Aubrey Plaza called on a friend to perform a welfare check on her late husband Jeff Baena in October 2024, according to new reports from the Los Angeles Country Medical Examiner. At the time, around three months before the writer and director died by suicide at 47, Baena reportedly made “concerning remarks” to the actress.
Per Hollywood Reporter, the document notes that Plaza and Baena were “experiencing recent marital difficulties” that led to the couple being separated for four months beginning in September 2024. But their lines of communications remained open. According to the report, Baena sent Plaza a text message on the morning of Jan. 3, just hours before he was pronounced dead at his Los Angeles home after being discovered by his dog walker.
“I think that one of the great things about our careers is that we are forced to be independent, take little breaks, go off and do our things and come back,” Plaza previously told People in 2019 about her relationship with Baena. “So it’s kind of fun. Nothing is ever the same. You don’t want to spend too much time apart. But I think that there’s a way that it can work and there’s a balance in that.”
Plaza has made few public appearances since Baena’s death. She was scheduled to appear at the Golden Globes that week, but skipped the ceremony given the circumstances. During the show, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet acknowledged Baena in his acceptance speech, saying: “Tonight my heart is with Aubrey Plaza and Jeff’s family.”
Plaza later appeared on Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special in February to introduce a performance. Fans pointed out that the actress was wearing a tie-dye shirt, an apparent callback to a hobby she once said Baena picked up during the pandemic. When they got married in 2021 after dating for 10 years, they wore their self-made tie-dye clothes to their impromptu ceremony. “Jeff got really into tie-dyeing during the quarantine,” she said on The Drew Barrymore Show that year. “So I decided that Jeff and I were going to wear tie-dye pajamas that he had made for us.”
In the days following Baena’s death, a statement was released on behalf of Plaza and the Baena and Stern family. “This is an unimaginable tragedy,” it read. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”
Dial 988 in the U.S. to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The Trevor Project, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ youth, is 1-866-488-7386. Find other international suicide helplines at Befrienders Worldwide (befrienders.org).
Source link
