She would give him the moon. Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal kept their romance under the radar before finally making things official in late 2021.
The Normal People star caught the “Kyoto” singer’s eye in the spring of 2020 after she finished binge-watching the Emmy-nominated Hulu series, which also starred Daisy Edgar-Jones.
“Finished normal people and now I’m sad and horny oh wait,” Bridgers teased via Twitter at the time. Though she didn’t tag Mescal in her post, he chimed in with a cheeky response, replying, “I’m officially dead.”
Soon after their flirty social media exchange, the pair cohosted an Instagram Live conversation for Wonderland magazine. By December 2020, Mescal had starred in one of Bridgers’ music videos. When asked how the project came about, the “I Know the End” singer credited the Irish actor with the idea.
“He broached it. He was like, ‘I’m a fan of yours, let’s make something cool,’” she told British Vogue in December 2020. “And he told me about the Rolling Stones video [he did for ‘Scarlet’], and then I brought it to Phoebe [Waller-Bridge] and she was like, ‘Yeah, it’s too serendipitous to not do it, the fact that I told you to watch Normal People and now you guys are friends.’”
Waller-Bridge directed the video and had previously agreed to meet the “Georgia” artist for drinks before the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020. When their plans fell through, the Fleabag creator encouraged the “Savior Complex” artist to watch Mescal’s hit show.
“I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that, it’s too depressing,’” Bridgers told the outlet. “I had read the book while making the record and it really destroyed me for a couple of days. Their performances are beautiful, but I can’t deal with it [laughs]. I had to skip the whole prom s–t, because it destroyed me already once in my life.”
Ahead of their music video collab, fans began to wonder whether the indie singer and the actor had sparked a romantic connection when Bridgers was spotted overseas. The then-rumored couple were caught canoodling at a local cafe in July 2020.
Though they each continued to drop subtle hints about their respective relationship statuses, it wasn’t until November 2021 that the pair attended their first official event together. Bridgers took the next step one month later, confirming their romance with a PDA pic on Instagram.
Scroll down to relive the low-key couple’s whirlwind romance: