In November 2015, Two and A Half Men star Holland Taylor officially confirmed that she was gay — and that she was actually dating a younger woman. At the time, the actress was about one and a half months shy of her 73rd birthday.

Taylor is a thoroughly seasoned Hollywood pro. She not only has more than five decades’ worth experience in the industry, she is also the recipient of multiple accolades for her work. Among these are nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including one win for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series” in 1999.

This recognition was for another one of her most prominent roles: Between 1998 and 2003, Taylor played Judge Roberta Kittleson on ABC’s legal drama series The Practice. She is also synonymous with her work in Ryan Murphy’s Netflix miniseries Hollywood, and the one-woman play Ann, which she also wrote.

In TAAHM, Taylor portrayed Evelyn Harper, described as “the conceited and self-centered bisexual mother” of Charlie and Alan Harper. The latter roles were played by Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer respectively. Despite not having confirmed her sexual orientation at the time, Taylor’s role was in keeping with her regular typecasting in “tough female” roles.

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Speaking about this tendency to stereotype her, Taylor referred to it as “creative laziness” on the part of the powers that be. Perhaps that was part of the reason why she was so wary to be open about her sexuality before.

Holland Taylor Started Dating Sarah Paulson In June 2015

Sarah Paulson Holland Taylor

Holland Taylor formally confirmed that she was gay on November 30, 2015, during an interview with WNYC. Simultaneously, she disclosed that she was in fact seeing a significantly younger woman, although she declined to reveal her identity. Rumors started swirling that the woman in question was Sarah Paulson.

These whispers would later come to be proven true, with the pair having started going out about six months prior. Paulson and Taylor are said to have met for the very first time at a dinner party in 2005, although they were both in separate relationships at the time.

Paulson herself had been less reserved about her orientation, having openly dated other women before Taylor. When their paths crossed for that first time, the future American Horror Story star was dating The West Wing and 24’s Cherry Jones.

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Despite this, Paulson was keen not to be put in a box. Speaking about how she identified, she said: “If my life choices had to be predicated based on what was expected of me from a community on either side, that’s going to make me feel really straitjacketed, and I don’t want to feel that.”

Why Did Holland Taylor Take So Long Before Starting To Talk About Her Sexuality?

Holland taylor movies
Via: Twitter and EW

The question of when — sometimes “if” — to come out is often a pretty sensitive one in a world that is still not very accepting of gay people. It is not much of a surprise, then, that Holland Taylor waited until she was 72 to publicly confirm her sexual orientation. After all, prejudice towards the LGBTQ community was even more rife in her younger years.

In her conversation with WNYC, she confirmed that she had indeed grappled with the decision. “Well I feel at this point in the conversation it feels kind of awkward. Now I feel very very shy of it,” she said.

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I’ve been really wrestling with this lately,” Taylor continued. “Because most of my relationships have been with women and I don’t like talking about them because I don’t like talking about the politics of it all because I’m not political about it. I think we’re ridiculous in this country (the US) about it. Ridiculous.”

Is Holland Taylor Still Dating Sarah Paulson?

Sarah Paulson Holland Taylor
Via Instar

A few years before Holland Taylor started dating Sarah Paulson, she had tragically lost her mother. This seismic life event had triggered a process of introspection, which led her to the conclusion that none of her relationships until that point had grown deep in a very meaningful way.

“I just suddenly got the sense that I was living a very shallow life,” Taylor reflected. “I had not had wonderful relationships. I had stayed very solo.” Thanks to this realization, she had gone into her involvement with Paulson with a lot more care and thoughtfulness.

She referred to that particular relationship as her first-ever deeply committed one. Nearly eight years later, this bond was demonstrated in an Instagram post that Paulson shared on the occasion of her partner’s 80th birthday.

“You are sitting at the counter not 15 feet from me, drinking your chocolate coffee as usual… I am happiest this way — YOU near,” Paulson captioned a photo of Taylor. “You’ve changed me. In all the important ways. Sharing my life with you has made everything else make sense. Happiest Birthday to you, Holland V. Taylor. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for loving me. I will never be the same.”