Ali Wong jokes that her boyfriend Bill Hader was “upset” about her divorce and had a “forever” crush on her

actress Ali Wong talks about her usually private relationship with her boyfriend Bill Hader.

In her recent Netflix comedy special Ali Wong: Single ladyThe Always be my maybe The 42-year-old star joked that her current boyfriend was “upset” about her split from her ex-husband Justin Hakuta.

“Hey Ali, I happened to hear the news of your divorce today and I have to tell you…I'm excited,” Wong recalled the former saying SNL Star told her over the phone after a mutual friend gave him her number. “I am, Ali, because look, I've always had a crush on you, and in fact I told my best friend years ago that you were my dream woman. And I know this sounds crazy, but I want you to be my girlfriend.”

Before that call, Wong said she had only seen Hader, 46, a few times at random dinner parties.

Timeline of Bill Hader and Ali Wong's relationship

“I didn’t expect the news of my divorce to become so widespread and public,” Wong said. “I was really embarrassed and ashamed, but I didn't realize that all this media was acting like a bat signal, letting all potentially interested men know that I was suddenly available.”

She continued, “I've never been so persecuted in my life.”

After that first phone call between the two actors, Wong revealed that Hader then sent her flowers while she was on tour in Europe.

“I arrived in London and found that this man had sent me a bouquet of flowers,” Wong explained, going on to reveal that Hader had also sent her flowers to Amsterdam, Cologne and Copenhagen.

“I told all my friends and they said, 'Oh my God, that's so cute.' “I'm so jealous,” Wong continued, adding that the men in her life reacted very differently and assumed Hader was some kind of “psychopath.”

“That’s how cheap and lazy men have become,” Wong joked. “That now when a fellow human being commits an act of kindness or a romantic gesture, it must be a symptom of an undiagnosed mental illness.”

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The couple confirmed they were together in April 2023, a year after Wong's divorce. (Wong and Hakuta share two children, daughters Mari, 8, and Nikki, 6. Hader, for his part, is father to Hannah, 14, Harper, 11, and Hayley, 9, with ex-wife Maggie Carey.)

Elsewhere in the same comedy special, Wong praised her breakup for allowing her to “fall in love again.”

“I think I was so focused on finishing the whole time,” she joked. “Because the task is to find a friend, someone who I think is talented, someone who makes me laugh, someone who I have a real connection with, someone who I look up to as an artist, someone who “I would proudly introduce children, my peers and my friends and my mentors, I mean, that seemed impossible, you know?”

She added: “Divorce has a really bad reputation and it can sound really scary and full of bitterness. But then just consider me as an alternative example of how it can be: I am best friends with my ex-husband. I need him badly and I have to respect him.”

Ali Wong: Single lady is now streaming on Netflix.