Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale have been together for almost a decade, but aren't in a rush to get married. According to Byrne, it comes down to being busy, and understandably so. The Brooklyn-based couple share two children: Rocco, 5, and Rafa, 3. Further, the actors had a busy summer: Byrne led the AppleTV+ show Physical and Cannavale is among Nine Perfect Strangers's star-packed cast.
"I keep going, 'Let's get around to it, let's do it,'" Byrne told the Sydney Morning Herald. "And then, you know, you have a baby, and then, oh, there's another baby. It was kind of like that for us." Byrne said the pandemic also pushed their plans.
While it hasn't happened yet, the actors haven't ruled out a wedding. "I love weddings, and I know people [for whom] it's an important thing, and I respect that totally," Byrne said.
Regardless of whether a wedding takes place, the couple refers to each other as "husband" and "wife." According to InStyle Australia, the pair met on the set of Annie in 2012, and have been going strong ever since. Let’s get to know them a little more below, shall we?
Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne met on the set of Annie.
InStyle Australia reported that the two met on the set of Annie, the modern reboot of the original Broadway musical that opened at the Alvin Theatre in 1977. Byrne played Grace, the woman who fills the motherly role for little orphan Annie, who was played by Quvenzhané Wallis. And Cannavale played Guy, a sort of tough political adviser to the Daddy Warbucks character, Benjamin Stacks, who was played by Jamie Foxx.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Cannavale said he wanted to do Annie simply to try something new and break the mold. "I've always wanted to do a musical. Every film I try to do something that I've never done before. It's tough in this business, you know? People see you do something they like and then they just want to see you do it over and over again. That's why I did this movie," he said. He ended up with a life partner, too.
They call each other “husband and wife,” but they’re not technically married.
Who needs labels when you’ve been together for the better part of a decade? Cannavale and Byrne actually refer to each as husband and wife, and they've discussed their aversion to labels in the past.
In a joint profile in January 2020, Vulture quoted Cannavale saying, “I hate all the other words! It’s just easier to say ‘husband and wife.’ ‘Boyfriend and girlfriend’ feels so young. ‘Partner’ feels so sterile. What else could we say? My lover!” Byrne responded, “Sure. My lover, Bobby.”
In December of 2019, Vanity Fair confirmed that Byrne sports two bands on her ring finger but that she and Cannavale, again, are not legally married.
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Byrne and Cannavale have two kids together who are “plotting against them.”
Back in 2020, Cannavale and Byrne made a joint guest appearance on The Stephen Colbert Show, and the two dished about working together professionally while also joining forces to raise their two boys, Rocco, 5, and Rafa, 3. Just some perspective here: their nickname for their 3-year-old is "Seal Team 6."
“Because he’s crazy. And he’s a killer. The little one is just tough,” Cannavale explained. He went on to say that Rocco is more of the "sensitive type," one who likes singing and dancing. But when it comes to domestic domination, the boys stick together.
“We hear them talking about us, like, in the morning before we come in. The 4-year-old helps the 2-year-old out of the sleep sack, so he can climb out of the crib...But they’re talking. They’re conspiring. We can hear them,” Cannavale said. “It sounds like they’re upset about something.” You can watch the clip in full below.
Cannavale has posted stroller pics to Instagram that are too cute.
Featuring his little ones in a double side-by-side stroller, the completely improvised clips he posted to his Instagram are shot from behind and showcase only the tootsies of Rocco and Rafa. Oftentimes, the boys are singing what seems to be their favorite song at the moment, like “Remember Me” from Disney’s Coco. Take a gander at one of the posts below.
Cannavale shares an older son with his ex-wife Jenny Lumet.
Cannavale and Rachel Getting Married screenwriter Jenny Lumet were married from 1994 through 2003. Their son, Jake Cannavale, who’s now 26 and “has tattoos and hair everywhere,” is also in the entertainment industry. His acting credits include movies like Romance & Cigarettes and series like The Mandalorian and Nurse Jackie, on which his father also appeared.
The couple has acted in movies, shows, and plays together.
Over the course of eight years together, the two have shared the screen a handful of times in Annie, Spy, Martha the Monster, Angie Tribeca, Adult Beginners, and a live reading of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.
In 2020, Cannavale and Byrne co-starred in Medea, a modern adaptation of the ancient Greek play written by Euripides, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As he joked with Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest, it's “not the Tyler Perry Madea." For anyone who isn’t familiar with the plot: It’s about a wife whose blind rage toward her cheating husband leads to murder. Yeah, yikes.
We'll let you know if they ever star in a TV show together.
DeAnna Janes is a freelance writer and editor for a number of sites, including Harper’s BAZAAR, Tasting Table, Fast Company and Brit + Co, and is a passionate supporter of animal causes, copy savant, movie dork and reckless connoisseur of all holidays. A native Texan living in NYC since 2005, Janes has a degree in journalism from Texas A&M and got her start in media at US Weekly before moving on to O Magazine, and eventually becoming the entertainment editor of the once-loved, now-shuttered DailyCandy. She’s based on the Upper West Side.
