Inside Christine Baranski’s Relationships and Dating History

Unlike her professional life, not much is known about Christine Baranski’s relationships and dating history.

Baranski is an American actress who has garnered multiple awards, including a Primetime Emmy and two Tony Awards. She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance as Maryann Thorpe on the comedy Cybill (1995-1998).

Baranski is well noted for her appearances as Diane Lockhart in the legal drama series The Good Wife (2009-2016) and its spin-off series The Good Fight (2017-2022), and as Agnes van Rhijn in the HBO Max historical drama The Gilded Age (2022-present).

Baranski is a very private person, so not much is known about her relationships. However, this is also because she has been with just one person since she entered the entertainment industry — her husband.

Baranski has been together with her husband, Matthew Cowles, before 1983. The duo got married in October 1983 and were together till his death on May 22, 2014.

Here is all we know about the couple.

Christine Baranski’s dating history with Matthew Cowles

Not much is known about Baranski’s dating history with Cowles. This is because the pair were very secretive about their dating history.

It is reported that the pair originally met in 1982 while working on the play Ghosts. Cowles asked Baranski if she wanted a ride home on his motorbike after their rehearsal, and they have since started dating.

Christine Baranski with her husband, Matthew Cowles. (Source: Instagram)

A year later, the pair got engaged and tied the knot in an intimate ceremony. They relocated to Cowles’ 18th-century home in Connecticut, where they raised two children — Isabel and Lily.

Isabel was born in 1984. When she was born, Cowles decided to stay at home while Baranski pursued a career in the entertainment business.

Lily was born on September 7, 1987. After their second daughter was born, Cowles raised his two children and returned to the industry. 

Before studying law, Isabel followed in her parents’ footsteps, appearing in television series and films from 1993 until 2004. Lily, on the other hand, is an actress known for her role as Isobel Evans in Roswell, New Mexico, and Helen Park in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Lily holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies from Princeton University. After graduating from Princeton University, she moved to Los Angeles. 

She began her career in Hollywood as a personal assistant to Jonah Hill during the production of True Story. In 2015, she made her acting debut with Enchantments.

Lily also appeared in the political comedy BrainDead on many occasions in 2016. She subsequently appeared in the CW remake of Roswell, dubbed Roswell, New Mexico. 

She debuted as Park in the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in 2020. She reprised her role as Park in Call of Duty: Mobile.

In 2023, she portrayed Zendara in the video game, Immortals of Aveum.

Matthew Cowles’ death 

Cowles was a family man who had very good relationships with his wife and children. He loved his family a lot and always prioritized them.

Unfortunately, he died from congestive heart failure on May 22, 2014. At the time of his death, he was 69 years old. 

It was very difficult for Baranski after the death of her husband. She talked about Cowles’s death with Variety less than seven months after his death and said that it had been a tough year for her.

She noted, “I lost extraordinary people in my life, but I have a beautiful grandson, my wonderful Good Wife colleagues, and the beautiful people associated with the film here tonight.”

Since her husband’s death, The Big Bang Theory actress has not been in any new relationships. She often talks about how much she misses and loves her husband, years down the line of his death.

Talking to Parade in 2017, she said, “I’m always shifting my weight and trying to figure out how to keep my balance. My entire life has been about having a really active career, children, and marriage — now my daughters are grown up, I’m a grandmother and I have another major job. Sometimes one aspect of your life requires more attention than another.”

She pointed out that there was no shortcut to grief. Just a couple of months after Cowles passed away, she had to be back in front of a camera.

However, this helped her since she was with her “community of people.” They all knew and loved her so going back to work was good for her.

Regardless, she was numb and missed her husband a lot. She said, “The death of a loved one is not only deeply sad but also very disorienting. When you’ve had a 30-year marriage and sat across from this person every morning having coffee, it’s so strange. Someone is there and then suddenly they’re not there to talk to ever again.”

But Baranski knew that she had to change her life for the better. So, the second summer without her husband, she traveled to Europe and took a course at Oxford. 

This way, she felt like the next chapter of her life was beginning. All in all, Baranski has moved on with her life after her husband’s death and is focusing more on her relationships with her children and their family.

Who was Matthew Cowles?

Cowles was an American actor and dramatist. He was born in New York City as the son of Chandler Cowles, an actor and theatre producer. 

On Broadway in 1966, Cowles performed the title character in Edward Albee’s short-lived version of James Purdy’s comedic novel Malcolm. He co-starred with Al Pacino and John Cazale in Israel Horovitz’s 1968 film The Indian Wants the Bronx.

Cowles joined The Mirror Theatre Ltd’s Mirror Repertory Company in 1983 for their inaugural season, appearing in Paradise Lost, Rain, Inheritors, and The Hasty Heart.

His first television role was as Joe Czernak in the series NYPD in 1969. He received Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series in 1978 and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Daytime Drama Series in 1981, both for his role as Billy Clyde Tuggle in All My Children, which he created and scripted.

Cowles’s debut film was the comic drama Me, Natalie in 1969, in which he portrayed Harvey Belman. He appeared in Martin Scorsese’s film Shutter Island in 2010 as a supporting character.

He has appeared in three short plays for the public radio program and podcast Playing on Air.