Keri Russell explains why she doesn’t plan to marry Matthew Rhys

Keri Russell says she doesn’t feel the need to marry again, and she and longtime partner Matthew Rhys have no plans to wed anytime soon.

The 50-year-old actress opned up on the matter recently on Thursday during an appearance on Chelsea Handler’s podcast, Dear Chelsea. “I’ve had a big party, you know. I get to dress up all the time, and I know for a lot of people, marriage is something different,” she said.

She added that people used to marry to get a credit card, but now they can have their own. “I don’t need my last name to go away,” she said.

Russell and Rhys have been together since late 2013. They have a son, Sam, 10, born in 2016. Russell was married to contractor Shane Deary from 2007 to 2014, and they have two children, River, 19, and Willa Lou, 13.

On the podcast, she also explained why Rhys didn’t thank her in his 2026 Emmys speech. She said he was very nervous about speaking. “I said, ‘Take me off your plate. Like, you don’t have to thank me. I know you love me,’” she said.

Rhys won two Emmys this year: lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie for The Beast in Me, and lead actor in a comedy series for Widow’s Bay. Russell was nominated for lead actress in a drama for The Diplomat.

The couple mostly keeps their relationship private. In his 2018 Emmys speech, Rhys joked that Russell told him she would punch him if he proposed. “I don’t have the words, or the time, neither which would do you justice, Keri Lynn, except thank you,” he said.

That same night, director Glenn Weiss proposed to his girlfriend, Jan Svendsen, onstage.