Sarah Paulson Prefers Not to Cohabitate

How do you avoid getting sick of your partner after nearly a decade together? For Sarah Paulson, the answer is simple: Don’t live together. The American Horror Story actress, who has been dating fellow actress Holland Taylor since 2015, attributes much of the success of their relationship to the fact that they each inhabit their own abode, according to Us Weekly. “We don’t live together; that’s the sort of secret,” Paulson said on Monday’s episode of the Smartless podcast. “Holland and I, we spend plenty of time together, but we don’t live in the same house.”

When asked if they might consider separate bedrooms in the same dwelling, Paulson replied, “No, because we like to fall asleep holding hands, Holland and I. We sleep holding hands. I like to sleep near her. I don’t want to be around her the rest of the time.” She laughed as she clarified, “Just kidding.”

The nature of the actresses’ partnership has been called into question before, though mostly surrounding the couple’s age gap. Paulson is 49, while Taylor is roughly 32 years her senior, having celebrated her 81st birthday in January. But Paulson previously told Elle that she isn’t concerned with the “unconventional” nature of their relationship, which very much extends to their housing agreement.

“Holland, before me, had not been in a kind of long-term relationship, whereas Holland is sort of my third more than five-year relationship,” Paulson explained on the podcast. “So, I tend to do that and have more experience doing that. Holland hasn’t. To get to be her age and not having really cohabitated with someone for a long time, I think it was a lot to all of a sudden have me and all my neediness in her space.”

What I’m hearing is that Holland knows how to enact boundaries and that her partner has gotten quite good at respecting them. I guess couples therapy isn’t the only answer, after all.