Aubrey Plaza Misses Golden Globes Just 2 Days After Husband Jeff Baena’s Death

Aubrey Plaza missed the Golden Globes just two days after her husband, Jeff Baena, died by suicide.

While she was originally scheduled to present at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, January 5, Aubrey, 40, opted to skip the awards show. She was announced as a presenter on January 2 alongside other stars including Andrew Garfield, Viola Davis, Demi Moore and Sharon Stone.

Despite not attending the awards show, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet did share his condolences for Aubrey while accepting the Best Director – Motion Picture award. “My heart is with Aubrey Plaza and the family of Jeff Baena,” Brady, 36, said while at the podium.

Jeff died at age 47 on January 3. TMZ reported that authorities responded to a home in the Los Angeles area on January 3 after an assistant discovered his body. The director’s cause of death was later ruled as a suicide, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner.

Aubrey and Jeff first met in 2011, and they tied the knot 10 years later. The pair mostly kept their romance out of the spotlight, though the Parks and Recreation alum did share insight into their wedding while appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in December 2021.

“We got a little bored one night,” Aubrey shared at the time. “We got married and I’ll tell you how: Onehourmarriage.com. That’s real, look it up. It was our 10 year anniversary. We were in the [COVID-19] lockdown and things got a little crazy.”

Aubrey continued, “I just said, ‘Hey, it’s our 10 year anniversary. We should do something like get an ice cream cone or do something special.’ Then I joked about getting married, and he’s like, ‘Well, we probably couldn’t get married that fast.’ I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be nice to get married on our actual anniversary?’ and then I Googled it and I found Onehourmarriage.com.”

The White Lotus star explained she reached out to the company and had to convince an employee to come out that day, and she agreed to pay extra because the officiant was in Alhambra, California, at the time that she and Jeff wanted to wed.

“I created a very quick love altar in our yard. Facts of our love, little stones, smoke, fire. Things of that nature. Then the man from Alhambra showed up,” she continued. “I can’t remember a lot of it, it was fuzzy. But I’m pretty sure it was legal.”

Not only were Aubrey and Jeff romantic partners, but they also collaborated on several projects. She starred in his 2014 directorial debut, Life After Beth, as well as The Little Hours in 2017 and Spin Me Round in 2022. Meanwhile, the duo also worked together when Aubrey made her own directorial debut in 2021 with the found footage anthology series Cinema Toast.

“It was very hectic while we were making the show because we were quarantined and Jeff, he created the show. It was his idea,” Aubrey told People about working with Jeff on Cinema Toast. “Our house became this strange post-production facility and he’s downstairs on his Zooms or on his sessions and I’m upstairs editing, we’re just going back and forth.”

She added that the experience “was very us,” noting that they “were not baking sourdough bread” like others during the COVID-19 lockdown. “We were sifting through hours of old movies and footage and re-cutting them together and just letting our minds go on a trip. So it was great,” Aubrey recalled.