In a new cover story for InStyle, the Beef actress opens up about dating, and how boyfriend Bill Hader fits into her family following her split from ex-husband, Justin Hakuta.
Ali Wong is getting real about dating and aging.
In a new cover story for InStyle, the Beef actress shared her take on finding love again in her 40s and shared some insight into her blended family with boyfriend Bill Hader, ex-husband Justin Hakuta and their two daughters, Mari, 8, and Nikki, 6.
“You just have to shut out all the noise and look at the reality of what’s going on. You know yourself. And this idea that men aren’t attracted to women their age, that’s just not true. Especially men in their 40s, they want to be with a grown up. They want to be with a woman who knows herself. They find that hot,” Wong, who went public with her romance with Hader earlier this year, told the outlet. “They don’t care if you have a belly or loose skin.”
She added of aging, “It’s women who care more and project that onto ourselves because of all the targeting, and all of these people profiting off of us wanting to fix ourselves.”
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While Wong kept her relationship with Hader largely under wraps the last two years despite months of paparazzi photos and hints dropped during her standup gigs, the couple made their official debut as a couple at the Golden Globe Awards in January 2024, sharing a sweet kiss as she accepted her history-making trophies for Beef.
And though Wong and Hader’s PDA packed debut as a couple served as a surprise to some, the funny woman told Access Hollywood the following month that she and Hader had been together for “a minute.”
“We’ve been together for a minute so I guess people didn’t know we were together,” the Always Be My Maybe actress shyly remarked after getting lots of love from fans over that Golden Globes kiss with Hader.
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She continued, “But it’s also — we’re both in our 40s and parents.”
That commonality pared with the relationship they’ve grown over the last two years has resulted in the Barry actor becoming very-much part of the family, with Wong sharing that he has been on-hand during her comedy shows as well as for outings with Hakuta and their kids — including a family outing to check out the striped dress she wore during her Baby Cobra comedy special on display in The Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.
“The last time I saw that dress live was last summer when it was on display at the Smithsonian. And my daughters came with me there, and Bill [Hader] happened to be visiting me, and my ex-husband was with me, too. And it was really, really nice,” Wong recalled. “And my daughter Mari, like, pointed to my stomach [in the display]. She’s like, that’s me. She and my other daughter do take a lot of pride in the fact that they were onstage with me. It’s very sweet.”
What’s also sweet is Wong’s relationship with her ex, with the pair not only serving as co-parents but friends as they navigate life post-divorce.
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“I understand that some people really need to cut the cord, but that never worked for me,” she said of Hakuta, from whom she split in 2022. “Divorces are like snowflakes, there’s truly no two alike.”
Her ex-husband also plays a role in her “non-traditional” version of motherhood, with Wong sharing her gratitude for Hakuta for allowing her to balance both being a mom to their two girls and have a super successful career.
“For me, motherhood was definitely not an end. It was this expansive beginning to so many new chapters. I have them to be grateful for that, too,” Wong explained. “It’s mostly because of her and the father of my children that I’ve been able to do everything I do, but it’s also because of her that I sometimes struggle with being ‘non-traditional.'”
She added of having help, “I was so fortunate that by the time I was going on tour, like, my first big tour, I had the means to pay for my kids to come with me.”