Who Is Mayim Bialik's Boyfriend, Jonathan Cohen?
Mayim Bialik has been in a relationship with Jonathan Cohen for some years, but she kept it largely away from the public eye until their love turned into a professional partnership. In January 2021, the "Jeopardy!" host and Cohen launched "Mayim Bialik's Breakdown," a podcast that seeks to break the taboo around mental health through science. The couple is able to do that because Bialik is a real-life scientist with not only a B.S. but also a Ph.D. from UCLA. "I'm a neuroscientist, so I bring the science piece," she told Jewish News Syndicate in February 2021.
The inspiration for their podcast came amid the worldwide uptick in depression and anxiety brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. "So many people didn't even know what to call it or what it was or what you could do about it. So we decided to start a podcast," the "Big Bang Theory" alum told Forbes. But the nature of their relationship pre-pandemic is still a bit of a mystery. It's still unclear when they started dating, for example. We know they met more than a decade ago at a kid's birthday party because they've said as much on the "Mayim Bialik's Breakdown" website.
But their romantic relationship didn't start until several years later, given that Bialik was in a relationship between 2013 and 2018 with someone whose identity remains unknown. While Bialik still mainly discusses Cohen in terms of their work, their podcast has given some insight into her shared life with Cohen.
Jonathan Cohen has a background in arts and film studies
Jonathan Cohen is the scriptwriter for "Mayim Bialik's Breakdown," a role he shares with Mayim Bialik. "My partner Jonathan Cohen and I work on it together; we are creative and writing partners," she said in her Jewish News Syndicate interview, attributing to him the main role of writer. And Cohen has the background to show for it, too. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria, a skillset he expanded upon with a Master of Fine Arts from the AFI Conservatory, where he specialized in film studies and honed his writing chops, according to his LinkedIn.
Despite his creative background, Cohen also has an interest in technology. Combining both of his passions, he co-founded Lotic.ai, a wellness app that integrates science and storytelling to help users get to know themselves better and make healthier choices. Cohen started his professional journey in Los Angeles, though he hails from Canada, a country he moved back to around 2013 to work for the design firm Ideas Couture.
His journey back to California from Toronto in 2018 was motivated by personal reasons, though. Cohen is a father, and the 2,500 miles between him and his kid became too much. "This is the start of a big adventure. For the second time in 5 years, I've shed the majority of my personal belongings and headed west (this time to be closer to my son)," he captioned a July 2018 Instagram post.
Mayim Bialik was previously married
After rising to prominence as a child actor, Mayim Bialik largely left the industry and went the academic route instead. In college, Bialik met Michael Stone, whom she married in 2003. In October 2005, when they were both pursuing their graduate degrees, Bialik and Stone welcomed Miles. In August 2008, they added Frederick to the brood. The birth of her children changed Bialik's life in many ways. "We fell in love with parenting and with being parents, and specifically with me being the primary caregiver," she told The Jerusalem Post in 2012.
That choice prompted Bialik to return to acting. Being home with her sons made her career as a researcher impossible while acting offered more flexibility. "I had never done acting as an adult and I thought, well, maybe I'll work here and there," she explained. But her hopes for being an actor part-time went down the drain when she became a regular on "The Big Bang Theory" in 2010. Unfortunately, Bialik and Stone's marriage only lasted two years beyond it. In November 2012, the couple announced the end of their nine-year marriage.
Some suggested, including the hosts of "The View," that Bialik's divorce was the result of her embrace of attachment parenting. "It leads to detachment marriages, is what it leads to," Joy Behar argued. But Bialik denied that claim. "The hands-on style of parenting we practice played no role in the changes that led to this decision," she wrote on Kveller.