Linda Cardellini isn't sure if she and fiancé Steven Rodriguez will ever officially get married, even after 13 years of being engaged. The actress addressed the status of their relationship in an exclusive interview with E! News at the 2026 Emmy Awards on September 14.
"We've done all the hard stuff," Cardellini told Justin Sylvester during an interview on Live From E!: 2026 Emmys. "We're doing all the real stuff."
Cardellini arrived at the ceremony already a winner, having taken home the award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. The Primetime Emmy Awards, handed out annually, recognize excellence in American television across acting, writing and production categories.
The 51-year-old, who shares 14-year-old daughter Lilah-Rose with Rodriguez, joked that a wedding ceremony is really all that's left on their to-do list. "We have giant families," she said, "so that's an enormous party that we've been planning for 16 years."
A Wedding Still in the Planning
Cardellini stars in DTF St. Louis and looked, in the description of the red carpet coverage, stunning in a Yara Shoemaker gown, with her skin prepped using Skinbetter Science products ahead of the ceremony.
She and Rodriguez, a makeup artist, have kept the practical side of their commitment quiet for years, with Cardellini's Emmys comments offering a rare update on where things stand after more than a decade of being engaged.
How They Met
Their history goes back even further than the engagement. Cardellini and Rodriguez first met in elementary school, when she was 11 and he was 12 and a half, though it took years before they reconnected and became a couple.
"We had been friends for a long time, and then one day 10 years ago, somebody mentioned to me that he had moved to L.A. to do makeup," Cardellini told Into the Gloss in 2015. "I ran into him and was like, 'Do my makeup! It'll be really fun for both of us!' And then about five years ago we got together."
The arrangement has stuck. "He does my makeup for red-carpet and editorial stuff," she added at the time. "Sometimes I'll do it myself and he'll be like, 'Do you want me to fix that?'"
Life Away From the Spotlight
Cardellini, a Freaks and Geeks alum, has largely kept her relationship with Rodriguez out of the public eye, but has spoken before about how central he is to her life.
"I was never a party person who had tons of friends. I have a lot of close friends and I keep them for a long time," she told The Cut in 2019. "My other half, he's one of them. I guess I love to go through life collecting amazing people."
Cardellini's Emmys win and her candid comments about the relationship come as the couple continue to weigh whether a formal wedding will ever happen, with the scale of the party they're picturing, given both of their large families, still the main thing standing in the way.
