Sarah Paulson says she will never marry Holland Taylor.
The American Horror Story star, 51, made the declaration on Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast in an episode released November 12. Paulson and Taylor, 83, have been together for 11 years after reconnecting in 2015, yet neither has ever felt compelled to make the union legal.
Paulson explained that the formal structure of marriage unsettles her on a fundamental level. “The stoneness of it gives me the heebie-jeebies,” she said on the podcast. Despite this aversion to paperwork and ceremony, she emphasized that her emotional commitment runs deep. “The bond, the connectivity I have with Holland, I feel married to her,” she continued, “but I don’t have or have never had the need to have it be something written in stone somehow.”
The actress tied her stance to a broader value she places on personal autonomy. Paulson said being unmarried gives her a sense of “freedom,” clarifying that this impulse has nothing to do with distance from Taylor or interest in other people. “It’s not about being away from her or being with another person, it’s just about maintaining some sense of my own independence,” she said. She added that Taylor “feels that way too much,” and that they “just have never, ever felt the need to [get married].”
Paulson’s resistance to traditional domestic arrangements extends beyond marriage. The couple maintains separate residences for much of the year, a living situation both have credited with sustaining their relationship. On the SmartLess podcast, Paulson detailed how this setup allows them to share time when desired and retreat when needed. She noted that Taylor had not lived with anyone for a long stretch before their relationship began, so a permanent full-time presence would have been jarring for the older actress.
Their housing arrangement shifts by city. In New York, Taylor owns an apartment where Paulson stays when both women’s schedules converge there. In Los Angeles, each owns her own house, though Taylor revealed in October that Paulson had been temporarily staying at her place for nearly a year while waiting to move into a newly purchased property. Paulson dismissed the idea of a single house with separate bedrooms, insisting they share a bed whenever together. Falling asleep holding Taylor’s hand remains her favorite habit.
Taylor has offered her own public perspective on their unconventional setup. On The Drew Barrymore Show, she pointed to their acting careers as a practical factor, noting that work regularly pulls them to different locations anyway.
The relationship began after Paulson and Taylor reconnected in 2015. Paulson had previously dated Cherry Jones from 2004 to 2009. During the Dear Chelsea episode, Paulson also addressed parenthood, stating she has no regrets about remaining childless. “I like my life. I’m happy that I haven’t had children,” she said. She described herself as lacking the emotional constitution for raising a child, envisioning herself unable to let go. “I can just see myself following them,” she admitted. “My heart is too fragile. I feel too many things. It’s too much for me.”
Paulson summarized her contentment with the life she has built with Taylor in straightforward terms. “I’m happy that I haven’t been married,” she said. “I feel that I’ve maintained some sense of myself in a way.” She concluded by affirming the depth of their bond without legal validation: “I feel as connected to another person as I possibly could to Holland.”
Paulson is set to appear in Ryan Murphy’s upcoming FX series All’s Fair.