Aubrey Plaza Opens Up to Amy Poehler About Late Husband Jeff Baena

Amy Poehler‘s podcast reunion with her former Parks and Recreation costar, Aubrey Plaza, started on an emotional note.

“Just to get it out of the way, people want to see you. I want to see how you are. They love you, and they want to see you, Poehler said to Plaza on the Tuesday, August 19, episode of her Good Hang podcast. “So, you’ve had this terrible, terrible, tragic year. You lost your husband [Jeff Baena]. You’ve been dealing with that, and you’ve been looking for all different ways in which to feel and find support. And I think I would, on behalf of all the people who feel like they know you and the people who do know you, how are you feeling today?”

Plaza said that at the moment, she felt “happy” to be speaking with Poehler. “Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning and I feel really grateful to be moving through the world,” she added. “I think like, I’m okay, but you know, it’s like a daily struggle, obviously.”

Plaza went on to compare her struggles with grief to the Apple TV+ film The Gorge, which was released one month after Baena’s January death.

“In the movie, there’s like a cliff on one side and then there’s like a cliff on the other side and then there’s like Gorge in between and it’s filled with all these like monster people that are trying to get them,” the actress explained. “And like, I swear when I watched it, I was like, ‘That feels like what my grief is like, or what grief could be like,’ where it’s like at all times, there’s like a giant ocean of just awfulness that’s right there and I can like see it.”

She continued, “Sometimes, I just want to, like, just dive into it and just, like, be in it. And then sometimes I just, like, look at it. And then sometimes I’m like, I just try to get away from it. But it’s always there. It’s just always there. And the monster people are trying to get me like Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy.”

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Poehler wrapped up the topic on a lighthearted note, joking, “Anya Taylor-Joy to me is the example of like the more beautiful you are, the more spaced out your eyes are.”

Baena, who wed Plaza in 2021, died at the age of 47 on January 3. His death was later ruled a suicide. “This is an unimaginable tragedy,” Plaza and Baena’s family said in a statement earlier this year. “We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.”

Multiple outlets later reported that Plaza and Baena had separated in September 2024 but had not officially divorced.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or dial 988. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.