Bill Hader and Ali Wong’s Relationship Timeline: Everything to Know

The rise and fall of Ali Wong and Bill Hader’s two-plus year relationship is kind of a funny one—or at least, we assume so, since they’re both successful comedians. Gotta be some ha-has in there somewhere. The couple, whose sweet romance became public in April 2023 and captured fans’ attention when they were caught smooching in celebration of Wong’s win at the Golden Globes in January 2024, have broken up as of January 2026.

A source told People, who first reported the split, that the breakup is amicable, the two remain friends, and that “they’re focusing on their work and kids, while continuing to support and root for each other.” Sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed the same to Vanity Fair.

Here’s everything you need to know about Ali Wong and Bill Hader’s relationship.

Wait, Bill Hader and Ali Wong dated?

Yes! The two performers made headlines at the Golden Globes 2024, where they were seated together and shared a sweet kiss after Wong was announced as the winner of best actress in a limited series for Beef, in which she plays a houseplant entrepreneur with significant road rage issues and weak boundaries. (Hader was nominated at the Golden Globes that year too, in the best actor in a television series, musical or comedy category for Barry.) Though some viewers may have been surprised to learn that they were dating, this was merely their red carpet debut as a couple: The two performers confirmed all the way back in April 2023 that they were an item.

They also dated briefly before, sources told Page Six, but called it off in the fall of 2022 after about two months due to being “just super busy with things.”

Aren’t Ali Wong’s stand-up specials all about her husband and kids?

It’s true that a lot of the material in the Netflix stand-up specials that helped Wong break into public consciousness was about her life with then husband Justin Hakuta and their two daughters. In fact, for both Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, Wong was visibly pregnant. Now, however, Hakuta is her ex-husband. Wong and Hakuta announced in April 2022 that they planned to divorce amicably after eight years of marriage and that they would “continue to co-parent lovingly.” Indeed, in March 2023 Wong said she and Hakuta were still “best friends” and that “he still to this day has ultimate veto power” over jokes about him and their family in her act. “I need him desperately, and I need to respect him,” she said. In December 2023, more than a year after announcing their separation, Wong officially filed for divorce from Hakuta, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split. In April 2024, Hakuta filed for joint legal and physical custody of the couple's children.

In a March 2023 interview with The Cut, while discussing the busy chef she plays in the rom-com Always Be My Maybe, Wong offhandedly threw out that she doesn’t anticipate hearing wedding bells again in her life, saying, “If I had a wedding or if I had to get married again—which I probably never will.” In the same interview, she said that she was thinking about calling her upcoming live dates “the Single Lady Tour.”

Fast-forward to 2024, when Hakuta got a thank you in Wong’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. “I really need to thank the father of my children and my best friend, Justin, for all of your love and support,” she said. “It’s because of you that I’m able to be a working mother.”

Asked about her shoutout by Entertainment Tonight after the win, Wong said, “Yeah, that’s right, I like to keep it peaceful and grateful and amicable” with the men in her life.

And has Bill Hader been married before?

Yes. The former Saturday Night Live actor split from ex-wife Maggie Carey in March 2018. The two share three daughters. In recent years, before Wong, Hader was linked to both Anna Kendrick and Rachel Bilson.

How did Bill Hader and Ali Wong get together?

In her October 2024 Netflix stand-up special, Single Lady, filmed at performances of her Single Lady Tour, Wong revealed how Hader wooed her post-divorce, and what eventually convinced her to succumb to his advances.

After her divorce became public, she said, she “felt really embarrassed and ashamed, but I didn’t realize that all of these media outlets were acting like a Bat-Signal, letting all potentially interested men know that I was suddenly available.” Suddenly, a not-so-embarrassing upside emerged: “I’ve never been pursued this much in my life.”

She described one of these unnamed would-be paramours’ courtship techniques (spoiler: it was Hader), which began with a call announcing his intentions.

“Hey, Ali. I just happened to hear the news of your divorce today, and I gotta tell you…I’m excited,” Wong, in the special, recalled Hader saying. “I am, Ali, because, look, I have had a crush on you forever, and I actually told my best friend years ago that you were my dream girl. And I know this sounds crazy, but, uh, I want you to be my girlfriend.”

One problem: She had just signed up for an expensive dating site and she intended to get a healthy ROI out of that.

Still, as Hader sent increasingly elaborate floral arrangements to her tour stops, Wong was charmed. And, he fit her desired archetype as a divorced dad, which she described as “one woman’s trash is another woman’s trained trash.”

“I did fall in love again,” she revealed at the end of the special, then identified the fancy flower-sender as Hader.

It’s ok, you can say “awwwww” out loud.

Wait, that’s so cute! So why did Ali Wong and Bill Hader break up?

Anonymous sources told People that the split was a result of Wong and Hader’s busy, full lives. “It was too difficult to make the relationship work with Ali’s upcoming stand up tour and Bill’s various film and tv projects this year,” the source said, information which was confirmed by VF. “They’re focusing on their work and kids, while continuing to support and root for each other.”