Actors finding a connection with their fellow co-stars in real life has become more or less a common feat in Hollywood at this point, and Elizabeth Moss and Fred Armisen were yet another addition to that long list. But, like many others, their love affair couldn’t last long as the pair separated within less than a year, after only 8 months together.
Like most others, they were convinced what they had was true love too, but their harsh realization came to them a bit too soon, and what proved to be a “traumatic” marriage for Moss finally came to an end. But the surprising part in all of this was the fact that the actress’ life-changing role in Mad Men oddly played a role in the end of her marriage with Armisen.
Elisabeth Moss’ Mad Men role oddly played a role in ending her marriage
A pair that was once deemed one of the most adorable couples in the entertainment industry, Elisabeth Moss and Fred Armisen really left the world stunned when they announced their divorce, which was finalized in May 2011. As it turns out, the actress’ career-changing role as Peggy Olson in Mad Men significantly contributed to the end of her marriage.
That’s something that the 58-year-old actor cum comedian confessed himself while talking to podcaster Marc Maron years ago, some time after his divorce. According to Armisen, he was so infatuated with the smash-hit drama’s female lead and the secretary to Don Draper that he couldn’t set her character apart from the actress herself.
In fact, by marrying Moss, he felt he had tied the knot with Peggy.
I was getting to know the other people from the show and her, and it was very, very exciting, and I only got caught up in that part of it. I have a problem with intimacy, where all of a sudden, there’s a real person there… and now, there’s a person behind this. It’s not the girl on Mad Men.
As surprising as that sounds, that’s an honest confession coming from the Saturday Night Live comedian himself. But while that’s that, The Handmaid’s Tale actress, on the other hand, sounded very much like she was still looking for her part in the end of the marriage six years after it ended. As she said while talking about her marriage with The Guardian in 2016,
God, I learned so much that I am still sifting through it. I was young. I was 27, and certainly, I am still young, but now, looking back, six years ago, it seems young. I didn’t know everything about what I wanted, and what I was looking for. I didn’t know everything about what you were supposed to have. With time, I think, you learn who you are, and what you need.
That being said, it’s unarguable that if, as he suggested, Armisen actually thought that Moss would be similar to her onscreen character, his perspective most certainly played a part in destroying their marriage. This is because when he ostensibly realized that she wasn’t Peggy in real life but a different person, he probably came to the conclusion that they weren’t a good match, and the pair decided to put an end to it all.
Elisabeth Moss called her only marriage “traumatic”
While her marriage with Fred Armisen couldn’t last for long, Elisabeth Moss ostensibly didn’t find it in herself to get married again. This is evident from how, while she got into a relationship with Adam Arkapaw after her first and only marriage ended, she didn’t get married again, and announced in January 2024 that she was pregnant with her first child.
One of the reasons behind this could be because of the trauma she had to go through in her marriage with Armisen. In an interview with Vulture in 2014, while shedding light on the same, The Invisible Man actress said: “Looking back, I feel like I was really young, and at the time I didn’t think that I was that young. It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible.”
At the same time, she also emphasized how she felt these unfortunate turn of events only “turned out for the best” for her, saying, “I’m glad that I’m not there. I’m glad that it didn’t happen when I was 50. I’m glad I didn’t have kids. And I got that out of the way. Hopefully. Like, that’s probably not going to happen again.”
Well, for what it’s worth, even Armisen admitted that he thought he was a “terrible husband” while talking to Howard Stern in January 2013 (via US Magazine), so Moss might as well know that she isn’t the only one to feel that way about her only marriage (to date).
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
