Jeff Baena, the longtime love of Ingrid Goes West actress Aubrey Plaza, tragically died on Saturday, January 3, 2025. TMZ was the primary to report the information a day later, on January 4. The filmmaker, whose credit embody Plaza car Life After Beth and I Coronary heart Huckabee, was simply 47 years previous. The outlet experiences he was discovered by an assistant round 10:30 AM on Friday. An announcement offered to Deadline on Saturday mentioned that “the household is devastated and asks for privateness at this troublesome time.”
Baena and Plaza had certainly one of Hollywood’s longest, and most non-public, long-term romances that finally culminated in a super-secret marriage ceremony. Amid the unhappy information, right here’s what to know in regards to the relationship between The White Lotus actress and her husband.
When Did Aubrey Plaza & Jeff Baena Meet?
In response to PEOPLE, Jeff and Aubrey met means again in 2011, and little is thought about their early relationship. A GQ profile of Plaza in 2022 reveals the candy particulars — they met over a sport of Balderdash. In 2021, they appeared for the final time collectively on social media, however the Instagram caption revealed how proud she was of her completed husband. “So pleased with my darling husband @jeffbaena for dreaming up one other movie that take us to Italia to trigger some extra bother,” she wrote on the time.
How Lengthy Had been Aubrey Plaza & Jeff Baena Married?
In response to GQ, the 2 tied the knot in a “quickie ceremony” in 2020, so the duo had been married nearly 5 years and had been collectively for 13 years. Her rep confirmed to PEOPLE after her Could 2021 social media publish referring to him as her “husband,” that she and Baena had married. “It’s so nice, it’s so sophisticated,” she informed host Drew Barrymore throughout a 2021 episode of her eponymous speak present. “It’s, like, excessive highs and excessive, you recognize, problems. It’s a very exhausting factor to navigate, however we’ve been collectively for 11 years. We simply muscle our means by way of it.”
She additionally spoke of their time collectively throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, remembering it with heat. “We had been quarantined for months and months like everyone else,” she recalled to PEOPLE, additionally in 2021. “And we did get pleasure from it. I feel it was, clearly aside from all the catastrophic issues taking place on this planet, simply on a private stage, relationship stage, was form of good to simply be compelled to be in a single place for that lengthy.”
In her dialogue with GQ, she mirrored on the “peaks and valleys” of a longtime romance. “I’ve been with my husband for 12 years,” she informed the outlet. “I relate to being in a relationship that has peaks and valleys, and going by way of a tough patch and evaluating your self to a different couple that appears good.”
What Did Jeff Baena Do For a Residing?
Baena was an completed filmmaker, screenwriter, and director. Educated at New York College Tisch College of the Arts, he later relocated to Los Angeles to launch his profession. He labored alongside Robert Zemeckis and David O. Russell, finally collaborating with Russell on I Coronary heart Huckabees and Meet the Fockers in 2004. His filmmaking debut got here a decade later with Life After Beth, which starred Plaza. The Little Hours and Horse Lady adopted, and Spin Me Spherical can be his ultimate movie in 2022.
What Occurred to Jeff Baena?
In response to TMZ, Jeff Baena was discovered after police and hearth responded to a name from an assistant round 10:30 AM. The assistant had reportedly discovered him lifeless earlier than police and hearth arrived to conduct a dying investigation. Regulation enforcement informed the outlet he died by suicide.
If you happen to or somebody you recognize is in emotional misery or contemplating suicide, name the Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).