At the 2020 Golden Globe Awards, Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon had the honor of presenting the Carol Burnett Award For Achievement In Television to comedian and TV personality, Ellen DeGeneres.The award is a special, honorary accolade bestowed to outstanding individuals by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association 'based on their body of work and the lasting impact that their television career achievements have had on both the industry and audiences.' While presenting the award, McKinnon emotionally opened up on the impact that Ellen had had on her as a young gay artist aspiring to be seen and appreciated."..The only thing that made [discovering I was gay] less scary was seeing Ellen on TV," she said. "She risked her entire life and her entire career in order to tell the truth, and she suffered greatly for it... If I hadn't seen her on TV, I would have thought, 'I could never be on TV. They don't let LGBTQ people on TV.' …So Thank you Ellen for giving me a shot at a good life."And McKinnon has indeed gotten to live a good life, as she shares her incredible success with girlfriend, Jackie Abbott. So just who is the lucky woman who gets to be a part of McKinnon's life?
Very Private Person
McKinnon is a very private person. Very few details of her personal life are ever out in the open for public discourse, and she does not even have any sort of presence on social media. She addressed this in a 2015 appearance at an actors' roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter.
Asked what the sum total of her social media presence was, McKinnon responded, "I send emails. I send text messages to about five people. Other than that, it's absolutely zero. [That's because] I'm very frightened of saying anything. I just... I scare myself, so I don't want to put anything out there that would misrepresent my real feelings... Or mostly, actually, if I had Instagram it would just be pictures of my son, who is a cat!"
It is not surprising, then, that even after being in a relationship with Abbott for a few years now, not much is known about her partner, or their relationship. The two were first sighted together in public at the 2017 Emmy Awards. They sat next to each other during the event, and embraced when McKinnon won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Explored Many Careers
The relationship was seemingly confirmed by RuPaul's Drag Race judge Michelle Visage on her Instagram page after the award ceremony. The singer posted a photo of among others, herself, RuPaul, as well as Abbott and McKinnon. She captioned it, "I have SUCH a crush on #KATEMCKINNON SO HAPPY SHE WON!!! Her girlfriend Jackie was just as lovely as she is!!" Despite this small exposure, Abbott and McKinnon managed to continue keeping details of their love life away from the public eye.
Like her partner, Abbott is also an artist. She has a website where she defines herself as an actor, a photographer and a clown. Her bio on the site reads, "Jackie Abbott is a New York City actor & artist, born in Stamford, Connecticut. [She] explored many careers in her childhood, mostly via finger-painted portraits. Her parents now use them to insulate their attics."
"She graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with her BFA & sense of play intact. During this time, she studied with Olympia Dukakis & worked for Susan Sarandon. There isn't really a joke in there… Also not a joke: she really did study clowning for years."
Unique Passion For Film
Abbott appears to have a unique passion for film, if her IMDb profile is anything to go by. She has written and starred in two short films: a horror titled Thirst and a comedy by the name Miss Sugar Tit.
Like McKinnon, Abbott is also very reserved when it comes to her personal life. Apart from the website, she does not have any notable presence on social media or elsewhere online. It is hard to say whether this is something that they have agreed to do as a couple or it just happens to be one of the things they have in common.
On her part, McKinnon has spoken about why she chose to go down this path of privacy. In a 2018 interview with GQ, she revealed that it was a decision she took while she was still in her early years of adulthood. "I decided in my mid-20s that I didn't feel comfortable sharing personal details like I had in the previous few years," said McKinnon. "And I just have run with that ever since."