Getty Image
Bill Hader and Ali Wong have been publicly dating for close to a year, and the former Saturday Night Live star apparently went to some borderline obsessive lengths to get her attention before they became a couple based on what she had to say about his approach to courtship during a recent stand-up show.
It’s hard to imagine there are a ton of people out there who envision a future for themself that involves dating in their 40s, but that’s the reality comedian Ali Wong found herself facing after divorcing her husband (and the father of her two kids) in 2023 a year after announcing they were separating.
Bill Hader had already gotten a taste of the post-divorce dating life after calling it quits with his former wife (and mother of his three kids) in 2018. He’d previously been romantically linked with Rachel Bilson and Anna Kendrick before engaging in a brief fling with Wong that eventually led to the relationship that continues to this day.
According to Rolling Stone, Wong recently gave audience members who watched her do her thing during the Netflix is A Joke festival in Los Angeles some insight into what led to the two of them becoming an item—which included Hader resorting to a very bold strategy that ultimately paid off for him.
During the set, Wong said she received a phone call from an unnamed man she eventually identified as the Barry star after news of her split with her ex-husband made headlines, saying he called her after getting her phone number from a mutual friend to deliver the following message:
“Hey, I just happened to hear the news about your divorce, and I’ve had a crush on you forever. I actually told my best friend years ago that you were my dream girl, and I know it sounds crazy, but I want you to be my girlfriend.”
Wong told him she was taking the time to explore her options, so while Hader may not have gotten the response he was looking for at first, that didn’t stop him from continuing to pursue her by making sure she was greeted with flowers at every single hotel she stayed at during a trip to Europe in the wake of their initial discussion.
It appears Hader’s decision to follow the lead of every obsessive male protagonist in a 1980s rom-com paid off, as Wong was ultimately won over by his shows of affection and they’ve been A Thing ever since.