Josh Radnor says the “How I Met Your Mother” cast is “not even a little bit” close anymore.
Radnor, 52, made the confession on Sunday’s episode of the “Half the Picture” podcast, where he broke down his current relationships with each of his former co-stars from the hit CBS sitcom. He stressed there was no drama behind the distance, telling host Kaitlin Fontana, “I don’t mean that in any dramatic way.”
The actor, who played Ted Mosby for all nine seasons, revealed that in March he had Neil Patrick Harris, 53, on his “HIMYM” rewatch podcast “How We Made Your Mother” for what he described as “an interesting conversation about some of the tension” they experienced on set. Radnor said he and Jason Segel, 45, “send each other texts every once in a while,” though he noted he hasn’t seen the “Shrinking” star “in a really long time.” He saw Cobie Smulders, 43, twice on Zoom for her two appearances on the rewatch podcast, and hasn’t laid eyes on Alyson Hannigan, 51, since his wedding to Jordana Jacobs in January 2024.
Radnor did emphasize that he has “love” for all of them. “It’s like college where you have this very intense time together and you think you’re going to be… You can’t imagine not seeing each other every day,” he explained. “And then it just disperses and you just go out and live your life.”
Fans have long projected a tight off-screen bond onto the group, and Radnor addressed that directly. “People really want to believe that, like, me and Neil and Jason are hitting bars in New York City together. People really want to believe that,” he said. He offered a different framing: “It’s a little more like family than friends in that you don’t get to choose your family. We were cast. We didn’t choose each other. And family dynamics come out to play when you’re in an environment like that for so long.”
Radnor described the remaining connection as a “deep and rich and probably everlasting” love, but clarified, “it’s not an active love.”
In the viral moment that preceded these latest comments, Harris appeared on Radnor’s rewatch podcast in March and confronted their old dynamic head-on. “I always kind of felt that my performance annoyed you, Josh,” Harris told him. Harris explained he was “laser-focused” on comedy while Radnor handled the show’s emotional core, and recalled sensing frustration from his co-star during filming. “I remember often when we were filming, and I sensed frustration from you because you wanted the scene to be like a good scene and I was looking at you like, ‘Motherf—er, I’m doing spit takes,'” Harris said.
Radnor confirmed he felt tension at the time but suggested “it might have been a little bit of confusion between actor and character.” He also admitted to feeling insecure during production because Harris, Segel, and Hannigan were already famous while he was still adjusting to losing his anonymity as the show’s lead. “If I was like a little pissy or something, I’m sorry,” he told Harris on the podcast. “Like I think that I was just trying to manage a lot of different things and emotions, and they came out sideways sometimes.”
The two actors had actually worked together before “HIMYM,” starring as lovers in the 2004 play “The Paris Letter.” Radnor noted that going from that intimate theater piece to playing Ted and Barney just months later “gave me vertigo.”
Smulders has also appeared on the rewatch podcast, where she revealed her own unconventional method for preparing Radnor for their intimate scenes. “Josh and I had quite a few intimate scenes, and so I would try to, as much as humanly possible, before we would roll, whisper something to Josh that was just extremely inappropriate,” she shared. Radnor confirmed that Harris could be “disgusting” in similar moments but declared, “He is nothing compared to the depravity that Cobie Smulders laid out.”
Radnor continues to tour his music and host the “How We Made Your Mother” podcast, where he revisits each episode with Craig Thomas.