The couple has been together for a decade.
Melanie Lynskey and Jason Ritter are #CoupleGoals in Hollywood. The pair, who met in 2013 and have been together ever since, have made no secret of their love for each other over the years.
Lynskey and Ritter, who have co-starred in multiple projects together, got engaged in 2017, welcomed their daughter the next year and tied the knot two years after that.
All the while, Lynskey and Ritter have been each other's biggest supporters, proudly gushing over their better half on social media and in interviews.
"I feel so fortunate. I don't have anything to complain about, you know?" Lynskey told ET in March 2023. "I've had a lot of great, happy times in my life, Jason is the greatest human being, I love our daughter... Everything's coming together in a way that [makes me] feel so fortunate."
Keep scrolling for a complete timeline of the couple's romance.
2013
The couple met in 2013 while co-starring in The Big Ask and started dating shortly thereafter. During a joint appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show in March 2023, the couple opened up about the early days of their relationship.
"We were both going through very difficult times in our lives. We were both going through breakups," Lynskey said. "It was a very tumultuous time."
Ritter added that, though he knew Lynskey was "incredible" early on, he didn't feel worthy of her due to his issues with alcohol.
"It's not as cute of a story as you would like to think. It was messy and interesting and weird," he said. "In the mix, I was dealing with some alcoholism issues. At a point, I knew how amazing she was, and I thought she would be incredible for someone, someone who deserved her, basically, and I didn't feel like I was that person. I felt a little bit too crazy."
Ritter said that it took working on his sobriety to get him to a place where he felt worthy of Lynskey.
"It was only after a year into not drinking that I go, 'Oh, maybe I can promise some things to someone else,'" he shared as both he and Lynskey teared up. "So I knew that she was incredible. It was working on myself to think that maybe I could be the one for her too."
Lynskey held her husband's hand, wiping away tears and saying proudly, "He worked so hard. He did so much work on himself. I'm so proud of him."
She noted that they were in couples therapy "three weeks after we met each other," and "we just kept growing."
Lynskey additionally shared that the moment she knew Ritter was "the one" happened when she had an elderly dog that required a lot of assistance.
"Jason would get up with her every single time, take her outside, go back to sleep, get up and take her outside. And I think that's when I was like, 'I could have a child with this man. I could really do this.' The infinite patience and kindness and love," she recalled. "I was like, 'I think this is a good person.'"
March 2014
The couple's relationship continued into 2014 when they starred in We'll Never Have Paris together. Ritter played Lynskey's brother in the film, but the real-life couple made their red carpet debut at the movie's SXSW premiere that March.
January 2015
The next year, Lynskey starred in HBO's Togetherness, and Ritter accompanied his then-girlfriend to the show's premiere. The appearance marked one of the first times the couple posed together for a project in which only one of them starred.
2016
Ritter and Lynskey once again teamed up professionally, this time to play a couple in The Intervention.
"Well, it was really fun. We had done it before, that was the movie we had met each other on," Lynskey told ScreenCrush in August 2016. "It was fun, it was just easy. We get along really well. He is just such a sweet, easygoing person. It was nice, he is very easy to be around. He is such a good actor."
February 2017
Shortly after celebrating Valentine's Day with a sweet social media exchange, Lynskey told ET that she was engaged to Ritter, and shared that they were busy shopping for a house.
She further discussed the happy news during an appearance on Hollywood Today Live, gushing, "Now he's my fiancé. I'm announcing it!" Lynskey added that Ritter proposed to her "on the sofa," and she had no idea that it was coming.
December 2018
Lynskey and Ritter welcomed a daughter at the end of 2018, though the couple didn't publicly share the news until the following month.
"We feel lucky to have been able to have our news just be for friends and family for a while, but I guess the story got out, so! Yes! @JasonRitter and I had a daughter in December," Lynskey tweeted. "We love her so much; she’s perfect. Thanks to everyone for your sweet messages."
October 2019
Less than a year into parenthood, Ritter gushed about being a dad.
"I feel like she and I have a special connection where we sort of get in trouble together," he told People Now. "She's a little adventurer. She wants to get into everything and try to climb things, and I'm, like, trying to help her."
2020
Ritter and Lynskey tied the knot in 2020, a fact the actress didn't reveal until two years later. She shared the happy news in an interview with SiriusXM's Jess Cagle, and explained how the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in their decision to tie the knot.
"Honestly, I got married because someone was like, 'Jason won't get into Canada unless you're married,' which just wasn't true," Lynskey explained. "... I was going to Canada for Yellowjackets, and I was on the phone with somebody, and they said, 'Oh, he won't be allowed in.' And I was like, 'We have a child. What? I can't leave for six months.' So, I was like, 'We have to get married tomorrow.'"
A small wedding at their Atlanta, Georgia, rental home followed.
"We got married on our front porch of our little rental house in Atlanta," Lynskey said. "A nice lady came and married us. We had two friends there. Ali Ahn and William Jackson Harper… They brought a cake and flowers and everything we needed. It was actually a very fun wedding day, but it didn't need to happen. He could totally have gotten into Canada."
January 2022
After Lynskey opened up about the body shaming she'd experienced since Yellowjackets premiered, Ritter took to Twitter to defend his wife.
"If anyone has any further unsolicited comments about *anybody* else's body, they can feel free to write them in permanent ink onto their own foreheads and swan dive directly into the sun," Ritter tweeted.
March 2022
When ET spoke with Lynskey at the 2022 Critics Choice Awards, she got teary-eyed over her husband's support.
"I honestly feel like I won the lottery," she said. "I have the greatest husband. He's such a good dad. He loves me. He makes me feel beautiful no matter what. He's a good, good person and he's so cute."
Later that night, Lynskey won the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for Yellowjackets. In her acceptance speech, Lynskey called Ritter the "love of my life" and "the greatest support."
He responded in kind on Twitter, sharing a photo of Lynskey from the event.
"I am sorry to do this and she will be embarrassed that I did this but my GOODNESS what an absolyute [sic] beaut my wife is!!!" he tweeted. "ok I'm sorry but I mean LOOK at this human being who is also the best person I know Ok sorry again goodnight that’s enough from me but also 🔥👀"
May 2022
Lynskey continued her banner year by starring in Hulu's Candy, and fans were delighted when Ritter made a surprise appearance in the show.
"We love working at the same time, in the same place, which is kind of why he did Candy," Lynskey told ET. "Because then he didn't have to travel to go somewhere else for work. We like to be able to keep the family together if we can. I think he's so talented."
July 2022
After Lynskey landed an Emmy nomination for her Yellowjackets role, she told ET how Ritter reacted to the news.
"He’s so excited. We had a little cry," she said. "… I mean, it's really sweet. He made some toast for me while I was in the middle of talking to people. He made some toast that he cut into the shape of the word 'Emmy,' which took a lot of time I think. And it was really cute. So yeah, he's really happy. And it's nice he's not the only Emmy nominee in the house anymore."
Later that month, ET spoke with Ritter, who gushed over his wife's success.
"It's so exciting," he said. "She's just been putting in incredible work for her whole career. She just started off brilliant and continued to be brilliant, and it's exciting to see people notice that and catch up."
As for the fact that people consider the duo to be #CoupleGoals, Lynskey quipped, "People are very supportive. We better stay together."
August 2022
In an interview with InStyle, Lynskey called her husband "the world's most adorable feminist," and revealed that Ritter turns down roles that aren't "life-changing" to allow her to take on projects.
"I know balance is not usually like this and I'm lucky, but this should just be how it is," Lynskey said, before opening up about how openly Ritter gushes over her on social media.
"Sometimes, my husband will tweet things about thinking I look hot or whatever and a lot of people like it, and I said to him, 'Isn't it funny that if I was a Victoria's Secret model and you tweeted the exact same thing, people would not respond the way that they do?'" she said. "People get excited because I look like I look, and my husband, he's like a cute, young actor, but I am aware that some of the responses to him are like, 'Good for you.'"
"It's like, well, he got together with me because he found me attractive," she added. "It's not like he's throwing himself on the sword for the rest of mankind. And also -- he had competition."
December 2022
Three months after the couple had an Emmys date night, Ritter landed a role on Lynskey's Yellowjackets, something the actress previously told ET she would "love."
March 2023
Eagle-eyed fans discovered that Ritter appeared on Lynskey's The Last of Us episode, something the actress herself confirmed in an interview with Jimmy Fallon.
"He was a stunt person. He trained with the stunt people, and he just did all these amazing stunts. It's like his lifelong dream," she said. "He got put in makeup and came out of the ground and was falling over and doing all these [flips]."
Then, in an interview with ET, Lynskey gushed about Ritter and their life together.
"I feel so fortunate. I don't have anything to complain about, you know?" Lynskey told ET. "I've had a lot of great, happy times in my life, Jason is the greatest human being, I love our daughter... Everything's coming together in a way that [makes me] feel so fortunate."
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