‘Gilmore Girls’: Alexis Bledel Dated All But 1 of the Actors Who Played Rory’s Boyfriends
Life imitated art when Gilmore Girls star Alexis Bledel dated all but one of the actors who played her on-screen boyfriends. Bledel was only 18 when she landed her most iconic role in the hit series. During her time on set, Bledel formed several lifelong friendships, including with her on-screen mother, Lauren Graham (Lorelai). She also found love more than once, dating all but one of the actors who played Rory’s boyfriends.
Alexis Bledel dated all of her character’s boyfriends except one
Bledel played Rory Gilmore throughout Gilmore Girls‘ seven seasons (as well as the much-maligned Netflix revival). Throughout the series, her character has three significant relationships.
First with Dean Forrester (Jared Padalecki), then with Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia), and, finally Logan Huntzberger (Matt Czuchry). As it turns out, Bledel dated more than one of these actors.
Bledel and Padalecki dated briefly for one year. The rumors of their involvement at the time remained pure speculation as they neither publicly confirmed nor denied them.
However, Padalecki confirmed the story in 2021, telling Glamour that he and Bledel dated because they “were both 17 years old and were both Texans and kind of in this new strange city [Los Angeles].”
But the most prominent romance in the Gilmore Girls set was between Bledel and Ventimiglia. Ventimiglia played Bledel’s character’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, Jess. When the actor joined the cast in 2002, he and Bledel fell for each other and began dating the following year. At the time, he was 25, and she was 21.
Ventimiglia and Bledel were serious and, at one point, even considered getting married. However, after four years of dating, the pair announced their split. The former couple didn’t explain why they broke up, but the split appeared amicable.
Alexis Bledel also dated a third ‘Gilmore Girls’ co-star
Ventimiglia and Padalecki weren’t the only Gilmore Girls actors Bledel dated in real life. According to the series’ casting director, Bledel also had a short-lived romance with one of the guest stars on the show. Mara Casey spilled the beans to Life & Style Magazine, saying Alexis Bledel dated “a young New York actor named Chris Heuisler,” after her romance with Padalecki ended and before dating Ventimiglia.
Heuisler played a member of the Stars Hollow basketball team named Peter in season 2, episode 11. The actor’s character wasn’t given a surname as he wasn’t meant to stick around for long, only appearing in one episode. He and Bledel might not have shared much time on screen, but they dated briefly in 2002.
Given her past track record, it seems natural that Bledel would have also dated Czuchry, who played Rory’s Yale boyfriend, Logan. However, the two remained platonic off-screen. Czuchry joined the show in season 5, and, like Padalecki and Ventimiglia, came back for the revival.
Who is Alexis Bledel dating today?
While her relationships on Gilmore Girls didn’t pan out, Bledel later dated another co-star, which led to her marriage. In 2012, she and Mad Men star Vincent Kartheiser began dating. The two met on the set of the AMC show while Bledel was a guest star.
Bledel and Kartheiser got engaged the following year and tied the knot in 2014. In May 2016, news broke that they’d welcomed their first child, a son, in 2015. The pair stayed married for nearly a decade, but on Aug. 10, Kartheiser filed for divorce from The Handmaid’s Tale actor. The divorce was finalized on Aug. 26, 2022.
