Aubrey Plaza has spoken about the importance of “moving forward” following the suicide of her husband, Jeff Baena.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the actress, 41, was promoting her new children’s book when she reflected on the life advice of her grandmother.
‘Life Is A Party’
Plaza reflected on the life advice of grandmother, who said ‘we have to have fun’.
Appearing on the Today show, she told co-host Savannah Guthrie that the book is “a homage” to her beloved relative.
Plaza said: “She taught me from a very young age that life is a party and no matter what happens, we have to have fun and move forward, and so I think this book was inspired by that.
“I think on both sides of my family, I have a lot of witchy women that raised me, so this is an homage to all the women in my life.”
Baena and Plaza began dating in 2011 and married 10 years later. The director-screenwriter and actor often collaborated, including on the Netflix movie Horse Girl and Spin Me Round.
Raised By Witches
Plaza said she had ‘a lot of witchy women that raised me.’
Baena was found dead in his Los Angeles home in January, aged just 47.
Plaza previously opened up about up his death to her former co-star Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast.
She told of her “daily struggle” since Baena’s passing, likening her grief to “a giant ocean of awfulness” depicted in the 2025 film The Gorge.
“Right in this very present moment, I feel happy to be with you,” Plaza said at the time. “Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning and really grateful to be moving through the world. I’m O.K. but you know, it’s like a daily struggle, obviously.”
Tragic End
Baena was pronounced dead after his body was found at his and Plaza’s Los Angeles home in January.
Plaza then compared her grief to the plot of The Gorge, a 2025 science-fiction horror film following two elite snipers who are ordered to guard a deep gorge without knowing what lies inside.
She said that when she watched the Apple TV+ film in February, she thought: “That’s what my grief is like. There’s like a giant ocean of awfulness that’s right there, and I see it, and at some point, I just want to dive into it and be in it.
“Sometimes I look at it. Sometimes I wanna get away from it. But it’s just always there, and the monster people are trying to get me.”
RadarOnline.com revealed in March that Plaza and her late husband had split months before he committed suicide aged 47, sparking fears he took his own life out of heartbreak.
The couple’s rocky marital status was disclosed in a Medical Examiner’s report following the director’s tragic death in January.
Documents said the pair had been separated since November 2024, four months before he died inside their L.A. home.
Plaza had separated from her husband Baena months before his tragic suicide.
Police said they were told the couple had been apart for months, when Plaza moved to New York.
Cops added they were also informed Baena and Plaza spoke on the phone the night before he was discovered.
Baena’s cause of death was also confirmed as suicide in the Medical Examiner’s report.
The docs also added no drugs, alcohol, nor a suicide note were found at the scene.
