It’s safe to assume that when Sarah Paulson, 42, and Holland Taylor, 74, began dating in 2015 they knew the relationship would raise a few eyebrows.
“My life choices are, um, unconventional,” Paulson revealed in a new interview with The Edit. “I’m with a much older person and people find that totally fascinating and odd, and, to me, it’s the last interesting thing about me. But I do feel a bit unconventional. I am a woman of a certain age who chose not to have children, and who has made my career my priority. I am the captain of my own ship, and I’ve never looked to anyone else to validate that, or tell me it’s okay.”
Some people warned the American Horror Story star that dating Taylor could keep her from getting work. “Early on, when people found out I was with Holland, some said: ‘I think you have to be careful, I’m afraid it’s going to affect your career negatively,’” she revealed. The warnings went in one ear and out the other.
Paulson publicly declared her feelings for the Two and a Half Men alum at the 2016 Emmys when she won for The People v. O.J. Simpson. “It occurred to me, should I not [say ‘I love you’ to Taylor onstage]? And then I thought, why would I not?” Paulson explained. “The fact that I’m having this thought is wrong. But I had a moment of societal concern; wondering if, maybe, people who didn’t know that about me would be like, wait, what? But then you, you know, I did it anyway.”
Taylor, meanwhile, once proclaimed herself “the luckiest person in the world” to be attached to Paulson.