Meet the Real-Life Loves of The Diplomat Cast (Including One Couple That’s Married On-Screen and Off!)

Tensions are high on Netflix’s The Diplomat, which follows U.S. ambassador Kate Wyler as she’s tasked with stopping a potential war while her marriage to a political superstar is hanging on by a thread.  

Luckily, the cast’s real-life love stories are far less dramatic. 

Keri Russell, who plays Kate, admitted to PEOPLE that her character’s relationship with former diplomat Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) is “complex.” But she also argued that the second season feels “very mature” and shows the “realities of knowing somebody for so long,” something she can relate to in her over decade-long relationship with Matthew Rhys.

Season 2 of The Diplomat, which was released on Oct. 31, raises the stakes even higher in Kate and Hal’s on-again, off-again dynamic. There’s also the undeniable chemistry she has with British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), and the awkward tension between her right-hand man Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh) and CIA station chief Eidra Park (Ali Ahn). 

While the characters’ relationship statuses remain a question mark on-screen, many of the actors who portray them have long-term partners.

Here’s everything to know about the real-life loves of The Diplomat cast. 

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys

Before she was defusing international crises in The Diplomat, Russell was an undercover spy in FX’s The Americans from 2013 to 2018. While on set, the actress started secretly dating her costar (and fictional husband), Matthew Rhys. During a 2024 episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast, Russell said that the timing of their relationship was everything. 

“It was such a lark that we got to do that together … at that prime of our lives,” she said. “Had we met when we were 20, we wouldn’t be together. We were just in the right moment.”

The couple went public with their relationship in 2014, and welcomed their son, Sam, in 2016. Russell also has two children — Willa and River — with her ex-husband Shane Deary. 

Rufus Sewell and Vivian Benitez 

Sewell has been in a relationship with actress and former model Vivian Benitez since 2020. In December 2023, she announced their engagement on Instagram with a photo of her diamond ring followed by a selfie of Sewell kissing her on the cheek. The caption read: “till death (or him continuing to walk on bathmats with his outside shoes) do us part.” 

Sewell and Benitez married on July 17, 2024, in a ceremony that she called “perfect.” Though the couple have made a few red carpet appearances, they mostly keep their relationship private.

Benitez occasionally shares photos on her Instagram of their life together, including a series of images from a trip to Wales they took in 2022. 

David Gyasi and Emma Gyasi 

He may have a will-they-or-won’t-they thing with Russell on The Diplomat, but in real life, David Gyasi has been in the same relationship since he was a teenager. In 2021, the British actor told The Standard that he started dating his wife, Emma Gyasi, in sixth form — the final two years of secondary education in the United Kingdom — when she became pregnant with their daughter, Elena. 

“Obviously, the 32-year-old David is very different from me at 19,” he said. “But I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve been allowed to change, and that my wife feels she’s been allowed to change.”

The couple later married and had another child, a son named Nathaniel. 

Ali Ahn and William Jackson Harper 

Ahn met her boyfriend, The Good Place’s William Jackson Harper, while they were both active in the New York theater scene. In 2012, they starred in an outdoor production of Romeo and Juliet, and Harper told the Los Angeles Times that their relationship “just spiraled up into the sky from there.” 

While the couple mostly fly under the radar, Ahn posted a series of Instagram photos with Harper at the 77th Tony Awards in June 2024. She captioned the post: “So proud of @williamjacksonharper. An honor to be his date.” They also attended The Diplomat’s season 2 premiere together in October 2024. 

Rory Kinnear and Pandora Colin

One couple on The Diplomat even exists off-screen.

Rory Kinnear, who plays Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge, has been in a relationship with actress Pandora Colin, who plays Lydia Trowbridge, since 2006. She has also acted in Chernobyl and Aziz Ansari’s Master of None.

Kinnear told The Guardian in 2017 that the couple share two children, Riley and Hope. 

Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole 

The Diplomat’s Michael McKean, who plays President William Rayburn, has been married to Virgin River’s Annette O’Toole for over 25 years. They first met in the 1970s and then reconnected on the set of the 1998 Lifetime movie Final Justice. A year later, they were married. 

“23 years ago, I married my best friend and it is working out beautifully,” the actor posted on X (formerly Twitter) in March 2022. “Thanks for saying yes.”

The couple, who are also musicians, have collaborated on shows like Boy Meets World and Smallville. McKean and O’Toole were even nominated for an Oscar for songs they wrote for the 2003 comedy musical A Mighty Wind.