Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck have a past together, having been in a relationship for three years from 1997 to 2000. However, Nikki Glaser seemed to have overlooked this bit of history.
Glaser, who took on the role of host for the 2025 Golden Globes, recently joined Paltrow on her goop podcast. During their conversation, they touched on Glaser’s Golden Globes performance and her interest in Paltrow’s former partner, Ben Affleck.
Paltrow was involved in an on-and-off romance with Affleck between 1997 and 2000. She later crossed paths with Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, whom she married and had two children with before their divorce in 2016. Since 2018, Paltrow has been married to Brad Falchuk.
Returning to the topic of Affleck, Glaser shared her experience of encountering Affleck on the celebrity dating app Raya. She mentioned, “When I used to be on Raya and he would come across, [I would give him a] very concentrated check mark ‘yes’ and, like, never [got] it back.”
Discussing her Golden Globes monologue, Glaser spoke about Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo from Wicked, saying, “I thought that they might be too cool, same way I thought about J-Lo [Jennifer Lopez], like I’m not doing that joke in a special because she’s going to come after me.”
“I think that sometimes I underestimate people who I put on a pedestal of being like taking themselves too seriously.”
For those who might not be aware, Lopez recently filed for divorce from Affleck just two years after their marriage.
Paltrow interjected, teasing Glaser about her comments on J-Lo’s now ex-husband, who was also Paltrow’s ex-boyfriend, by saying, “Even though you wanted to f**k her husband on Raya?”
After sharing that Andrew Garfield declined her on the celebrity dating app, Glaser elaborated on her Golden Globes experience and her approach to deciding which celebrities to joke about.
“At the Golden Globes, like I thought, ‘you know Ariana and Cynthia would have no sense of humor about Wicked’,” Glaser explained.
“It is Wicked, it’s about marginalized people being the… you know like this is a triumphant story of overcoming discrimination and ‘we are not to joke about Wicked because it is musical theater, it is gay.”
“It is everything that society is kind of already, they’re already, struggling enough, why poke fun at this thing? Their interview cycle was just so sincere […] but man did I want to mock it right.”
“Also like so many jokes written about that kind of mocking Wicked, and I was just like, ‘I don’t think this is it guys’.”
Warning: The following video contains explicit language:
She continued: “In my writer room saying, you know like we all kind of collectively agreed if we’re going to go after celebrities, maybe not Cynthia and Ariana.”
“Because the worst thing to do at an award show is to cut to a celebrity that you make fun of and they’re like [rolls eyes]. No matter how funny you are you’ve bombed because that person just rolled their eyes at you.”
“No matter what because the reaction is everything, like it’s so important – the cutaway is so important.”