Aubrey Plaza shatters silence on unimaginable personal tragedy

Aubrey Plaza recently got candid and talked about grief after her late husband Jeff Baena’s death.

On the latest episode of her pal Amy Poehler’s podcast Good Hand, the 41-year-old American actress and comedian was inquired about her life following Baena’s sudden departure from life by suicide at the age of 47 on January 3, 2025.

Poehler revealed that Plaza’s dog, Frankie, had been acting like her “therapy dog” and went on to add, "Just to get it out of the way, people want to see you and want to see how you are; they love you."

She continued, "You've had this terrible, terrible, tragic year. You lost your husband, you've been dealing with that and you've been looking for all different ways in which to feel and find support.”

The 53-year-old American actress and comedian asked, "On behalf of all the people who feel like they know you, and the people who do know you, how are you feeling today?" 

Responding to her question, Plaza said, "Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you."

She admitted, "Overall, I'm here and I'm functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I'm okay, but it's like a daily struggle, obviously.”

The White Lotus star then compared grief to the 2025 movie The Gorge, quipping, "This is a really dumb analogy and it was kind of a joke at a certain point, but I actually mean it. Did you see that movie The Gorge?"

"It's like [an] alien movie or something with Miles Teller. In the movie, there's like a cliff on one side and there's a cliff on the other side, then there's gorge in between and it's filled with all these like monster people that are trying to get them. I swear when I watched it, I was like that feels like what my grief is like … or what grief could be like."

"At all times there's like a giant ocean of awfulness, that's like right there and I can see it. Sometimes I just want to dive into it, and just like be in it. Then sometimes I just look at it, and sometimes I try to get away from it. But, it's always there," Plaza elaborated.