The Real-Life Partners Of The Cast Of Suits
The real-life partners of the "Suits" cast members are an intriguing cast of characters. Among them, there's a former reality show star, a "cowboy" entrepreneur, and an actual prince. The stars of the USA Network series and their equally successful significant others had reason to celebrate in 2023. According to Nielsen, "Suits" experienced such a powerful surge in popularity on Netflix that it became the most-streamed series of the year — this is despite the show's finale airing in 2019.
Viewers just couldn't seem to get enough of the steamy workplace romance between Rachel Zane (Megan Markle) and Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) or Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and Donna Paulsen's (Sarah Rafferty) long-simmering friends-to-lovers story arc. The wardrobe department's excellent work is yet another valid reason to watch and re-watch the legal drama.
Because of the continued interest in the show, "Suits" stars have appeared in Super Bowl commercials and are constantly asked about the possibility of reviving the series. Of where he thinks Rachel and Mike are in 2024, Adams told ET, "I think they're in Seattle still, saving the world and doing their thing — and wearing a lot of raincoats." He added that they're still "happy" together, which also happens to be the relationship statuses of the actors behind the beloved characters.
Patrick J. Adams loves being married to another actor
Just like his "Suits" character, Patrick J. Adams met his wife at work. At the time, he and Troian Bellisario were both on the cusp of their careers taking off. Adams told Her World that they fell for each other in 2009 while playing love interests in the play "Equivocation." Filming on Bellisario's hit series "Pretty Little Liars" began soon afterward, but Adams was struggling to find steady television work of his own. He told Esquire that losing a role he'd already filmed the pilot for made him lose faith in himself. Luckily, he had a supportive girlfriend. He recalled Bellisario telling him, "No, that thing was dumb, it wasn't what you were supposed to do." And by 2011, "Suits" fans were falling in love with Adams.
During a KTLA 5 interview, Adams revealed that the playwright who penned "Equivocation" served as their officiant when he and Bellisario tied the knot in 2016. By then, Bellisario had appeared in two episodes of "Suits." She and Adams continued their professional relationship in 2018 when Adams directed the short film "We Are Here," which he and Bellisario co-wrote and co-starred in. That same year, the couple appeared together in the sci-fi drama "Clara." Of what it's like working with Bellisario, Adams told Esquire, "It's exciting to have a romantic relationship with somebody you're also so inspired by professionally." Their next big collab was parenthood: Bellisario and Adams welcomed their daughter in 2018.
Prince Harry's Suits regret
Meghan Markle hasn't just appeared in Hallmark movies; she lived the plot of one when a real-life royal fell for her. According to Prince Harry, his future bride first caught his eye on social media, not on "Suits." But in his memoir "Spare," Harry does admit to checking out some of Meghan's steamy love scenes with Patrick J. Adams. He wasn't a fan of their work together, so it's doubtful he contributed to those impressive streaming numbers when the show hit Netflix. "It would take electric shock therapy to get those images out of my head. I didn't need to see such things live," he writes. Harry also revealed that Meghan's future in-laws, William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, had been massive fans of "Suits" before they met the American actor.
By now, you likely know the rest of the fractured fairytale. Meghan invited some of her "Suits" co-stars to her royal wedding in 2018, Sussexit happened, and the rift in the royal family is yet to be fully mended. Harry and Meghan are now busy raising their two children, Archie and Lilibet, in California and making big business moves. Sadly, Meghan hasn't expressed an interest in reviving "Suits" as of this writing. But in 2024, Netflix exec Bela Bajaria revealed that one of the projects the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were developing for the streaming platform was a scripted television series.
Gabriel Macht's wife got her start on reality TV
Gabriel Macht was already married to his wife, Aussie actor Jacinda Barrett, when she was cast on "Suits" as an ex whom Macht's character, Harvey Specter, briefly reconnects with. Barrett has appeared in several other television series, with her longest-running role being in Neflix's "Bloodline."
Before Barrett's acting career took off, she was part of the O.G. reality show franchise — in 1995, she appeared in "The Real World: London." When she joined the cast, modeling work filled her résumé, but she was hoping to trade walking the runway for a career flying the skies. "I was like, 'This sounds interesting: I get to live in London, they'll pay me to get my pilot's license and there will be this little documentary of this five-month period of my life,'" she recalled to the Los Angeles Times. She considers getting cast in the 2003 film "The Human Stain" as her big break, and she married Macht the following year. "My wife is probably one of the more beautiful women in the world," Macht gushed to Glamour in 2009. He also revealed that their relationship began with "a blind date."
Macht and Barrett became first-time parents in 2007 with the arrival of their daughter Satine, and they welcomed their son Luca in 2014. According to Barrett, her family loves to travel. "When it is just the four of us wandering in unknown places I'm so happy," she wrote on Instagram.
Sarah Rafferty met her husband at school
Sarah Rafferty was attending college at Yale when she met her Finnish-born future husband, Santtu Seppälä. Unlike Rafferty, he was not pursuing a career on the stage; Seppälä was at the prestigious Ivy League school to study finance. According to his profile on the Angeleno Group website, Seppälä also played tennis competitively at Yale. When the couple's wedding announcement was published in The New York Times in 2001, he was working as a stock research analyst. He spent two decades working in investment management before becoming the Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at the Angeleno Group, a private equity firm, in 2021.
Rafferty doesn't talk about her husband often, but he was photographed with her at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. And according to Rafferty's "Suits" co-star Gabriel Macht, he attended Rafferty and Seppälä's wedding. Macht once said that he and Rafferty had become good friends nearly two decades before they were cast together as friends with romantic tension.
According to Rafferty, she and Seppälä are an active pair. "My husband and I will do hot yoga and hike," she told Good Housekeeping. They also enjoy their family time with their daughters, Oona and Iris. "I love when my husband gets up before me and makes Finnish pancakes — essentially crêpes," Rafferty said. "He'll make them for the girls, then I get up and make coffee. That's perfect."
Gina Torres found love outside her industry
Gina Torres and "The Matrix" star Laurence Fishburne called it quits in 2016 after 14 years of marriage. Her next serious romance was with someone who didn't have to worry about being swarmed by fans every time he stepped out in public. In 2017, she was spotted kissing a man Page Six identified as Kevin Wright, an entrepreneur who once worked in real estate. The Montana native reportedly has six children from a previous relationship. "He's the opposite of a Hollywood guy — he's just a cowboy type. He's an 'I'm going to go ride my horse' type of guy," a source told Page Six.
After Torres decided to go public with her new relationship, she briefly spoke about why it's like a romantic comedy on "The Tamron Hall Show." She confirmed that Wright really is a cowboy, so two very different worlds collided when he fell for the beauty of the Bronx. According to Torres, their love story began on the beach with a moment straight out of a Nicholas Sparks movie. "I ran out of a wave," she said of what she was doing right before she met Wright. In true rom-com fashion, she also wasn't looking for love when Wright first laid eyes on her — but she found it. "Love is good," she said. (If Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are looking for inspiration for their next Netflix project, they might want to give Torres a call.)