The Real-Life Partners Of The Handmaid's Tale Cast

"The Handmaid's Tale," Margaret Atwood's classic novel, imagined a repressive future society called Gilead, a world where religious oppression has overtaken the government and forced entire classes of women into subservient roles. In 2017, Hulu launched a television adaptation of the novel, bringing the story to life and racking up more than a dozen Emmys in the process.

The sixth and final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" premiered in 2025, taking June (Elisabeth Moss) and her allies far beyond the story of the original novel. It's also a different world now than it was when the show premiered; globally, many different nations have experienced a shift in government that we might politely describe as "not great for women." Series creator Bruce Miller knows all too well how eerie his show is, telling SBS, "It's heartbreaking when you come up with the worst thing you can imagine and then someone does it. We are often unfortunately relevant. I would love our show to be irrelevant."

In other words, fans of "The Handmaid's Tale" sometimes need an escape. It's not exactly an uplifting program, but thankfully, the actors seem to be much happier in real life than their show counterparts. Many of the stars are indeed in stable, real-life relationships far from the ones they portray on screen, giving us someone to root for.

Elisabeth Moss has played June on all six seasons of "The Handmaid's Tale." She's the show's main character; it's June we're rooting for as she tries desperately to reunite with a daughter who was taken from her.

In real life, Moss was in a high-profile whirlwind marriage with actor Fred Armisen. They were married shortly after they met at "Saturday Night Live," and less than a year after getting hitched, they were divorced. Armisen was significantly older than Moss, and it seems that the two were not able to work through the issues that cropped up in their marriage. "Looking back, I feel like I was really young, and at the time I didn't think that I was that young," she told Vulture. "It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible ... I'm glad I didn't have kids."

Nowadays, Moss is indeed a mother, having given birth in 2024 before shooting the show's final season. She hasn't publicly spoken about who the baby's father is, or who she might be in a relationship with these days, but that's totally fine; she's got quite the mother character to look up to for inspiration. "It was incredibly meaningful to be able to end this show as a mom, I got to tell you. Because I'm playing this character who is this iconic mother figure," Moss told The Hollywood Reporter. "All mothers are heroines, and she's definitely a heroine."

Yvonne Strahovski plays Serena on "The Handmaid's Tale," a member of the Gilead higher class who is complicit in the oppression of women. Here's how Strahovski feels about her "Handmaid's Tale" character: she's usually a villain, but she's often a sympathetic one. She told IndeWire that she tries to make Serena at least understandable. "It's been hard to put aside your empathy for the other characters, primarily June, and just try to lean into a no-judgment space with Serena and try to get to where her heart is, without the judgment," she said. "The ultimate question with this character this season is, will she or won't she redeem herself?"

While Strahovski's on-screen character is a widowed mother, the actor is happily married in real life with three kids of her own. She's been married to actor Tim Loden since 2017, when they wed during a heat wave. Her husband told E! News, "It was very hot. It was a heat wave. We all made it through and did some dancing at the end of the night. It was fantastic." The "Chuck" star added, "We ended up jumping in the lake in our suit and gown just to cool down. It was just ridiculously hot."

In 2023, Strahovski announced on Instagram that they'd welcomed their third child in a home birth. "such an unreal, intense, amazing experience I will never forget," she wrote.

Bradley Whitford, best known for being part of the cast of "The West Wing," plays perhaps the most evil villain on "The Handmaid's Tale." He's the actor behind Commander Joseph Lawrence, the man in charge of Gilead, meaning Whitford sees all too well how relevant the show has become. Pointing out the loss of abortion rights since the show began, Whitford told Variety, "This is not a drill. It's not a story. This is happening. Margaret Atwood said that she almost scrapped the book a couple of times because it seemed too far-fetched. Turns out Margaret Atwood's an optimist."

While his "Handmaid's Tale" character demands subservience from women, off-screen Whitford is all too happy to let a woman boss him around. His wife is actor and director Amy Landecker, and Whitford acted in her film "For Worse." He told Collider, "It was so exciting for me to see Amy absolutely comfortable in the authority position ...  It was truly inspiring for me, and it kind of turned me on." Landecker's long list of credits also includes "Transparent," "The Croods: Family Tree," and three episodes of "The Handmaid's Tale."

Aunt Lydia is one of the most fearsome villains in the world of "The Handmaid's Tale." It's her job to keep the handmaids in line, ensuring their submissiveness through violent means when she needs to. She's played by celebrated character actor Ann Dowd, who won an Emmy for her role and went viral for the adorable way she said "Hulu" on stage.

Despite the show's heavy subject matter, Dowd isn't looking forward to leaving the set behind. "Goodbyes are very hard, I think," she told TooFab. "You're not just saying goodbye to a character you've known for six years; you're saying goodbye to cast members who you've come to love so deeply. So, it's a time for grieving."

Thankfully, in real life, Dowd has a partner to grieve with. She's married to Lawrence Arancio, an actor in his own right. They met at acting school in Chicago, as Dowd explained to The Chicago Sun-Times. "I looked across the room and saw this man with a scruffy beard. I literally thought to myself, 'That's your husband,'" she recalled. "And I didn't even like the way he looked with the shaggy beard." They've raised three children together, an accomplishment Dowd values most, even her critically-acclaimed acting career. She told Closer Weekly, "I'm of course most proud of my family."

Madeline Brewer plays Janine on "The Handmaid's Tale," a character who has gradually become more important. Brewer's critical acclaim has grown, too; in 2021, she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series thanks to her portrayal. Brewer, who also appears in the final season of Netflix's hit "You," told Vanity Fair that she was grateful for her success. "I get to be in the final season of two shows that have had such an impact and are saying something beyond just entertainment," she said. "And that's sick!"

During a shooting break from "The Handmaid's Tale," Brewer lived in London while performing in "Cabaret" on the West End. It was there that she met cinematographer Jack Thompson-Roylance on the exclusive dating app Raya. "Everybody is like, 'I've never had any success on Raya. Raya sucks,'" she said. "I think we both just weren't taking it very seriously, and that's why it worked."

Brewer told People that they were aiming for a wedding in the summer of 2025. "Wedding planning is insane, especially having two shows come out in April, but we're getting through it," she said, noting that they planned to marry in England. "We're so excited. We both love a party and yeah, it's going to be fun ... It's like we've got 'Bridgerton' during the day and then 'Saltburn' at night." Sounds fun ... though there are some parts of "Saltburn" we hope they avoid.

Amanda Brugel plays Rita on "The Handmaid's Tale." She starts the series as a housekeeper for Serena's family, ultimately getting swept up in the rebellion sparked by June's willingness to buck the system. At a roundtable discussion put on by The Toronto Film School, Brugel reflected on what a blessing the show has been for her career. "I was 37, and so as a black biracial woman at 37 to suddenly have her career hit a stratosphere? Like, it's unheard of ... it was a beautiful experience."

Brugel was previously married, and she has two sons from her ex-husband Marcel Lewis. These days, though, she's in a relationship with fellow actor and director Aidan Shipley, best known for his role in films like the Ryan Reynolds-led thriller "The Captive." During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brugel wrote a diary for Fashion Magazine about what it was like to be stuck in quarantine. Shipley helped homeschool her sons during that time, and Brugel wrote, "Aidan and I snuggle on the couch and I recognize that although I miss my old life, I would not return to it for a second. I have grown tremendously from this discomfort. As a mother, a partner, chef and activist."

For the first several seasons of "The Handmaid's Tale," Joseph Fiennes played Commander Waterford, the husband of Yvonne Strahovski's character Serena. He was one of the show's primary villains at first, because he was the man who kept June as his slave. In an appearance on "Good Morning America," Fiennes said he liked playing such an evil character, but he also liked his time off. "Although Fred is a character that I very much enjoy getting under the skin of, I also can't wait when I hear at the end of each day, 'Cut,'" he said. "And I'm allowed to escape." Perhaps understandably, his wife is not interested in watching her own husband inhabit this incredibly vile role. "When they eventually kill me off, then she'll watch the show," Fiennes quipped to Us Weekly in 2018.

Fiennes is married to a Swiss actor and photographer named Maria Dolores Dieguez, and they have two kids together. After really digging into gender relations while filming "The Handmaid's Tale," Fiennes began to reconsider what it means to be a family man. "What I come away with is feeling that much more protective and much more alert to what my wife and my two daughters might have to put up with in society," he told "GMA," noting that he's been lucky to have never considered those things before. "Now I'm more alert to what a lot of women are up against," he said, "and I think it's really switched me up to that cause."

Samira Wiley plays Moira on "The Handmaid's Tale." She's June's best friend, meaning she's along for the ride as Elisabeth Moss's character tries to spark a revolution. Wiley told Daily Actor in 2025 that she never imagined the show would last this long, especially considering the first season covered the entirety of the source material. She's certainly not complaining, though, telling the outlet, "Every single season, I have been pleasantly surprised."

Wiley is no doubt happy to have stuck around throughout the show's run. After all, she was part of the cast of "Orange is the New Black" as a fan-favorite character named Poussey, and on that show, she met quite the tragic end. "Orange is the New Black" gave her something else, though: the love of her life. Ever since that show, Wiley has been in a relationship with Lauren Morelli, one of the writers behind the Netflix hit. 

The couple had some things to work out before they could be together. "I'd already seen Samira's audition tape and immediately had a crush on her — the complication being that I was married to a man at the time," Morelli told Out Magazine. "I had started questioning my sexuality as a result of being in the writers' room and talking about all the themes on the show ... I knew the attraction between us felt magnetic." Morelli eventually divorced her husband, and she and Wiley married in 2017.

Ever Carradine plays Naomi on "The Handmaid's Tale," the wife of Bradley Whitford's sinister Commander Lawrence. The two apparently got along great on set, even goofing around behind the scenes to lighten the mood as they acted out some pretty dark material. Carradine told People, "In order to play that uptight, you kind of got to be relaxed. And Bradley keeps me laughing all the time. I'm never not laughing if Bradley's on set, and that keeps you relaxed."

Off-screen, Carradine is married to a musician named Coby Brown. They've been together for a long time and are the parents of two children. Shortly after they married in 2005, Brown was diagnosed with bone cancer. The road to recovery was a years-long process. In a 2023 Instagram post, Carradine shared a photo of herself kissing her husband back in 2006, writing, "My @sagaftra healthcare covers our family and is the reason he got the best medical care there is." 

Brown is a supportive spouse, too, wishing his wife a happy birthday on Facebook in 2024. On the occasion of her 50th birthday, he wrote, "You're a game changer and we're all just a little bit better off for your presence on the planet." 

"The Good Wife" star Josh Charles joined the cast of "The Handmaid's Tale" in the show's final season, playing a new character named Commander Wharton. Before the season premiered, Charles' role was kept significantly under wraps. He told Entertainment Weekly that he liked it that way, musing that people pay too much attention to casting announcements these days and ruin the surprise. "In today's world, we know everything about everything before it's even seen," he said. "And so I think the element of surprise is important for any narrative structure. I think it's helpful."

While Charles's on-screen role remains a bit of a mystery, his off-screen life has been more public. Charles once dated Sheryl Crow, but now he's married to Sophie Flack, a former ballet dancer and jewelry maker best known for writing a book called "Bunheads." In 2024, the couple gave Architectural Digest a tour of their New York City apartment, noting all of the open space where they can play with their two children. "On weekends, we sometimes throw a picnic blanket on the rug and let the kids eat dinner at the coffee table while we watch a movie, or they like to put on dance performances," Flack said. "We give our sofa a lot of love."

Like Josh Charles, Timothy Simons joined the final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" in a role that was kept mostly a secret. His character is called Commander Bell, and as you might be able to tell from his Gilead-appointed title, he's not a good guy. "It's fun playing bad guys," Timothy grinned to Hollywood Elite. He said he took inspiration from certain political figures he didn't want to name, noting, "It's not always like, mustache-twirling, you know? It's usually just like, some people who see a system that's working great for them, and they try their hardest to [maintain it]."

Timothy Simon played a killer's loyal husband in "Candy," but in real life, he has been married to his wife Annie Simons since 2008. On the occasion of their tenth anniversary, he wrote on Instagram, "We've literally traveled the entire country together so let's keep it going." They have two kids together, and Timothy told People that he's had to carefully decide which of his acting gigs his kids get to watch. They were particularly excited about his part in "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," but Timothy and his wife have chosen to keep one of his roles for when they're older. "We haven't shown them 'VEEP' yet," he said, "for very obvious reasons."

In the world of "The Handmaid's Tale," Gilead has taken over, but the United States government still functions in exile. Sam Jaeger plays Mark Tuello, a representative of that government who gets caught up in the rebellion that June is trying to launch against Gilead. Heading into the show's final season, Sam warned Louisville Public Media that fans shouldn't necessarily expect a happy ending for a show like this. "If it all ends hunky-dory, then what was the point? It's a cautionary tale," Sam pointed out. "It has to feel like one."

In real life, Sam is in a relationship with an actor named Amber Jaeger. He wrote a movie called "Take Me Home" around her, planning to shoot it guerilla-style whenever they had time on the weekend. The process took eight years, and over the long course of filming, they got married and wound up having kids. Being pregnant naturally changed Amber's body, and Sam pointed out to Paste that you can tell something was different at the end of the film than she was toward the beginning. "We can also give [my son] credit for my wife's boobs in that last scene," he said. "She was pregnant and she's walking down the shore and I just said, 'Honey, you're going to have to tuck those things in somehow, or we're going to have a major continuity problem.'"