Rachel McAdams has kicked off 2026 with major moments both personally and professionally. The Mean Girls and The Notebook star was recently honored with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where she delivered a heartfelt speech acknowledging her longtime partner, screenwriter Jamie Linden, calling him her “North Star” and expressing gratitude to family and longtime collaborators.
While McAdams has spent much of her career letting her work speak for itself, renewed attention has sparked interest in her life offscreen — including her relationship, her role as a mother, and the acclaimed body of work that has made her one of Hollywood’s most beloved stars. Learn more below.
Yes — McAdams is a mom of two children with Linden. They welcomed their son in 2018 and their daughter in 2020, but McAdams has deliberately kept her kids’ lives private, never sharing their names or photos publicly.
No — McAdams and the screenwriter are not married, though they’ve been in a committed relationship since about 2016 and are raising their two children together. They rarely appear publicly as a couple and keep details about their partnership largely out of the spotlight, though McAdams has referred to him affectionately in recent public remarks.
Before her relationship with Linden, McAdams was linked to a few high-profile partners. Most notably, she dated her The Notebook co-star Ryan Gosling in the mid-2000s, a relationship that drew significant public attention at the time. She was also in a multi-year relationship with actor Michael Sheen from around 2010 to 2013.
McAdams has built a diverse and acclaimed acting career over more than two decades. She first gained breakout fame with roles in Mean Girls and The Notebook in 2004 and continued to headline films such as Wedding Crashers, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Midnight in Paris, About Time, and the Doctor Strange franchise. She’s also appeared on television, most notably in True Detective (Season 2), and has taken on theater work, including a Broadway role in Mary Jane.
