Actor Paul Mescal has made a rare comment on his relationship with singer Gracie Abrams.
Mescal said “everything to do” with his relationship with Abrams is “deeply precious” and he wants “to protect those things fundamentally” from the public eye.
The Irish actor, who was previously in a relationship with “Motion Sickness” singer Phoebe Bridgers, expressed a desire to start a family in the near future.
“I love babies with very adult names,” he told Rolling Stone, “I would love to have a family. I’m not like, ‘I want them tomorrow,’ but I would love to have kids.”
The Normal People star, 28, and “Close to You” singer Abrams, 24, first sparked rumours that they were dating when they were seen in a restaurant together in June last year.
Abrams confirmed the relationship on social media this summer with an Instagram post of herself and Mescal lying in the sunshine at Glastonbury Festival, where she performed on The Other Stage.
Mescal found fame when he appeared as bookish and athletic Connor Waldron in Normal People alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones, leading to avid interest in his romantic life outside of the show.
But the actor said last year that he would be determined to keep his love life private, following media attention after his split from Bridgers.
“When Normal People came out, I was very forthright in interviews, and it didn’t actually serve me,” he told Vanity Fair.
“But the temptation still exists to be like: ‘Shut the f*** up. This is my life. This is what’s going on. Or this is what’s not going on.’”
He then explained how speaking publicly about his relationship wouldn’t benefit him.
“But moving forward as much as I can, that’s going to be my life, that is private. That’s a difficult thing to achieve. But giving strangers an answer about my life doesn’t actually help me,” he said.
Mescal previously told The Guardian that he and Bridgers were “reported to be engaged”. However, the magazine later retracted the claim, which sparked rumours that the pair had split.
Abrams rose to widespread fame with hits including “That’s So True” and “Close to You” and performed as an opening act for Taylor Swift’s Era Tour in 2023 and 2024.
Her father is the Star Trek and Star Wars filmmaker JJ Abrams.
