A look at Jeremy Allen White and Addison Timlin's relationship, from teen crushes to a sudden divorce
A timeline of "The Bear" actor and "Californication" actress's romance.
Just five months after The Bear star Jeremy Allen White publicly professed his love for his actress wife Addison Timlin in his Golden Globes acceptance speech, she got raw and real about how "f***ing hard" it is "being a single mom" in a Mother's Day social media post, although she later changed the "single mom" part to "co-parent," after commenters protested that White is still in his kids' lives.
The Californication actress, 31, filed for divorce from the Shameless alum, 32, on Thursday, after more than three years of marriage. It's clear that it's a bumpy transition for the pair, who met as high school freshmen and share two young children.
Let's travel back to their beginnings...
Classmate crushes
The pair met as freshman in high school in 2005 when White, 14, transferred to the Professional Performing Arts School in NYC, where Timlin, 13, was a student. Timlin — who by then had already appeared on Broadway in the Gypsy revival and did a national tour of Annie — said in a joint interview with White on the Showmance podcast in 2019 that it was "love at first sight" between them. "He has really blue eyes and his blue shirt brought out the blue eyes," she gushed. "He came in hot, so to speak, and [me and my classmates] were all so in love with him." She said they "spent all our time together. We cut school together. We got in trouble together, smoked pot together," but it was more of a smoldering crush than a romance at that point. "We were each other's lifelines," she said. He told GQ in 2022, "I was instantly very much into her and she, me too, I think. But she had a boyfriend." When Timlin and the boyfriend split and she expected White to make his move, he didn't. He said, "I was just so clumsy about all that stuff."
Here they are, center, in 2005:
An awkward chemistry test
Timlin said on the podcast that they got in a fight when they were 15 and she transferred schools. "It was so dramatic," she recalled. White added, "She was like, 'Bye! See ya later!' And I was just like, 'But I just found you!'" He said it seemed more dramatic at the time, when she actually just moved to a non-performing arts school about "20 blocks away."
White told GQ he "was really broken up" by their fight over her switching schools. But "the universe never really let us separate," Timlin said on the pod. While they weren't talking, they both ended up being cast in 2008's Afterschool, which saw them playing prep school kids alongside star Ezra Miller. They came face-to-face for the first time when they were paired for a chemistry reading. "We worked through our problems there," she said, noting that they discussed their fallout in front of the director and that tension helped them both land their roles. They became friends again, but they had a few more big spats, including when she was dating an older guy and kept it a secret from White, who became upset when he found out.
Los Angeles transplants — and roomies
At 18, they both found themselves living in Los Angeles. White landed Shameless right out of high school, playing the role of fan fave Lip Gallagher for a decade. The same year, Timlin scored a recurring role on Californication, getting steamy with David Duchovny. While acting on TV and in films, they decided to be roommates.
"We moved in together and were figuring out a new city together," she said on Showmance. And they became just the best of friends. "I knew that at some point we were gonna really give it a go" romantically she said, but I wasn't sure when that was going to be... I felt certain that my journey had to go elsewhere before it was going to land on us."
They both had other romantic relationships, but realized during a road trip that their relationship made them feel "grounded and calm" and just felt "right," she recalled. They ended up ending their other relationships and then eventually got together. "When everything was right, it was right," she said.
By 2013, they seemed paired up but they didn't want to make it officially official. Timlin told Harper's Bazaar at the time, "I've got a sweetheart who I will not disclose, but, yes, he'd be the guy. We have a nice foundation from being friends for a long period of time, and then it took a hard right turn into romance."
Oh, baby
While their relationship blossomed, they didn't make things social media official until 2016. When he joined Instagram that October, she called him her "ride or die guy."
Things were full speed from there. In 2017, on Timlin's birthday, they announced they were expecting their first child. She wrote, "We made a baby and my heart is bursting at the seams. Today is my birthday but my wish already came true. This is 27 and the best is yet to come."
The same year, the couple shared the screen again in the 2017 short Chasing You, which she also produced.
Their first child, daughter Ezer Billie, was born that October.
In early 2019, the American Horror Story and That Awkward Moment actress was spotted wearing a ring on that finger and they confirmed their engagement on the Showmance pod.
They do!
The couple exchanged vows at the Beverly Hills, Calif, courthouse in October 2019. "Happy hearts," the bride captioned a social media photo of them in matching denim jackets with their nicknames for one another (Buddy and Billie) embroidered on the back for the ceremony. Guests included Dakota Johnson — who is godmother to both of the couple's children — and her partner Chris Martin.
White and Timlin get tattoos of their couple nickname, as well as their firstborn's name.
The following year they seemed to be going strong. On her birthday, Timlin shared a photo of them with Ezer, writing, "I’m so grateful for my 28th year. I married my best friend of 15 years, who happens to be the love of my life. We have the coolest kid in the world ... I have beautiful friends and family that restore my soul and I feel so full of love all the time."
White posted his own tribute to his wife, writing, "I love you forever."
They welcomed their second daughter, Dolores Wild, in December 2020. "We did it baby," Timlin, who was hospitalized for a month before giving birth, wrote to White.
They both got Dolores tattoos as well.
The Bear era
White made a big professional change in 2021 when Shameless ended its decade-long run.
That year, she praised him in an anniversary post featuring a photo of them with both daughters. She wrote, "Happy anniversary baby. My favorite thing on planet earth (besides our kids) is saying 'my husband.' You are the greatest person I've ever met and you make my life seem touched by God. I know you think this public display of affection is goofy but there isn't a rooftop I won't shout it from, I love you!! This year was hard but we love harder."
The in-demand actor landed The Bear, where he plays a chef.
For Timlin's birthday in June 2022, White called her his "number one" and "the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks for taking care of so many of us. You’ve been at the center of my life for so long now, I can’t remember much before, I’m lucky for it. You’re my whole heart."
The same month, The Bear premiered. The couple hit the red carpet together.
She used social media to urge people to tune into his show, writing, "Congratulations to the whole team but to Jeremy especially, watching your dreams come true will always put a fire in my heart. I am infinitely proud and also very pleased to turn to you and say-I told you so."
White starts receiving a lot of attention over his breakout performance.
In an interview with InStyle in August, he talked about how his life has changed since he had a family. He called his daughters his "best friends," adding, "I learn a lot from them. I feel like in a lot of ways, they're teaching me all the time how to be better: how to be better to them; how to be better to my wife, my friends, my parents, my sister. I think I've been ready to domesticate for a long time, and I'm so happy to be in the house all the time with them."
"I love you deep in my bones"
At the 2023 Golden Globes in January, The Bear star won Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy and closed out his speech by telling his wife, who was his date to the show, "Addison Timlin. I love you deep in my bones. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for everything that you've done."
On May 11, Timlin filed for divorce from White after over three years of marriage.
Neither immediately commented on social media (White rarely posts in general) until three days later on Mother's Day. Timlin didn't hold back in her candid post about her new life as a "single mom" and seems to suggest it's been that way for the last nine months. However, some commenters pushed back on Timlin calling herself a "single mom," because White is still in her children's lives, and, by Tuesday, the actress had changed that term.
"Co-parent is not how I pictured it," the post read. "It is so f***ing hard. It is all out covered in s*** crying on the floor kick you in the shins screaming with no sound coming out hard. Its not the natural order of things. It can be exhausting but more than anything it can just be so lonely. when something magical happens and you have to tell yourself 'don’t forget this' because theres no witness by your side. It's so painful."
She said the lows were "demolished by the staggering heights. To live with young children is an eyes wide open, wondrous and joyful place to be, it's to be surrounded by a daily expression of their authentic selves and I wonder if without their example I would have been able to do the same."
Timlin went on to say she was "feeling so peaceful today and so deeply in love with my children," stating, "Being a mom is the only thing I've ever wanted and being theirs is just the luckiest most remarkable thing on the planet. Doing it alone has given me more strength and more empathy and more tears than anything else in my life ever has."
She thanked "everyone that has helped me in these last 9 months, the moms who picked my kid up from school in an emergency, play dates that made weekends feel a little less like climbing a small mountain, crying in my car, urgent care centers, frozen 1 and 2, and my little man JJ, Kraft mac and cheese, dry shampoo, ice cream, lollipops, goldfish, pirates booty, pull ups, crocs, soap & water, neighbors, my friends, my family, and if you turned and said to me 'I’ve got you.' Oof. It feels good. Happy Mother's Day ya'll."