshall Vore In 2015 and 2016. Her song “ICU,” on which they collaborated, details their relationship and subsequent breakup. “When we first broke up, it was so hard and heartbreaking,” Phoebe explained in an Apple Music interview. “It’s just so weird that you could date and then you’re a stranger from the person for a while. Now we’re super tight. We’re like best friends, and always will be. There are just certain people that you date where it’s so romantic almost that the friendship element is kind of secondary. And ours was never like that.”

The most headline-grabbing relationship, however, was with musician Ryan Adams. Adams reached out to Bridgers in 2014 when she was only 20 (Adams was 40), promising to help her launch her career. The relationship eventually turned romantic before it became emotionally abusive. Bridgers was one of the many women who alleged in the New York Times in 2019 that Adams was abusive, and she claimed that he was controlling and promised to ruin her career when they broke up. Her song “Motion Sickness” detailed the affair and the after-effects.

That being said, Bridgers has expressed her frustration with men like Oberst and Adams being credited with her rise to prominence. “I f—ing hate it,” she told Them. “I got a question recently, actually. It was like, ‘Conor Oberst and John Mayer really like you. Why do you think men of a certain age gravitate toward you?’ And I was like, ‘One, they’re nothing alike.’ And also, men of a certain age? They’re all f—ing 40.”