Who Is Paul Mescal Dating?
The 'Normal People' star tends to keep his love life under wraps.
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Paul Mescal first graced our screens in 2020 as Normal People's quiet and sensitive Connell Waldron, a role that skyrocketed him to fame and cemented his status as a heartthrob. Soon the internet's collective lust for everything from his character's everyday necklace to his signature short shorts reached fever pitch. Unsurprisingly, speculation about his love life followed.
Fans seemed to hope that Mescal and his Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar Jones would become more than just friends, but their wishful thinking never came to fruition. More recently, rumors ignited on TikTok suggesting he had a habit of ditching dates in local parks and running away. Mescal told GQ the allegations were "categorically untrue" but upsetting to his mom nonetheless.
This effort to set the record straight was a rare acknowledgment from Mescal, who has largely kept his love life private, often dodging questions about the subject in interviews. He explained his perspective on privacy in the same GQ interview: "The speculation has been kind of mad for the last X amount of years...I’m not comfortable inviting any access into that part of my life. How I am in my private life is so precious to me because I get very little of it, and it might be public interest, but it’s not public-obligated information.”
While we can't count on Mescal to offer much in interviews, his occasional public appearances offer hints at who he's dating. Here's everything we know.
Gracie Abrams (June 2024 - Present)
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Rumors that Mescal was seeing musician Gracie Abrams first started in June of 2024, when TMZ obtained photos of the two at a restaurant in London. In August, they were spotted on a walk together, with Mescal putting his arm around Abrams. She playfully bit his hand, People reported. Shortly after, a source confirmed their involvement to People: “They’ve been hooking up, and it’s still early stages."
In October, Mescal was seen at Abrams' concert at Radio City Music Hall. Later in the month, he was one of the stars in the VIP tent at the Eras Tour, where Abrams opened for Taylor Swift. A source told People that the couple is "going strong."
Phoebe Bridgers (November 2021 - Late 2022)
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Abrams isn't the only singer-songwriter (or friend of Taylor Swift) that Mescal has dated.
Besides a steady stream of critically acclaimed work, Mescal's role in Normal People also earned him a date with one of his favorite musicians. It all started in the spring of 2020, when Phoebe Bridgers posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the film. Mescal responded, "I'm officially dead," and the rest was history. Soon after, the stars did a joint Instagram Live for Wonderland magazine. Many commenters described watching them chat as like intruding on a first date.
At one point, Mescal admitted he was a longtime fan, saying, "I think it's well-documented that I love your music." Bridgers replied: "Well, that makes me blush."
In a GQ interview that November, Mescal spoke of a girlfriend whose identity he kept private, but whose support he expressed gratitude for. "To have someone to lean on through such a mad, mad time has been invaluable. Really, I don’t know where I’d be without her,” he said. Given that Mescal and Bridgers both experienced a meteoric rise to fame during the early days of the pandemic, it seemed likely she was the "her" he was referring to. In December 2020, Mescal appeared in Bridgers' music video for her song "Savior Complex."
After over a year of dating rumors, the couple made their first official public appearance in November of 2021 at the LACMA Art+Film Gala, where they walked the red carpet together. The following month, Bridgers posted a photo with Mescal to Instagram for the first time. That spring, they attended the Met Gala together with Mescal's co-star, Daisy Edgar Jones.
Engagement rumors swirled, but by the end of 2022, the pair seemed to have split. Though neither star ever officially confirmed a breakup, that was their last public appearance together. In early 2023, Bridgers was spotted with comedian Bo Burnham. She seemed to confirm their relationship on Instagram the following summer.