2 min readAs Hollywood’s quintessential nice guy, Paul Rudd had his breakout role in Clueless in 1995. Around that same time, he also met the woman who would become his wife, Julie Yaeger. Working as a publicist, Yaeger crossed paths with Rudd just as his acting career was beginning to take off, and their professional connection quickly turned into a romance.
About 30 years later, the couple is still going strong. Through Rudd’s rise to A-list status, they’ve built a lasting marriage, raised two children, and built one of the industry’s most enduring love stories.
Ahead, everything to know about Julie Yaeger, the woman who has shared her life with Rudd since the ’90s.
She began her career as a publicist.
Yaeger began her career working as a publicist in New York City, which is how she first met Rudd. Ahead of the 1995 premiere of Clueless, Rudd’s breakout movie role, he was newly signed to the firm that Yaeger worked at.
In April of 1998, they made their relationship red-carpet official, at the premiere of Rudd’s rom-com The Object of My Affection.
In a 2018 interview with Marie Claire, Rudd recounted their first meeting. “She was the first person I met in New York,” the actor said. “We started talking and there was a maturity with her—she had experienced some tragedy in her life, I had too, and the impression I got was, wow, this is a woman. This isn’t a girl. I was really taken with who she was and how she had overcome and was in the process of overcoming adversities in her life.”
She went on to become a screenwriter and producer.
Following her time as a publicist, Yaeger expanded into screenwriting and producing. She wrote the 2017 film Fun Mom Dinner, which starred Katie Aselton, Toni Collette, Bridget Everett, and Molly Shannon. Rudd even made a cameo in the comedy.
The couple later teamed up again on the 2026 drama Rain Reign, with Rudd starring in the film and Yaeger serving as a producer under her married name, Julie Rudd.
She married Paul in 2003.
After dating for about eight years, Rudd and Yaeger married in a private ceremony in 2003. True to their low-key relationship, the couple has not publicly shared many details about their wedding.
They have two children.
Rudd and Yaeger have kept their family life largely out of the spotlight, but the couple shares two children: son Jack Sullivan Rudd, whom they welcomed in 2006, and daughter Darby Rudd, who was born in 2010. The siblings made a rare public appearance alongside their parents in 2015 at Rudd’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.
The couple co-owns a sweet shop in Rhinebeck, New York.
Beyond their Hollywood collaborations, Yaeger and Rudd are also co-owners of Samuel’s Sweet Shop, a candy store in Rhinebeck, New York. They share ownership with fellow actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton. The four stepped in to keep the beloved local business open after its previous owner died.