Sarah Paulson, 51, explains why she and Holland Taylor, 83, will never marry

Sarah Paulson has opened up about why she and her long-term partner, Holland Taylor, have never gotten married, and don’t intend to anytime soon.

The American Horror Story actress, 51, has been in a relationship with the Two and a Half Men star, 83, for almost twelve years.

But while Paulson feels ‘as connected to another person as she possibly could’ to Holland, she doesn’t foresee wedding bells in their future.

Speaking on the Chelsea Handler and Catherine Law’s Dear Chelsea podcast on Thursday (12 November), the star confirmed: “I’m happy that I haven’t been married. Because I feel that I’ve maintained some sense of myself in a way.”

Paulson explained: “For marriage to me, somehow, it’s like... the bond, the connectivity I have with Holland, it feels, we talk about it all the time, I feel married to her. But I don’t have, or have never had, the need to, like, have it be something written in stone somehow.”

The two actresses have been in a relationship for 12 years, but have no plans to get married (Getty Images/River Callaway)

Elaborating, she explained that she values ‘freedom’ over a contractual commitment like marriage.

“The stoneness of it makes me want to, like, it gives me the heebie-jeebies,” she added, “I want to feel this kind of freedom.”

The actress clarified: “That’s not about being away from her or being with another person. It’s just about maintaining some sense of my own independence, and I think Holland feels that way too.

“We just have never, ever, ever felt the need to... I don’t know.”

Another reason behind the choice is that neither of them particularly like the word ‘wife’.

Paulson explained: “I don’t like to be called ‘wife,’ either. She doesn’t want to be called ‘wife’ either. We’re not married, first of all, but somehow, it’s, like, the thought of that is just not... I don’t like it... belonging to someone.”

Paulson explained that she and Holland want to maintain a sense of independence (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

But that has no impact whatsoever on their relationship, as she gushed: “I feel as connected to another person as I possibly could to Holland.”

The couple first met at a dinner party in 2005; however, they were both in other relationships at the time.

A decade later, in 2015, they followed each other on social media, and, a tale as old as time, the flirty DMs began.

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, in January 2019, Paulson recalled: "It's a long story. We met a very, very long time ago. I was with someone else; she was, too. We sort of breezed by one another, and then started following each other on Twitter, and then …"

The couple have previously shut down cruel comments about their age gap (Bruce Glikas/Getty Images)

Billy Eichner, who was a guest that evening, jumped in to ask, "Holland Taylor slid into your DMs?"

To which Paulson laughed: "She actually did. Yeah, it's pretty great."

In 2020, she addressed some of the negative comments about the couple’s 32-year age gap and questioned why they received so much backlash when other heterosexual famous couples with a large age gap didn’t.

She told The Guardian: "I don’t remember people going nuts about Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, in terms of their age difference.

"I think people are fascinated by it, because it’s so not typical. Except for if you look around at plenty of well-known or recognisable couples, when they’re heterosexual couples, it just runs rampant, and I don’t see anybody becoming obsessed by those relationships"