A complete timeline of Phoebe Bridgers and Paul Mescal's relationship
- Musician Phoebe Bridgers and actor Paul Mescal first started communicating through social media.
- They "met" for the first time on Instagram Live in 2020 as both of their careers were exploding.
Musician Phoebe Bridgers and "Normal People" star Paul Mescal's relationship is a modern-day romance that began on the internet.
The two stars first began communicating through social media, after Bridgers tweeted about her adoration for "Normal People." Now, they're reportedly engaged.
Here's a complete timeline of Bridgers and Mescal's relationship.
May 11, 2020: Bridgers tweeted her 'sad and horny' reaction to finishing 'Normal People,' and Mescal responded
After watching Hulu's adaptation of Sally Rooney's "Normal People," starring Mescal as Connell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne, Bridgers tweeted: "finished normal people and now I'm sad and horny oh wait."
Mescal saw her tweet and said, "I'm officially dead."
In response, Bridgers said, "Nooo don't die your so talented aha."
May 23, 2020: Bridgers and Mescal met for the first time during a live stream conversation for Wonderland magazine
Mescal tweeted about his excitement prior to the live stream. At the start of the call, Mescal said, "It's good to meet you," and broke out in a laugh, and Bridgers said "good to meet you" with a grin.
Then the stars, who appeared in the summer 2020 issue of the publication, chatted via video for almost 25 minutes on Instagram Live. During that time, Mescal complimented the LA-based singer.
"I think it's well documented that I like your music," Mescal said, to which Bridgers replied: "Well, that makes me blush."
Bridgers also said that the last time she had cried was when watching Mescal crying during a scene in "Normal People." The actor replied that he had made a Spotify playlist to get him into the mindset of his character, Connell, while filming the TV show.
"I would listen to 'Funeral' before any of the episode 10 stuff, which is a testament to how sad your music is," Mescal told Bridgers during the live stream.
Mescal's public playlist, which was created in February 2019, now has 12,100 followers.
June 12, 2020: Bridgers called Mescal a 'cute boy' in an interview with NME
At the time of the interview, Bridgers had just started watching "Normal People" and gushed about Mescal following her on Instagram.
"I got a little pitter-patter in my heart when I saw," she said.
According to NME, Bridgers also sent Mescal her album, "Punisher," ahead of their Instagram Live interview.
July 2020: Bridgers and Mescal reportedly met up in his home country of Ireland
The Twitter account for Lemon Leaf Cafe, located in Kinsale, said that the pair had breakfast at the eatery on the morning of July 23, 2020.
"Fan- Tas- Tic day thanks to @mescal_Paul and @phoebe_bridgers for calling to our café this morning for breakfast," the tweet read. "Such amazing talented young people."
As mentioned by Metro UK, Mescal seemingly flew into the town and stayed at Actons Hotel Kinsale. The Instagram account for the hotel posted about hosting Mescal.
November 2020: Mescal appeared to reference Bridgers in an interview with British BQ
The actor didn't share the name of his girlfriend, but said their support was "a lifesaver."
"To have someone to lean on through such a mad, mad time has been invaluable," Mescal said. "Really, I don't know where I'd be without her."
December 1, 2020: Bridgers surprised fans with a music video for 'Savior Complex' starring Paul Mescal, directed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
The black-and-white music video was directed by "Fleabag" creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Bridgers told Variety that she and Waller-Bridge had been communicating via email "for a while" and bonded about their shared interests.
"After the pandemic had started, Phoebe told me to watch 'Normal People,'" Bridgers said. "I was very much avoiding watching 'Normal People,' because I thought it might be too sad, because I really loved the book, and it's very depressing."
Bridgers obviously watched the entire limited series "and then, long story short, Paul and I became friends online."
The "Kyoto" singer said that Mescal told her he'd agree to be in her music video if Waller-Bridge directed it.
Bridgers shared similar thoughts during an interview with British Vogue, explaining that Mescal, who also starred in the Rolling Stones' video for "Scarlet," offered to be part of her video.
Bridgers said she brought the idea to Waller-Bridge, who said something along the lines of: "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."
July 2021: Phoebe Bridgers starts her US tour, and fans begin spotting Paul Mescal cheering in the audience
As Bridgers toured North America, Mescal was spotted in the crown during multiple shows, indicating that he was traveling with her from city to city.
October 2021: They reportedly celebrated Halloween together, dressed as celebrity couple Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly
As W Magazine captured in an article published on November 2, 2021, Showtime talk show host Ziwe Fumudoh (who had interviewed Bridgers on her show) posted a "roundup of photos from a star-studded event."
"Now, this is big news to certain tote bag-carrying circles," W Magazine reporter Carolyn Twersky wrote. "Mescal and Bridgers have been linked together for almost a year and a half [...] Until now, though, their relationship hasn't been confirmed, but this photo may just be as close as we get."
November 2, 2021: Bridgers walked the runway for Gucci's spring/summer 2022 fashion show and Mescal sat in the front row
The show, titled "Love Parade," took place on Hollywood Boulevard in California. The two stars were mostly photographed separately at the event.
Only when fashion photographer Philipp Cherichenko shared his photos from the swanky party did anyone see the couple happily dancing in matching suits.
November 6, 2021: Bridgers and Mescal made their first public appearance together at the 10th Annual LACMA ART+FILM GALA
The same night, Bridgers tweeted about Mescal not knowing the correct name for Thousand Island dressing.
November 9: Mescal started making regular guest appearances in Bridgers' Instagram stories
The snippets of their relationship we saw included Mescal tying Bridgers' shoe and cuddling with her pug.
December 10, 2021: Bridgers made their relationship Instagram official
Bridgers posted a selfie of her and Mescal sans caption on Instagram, showing her looking at the camera as Mescal leaned into the side of her face.
New Year's Eve 2021 to Spring 2022: Bridgers and Mescal continued celebrating holidays together
A smiling photo of the couple was included in Bridgers' New Year's Eve photo dump on Instagram.
Several weeks later, Bridgers commemorated Valentine's Day by posting a black-and-white photo of her and Mescal on Instagram. The image, taken by Harrison Whitford, showed the couple lying on a bed with her arm across his chest as they looked at each other.
She also shared an image of Mescal on a hiking trail with the simple caption "birthday" in April of 2022.
May 2, 2022: Bridgers and Mescal attended the prestigious Met Gala in New York City together
The theme that year was "In America: An Anthology of Fashion."
Bridgers wore a sheer halter-style beaded gown with a slicked-back hairstyle while Mescal, in his Met Gala debut, wore an all-black Valentino outfit.
The couple also met up with "Normal People" costar Edgar-Jones and posed for photos with her.
June 1, 2022: Mescal briefly appeared in Bridgers' music video for 'Sidelines'
Mescal had a cameo three minutes into the video in footage that was taken backstage at one of Bridgers' shows.
In a June 2022 profile in The Guardian, Bridgers said the song was partially about Mescal: "Writing about my relationship with only good shit, because that's all I feel, is hard. But it makes it easy when you're actually having those feelings."
September 3, 2022: Bridgers accompanied Mescal at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado
They posed for photos with Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger and actors Robert Downey Jr. and Jeremy Strong.
In an interview with People, Mescal talked about the joy of having Bridgers attend the film festival with him.
"We do have the same taste, but it's also really fun to take your partner to something which is not their world," Mescal said. "It's cool to sit in at the 'Women Talking' world premiere with your partner and get to experience that together and talk about it after."
November 2022: Engagement rumors ramped up when a Guardian profile on Mescal alluded to their relationship status
Back in June 2022, The Guardian's profile of Bridgers mentioned that something the couple had in common was how their careers both blew up during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then the profile included continued:
"It's so nice to have that in common with somebody, because it just makes no sense," Bridgers says.
They're rumoured to be engaged. "Fuck the fucking tabloids to hell, that's what I'll say about that!" she says with another grin.
So jump to Sunday, and The Guardian was once again at the center of engagement speculation when a profile of Mescal was published on November 6. In a parenthetical aside about Mescal's memorable first Twitter exchange with Bridgers, the profile said "the pair are now engaged."
Several news outlets aggregated the initial story's mention of the engagement and ran headlines like "Paul Mescal Confirms Engagement to Phoebe Bridgers" or "After Getting Flirty On Twitter 2.5 Years Ago, Phoebe Bridgers And Paul Mescal Are Engaged." Viral tweets from fan accounts reacting to the news were circulated within hours.
But later that day the Guardian article was later amended with the following correction:
This article was amended on 6 November 2022. An earlier version said that Paul Mescal and Phoebe Bridgers were now engaged; this had been reported elsewhere but has not in fact been confirmed by the couple.
December 9, 2022: Bridgers seemingly alluded to relationship strife in her and SZA's collaboration, 'Ghost in the Machine'
In the lyrics of the track, Bridgers sang about "screaming" at another person and ending up alone "in an airport bar or hotel lobby."
The timeline of how quickly the song came together also appeared to further point to a real-life breakup inspiring her verse.
In an interview with NME, Bridgers said that SZA sent her a DM about collaborating.
"It all happened so fast," she said. "I wasn't really used to that in the pop world, because vinyl isn't so much of a consideration until way later, it's just like, 'Do you want to be on this record? OK, it's out next week', which I really like. I like that turnaround time."
December 12, 2022: The 1975 frontman Matty Healy posted a baffling photo on Instagram
The image showed Healy and Bridgers kissing, with Bo Burnham standing behind them with his hands on both of their shoulders. Healy captioned the post, "Gay Poets Society."
The pose confused fans, considering that Burnham has been dating "Hustlers" director Lorene Scafaria since 2013 and Bridgers was believed to be in a relationship with Mescal.
December 19, 2022: Bridgers was spotted with Bo Burnham at Kate's Berlant's one-woman show in NYC
Burnham, who Bridgers is personally a fan of, directed the show, titled "Kate." According to a Jezebel staff member in attendance, the play had technical difficulties and was canceled, prompting Burnham to get on stage and apologize. He reportedly sat next to Bridgers and the staff members said that their interactions "felt flirtatious" as if Burnham was "trying to impress her."
December 23, 2022: Bridgers shared her advice for overcoming heartbreak
"You just have to do it," she said in an episode of Amelia Dimoldenberg 's "Chick Shop Date" YouTube series. "And it's gonna end at some point but you can't make it end."
When asked what heartbreak taught her Bridgers responded: "I think if I had figured that out, I wouldn't be making music still."
Mescal wasn't mentioned by name in the episode, but Bridgers said that she didn't think his show "Normal People" was overrated.
"No, I think it is very appropriately rated," she said.
January 13, 2023: Bridgers and Burnham were photographed together at LAX
Paparazzi photographed them catching a flight out of LA together.
February 14, 2023: Mescal was asked about his relationship status in an interview with Vanity Fair and declined to give a concrete answer
When asked if he feels "a desire to let that chatter live," the Oscar-nominated actor said, "I definitely feel the temptation to say the status of my whatever." Mescal said that after the success of "Normal People," he made it clear that he wasn't interested in discussing such matters.
"But the temptation still exists to be like, 'Shut the fuck up. This is my life. This is what's going on. Or this is what's not going on,'" he added. "But moving forward as much as I can, that's going to be my life that is private."
"That's a difficult thing to achieve," Mescal continued. "But giving strangers an answer about my life doesn't actually help me. It's like a quick boost of serotonin, being like, 'I've said what I need to say.' And then it's just Twitter fodder."
February 22, 2023: In a cover story for The Hollywood Reporter, Mescal said that he didn't want to comment on breakup rumors at the moment
"Maybe at some point," he told THR. "But just not now. It's just difficult territory. Yeah."