Heavy/Getty Actress Andie MacDowell at a press event for "The Way Home" in December 2023
In the second season of Hallmark‘s hit series “The Way Home,” actress Andie MacDowell‘s character — family matriarch Del Landry — will bravely navigate a new romance, she recently revealed. But MacDowell has no plans to follow in her footsteps.
At 65, the twice-divorced actress has lost interest in dating and that “people finally gave up” asking her about it, she revealed on “The Drew Barrymore Show” during an interview that aired on January 24, 2024.
“There’s nothing wrong with being single,” MacDowell declared, adding that she’d rather cultivate her female friendships and that most of the men in her life are gay, on purpose.
Here’s what you need to know:
Andie MacDowell Says Most People Have Stopped Asking Whether She’s in a Relationship
During their chat on “The Drew Barrymore Show” couch, Barrymore, 48, asked MacDowell, 65, whether she’s dating anyone, which led to both women declaring that they are “so single.”
MacDowell then said, “Yeah, but you need to date. I don’t.”
Pressed by Barrymore to explain why, MacDowell said, “You’re young, you know? You should do it now, ’cause you get older, you just care less, I hate to tell you.”
MacDowell has been married twice, according to Today — first to former model Paul Qualley from 1986 to 1999, and again from 2001 to 2004 to businessman Rhett Hartzog. She and Qualley share three grown kids — daughters Margaret, 29, and Rainey, 34, and son Paul, 38.
Since her divorces, MacDowell told Barrymore, she has fielded countless questions about her love life. In early 2023, she even agreed to try a dating app. But having been single for so long, she now says most people have finally stopped asking.
“I got really tired — people finally gave up, ’cause everybody would always say, ‘So, is there a man?’ I was just like, you know,” MacDowell said, rolling her eyes. “Years and years and years go by, now nobody asks anymore. So it’s nice that they don’t ask anymore!”
In January 2023, during an appearance on James Corden’s “Late Late Show, ” MacDowell admitted her daughters had been pressuring her to join the dating app Raya and that she’d agreed to do so “ASAP.” Corden and his other guest, Billy Porter, even helped MacDowell take a profile pic for the app. However, MacDowell seems to have had a change of heart, deciding the single life is fine with her.
“You know, we’ve had such evolution as human beings,” MacDowell told Barrymore. “I do think that there is nothing wrong with being single. Really. I have great female friends, and I have some male friends that I like, too.”
When Barrymore pressed her on whether she thinks men and women can truly just be friends, MacDowell she does “at a certain age” — but that almost all of her friends are women or gay men.
“I love a gay man,” MacDowell beamed. “I try really hard to have as many gay men in my life as I can. ‘Cause they’re still men, but you know, you don’t have to worry about that (sexual) component. There’s none of that sort of masculine…whatever happens.”
“And they nurture you, they do,” MacDowell continued. “A gay man nurtures you, which is what I love.”
Andie MacDowell’s ‘The Way Home’ Character Will Have Another Romance in Second Season
HallmarkAndie MacDowell in season 2 of “The Way Home”
Though MacDowell may not be looking for love, her character on “The Way Home” — family matriarch Del Landry — has been, with a brief romance in the first season and another to come in the second season, which premiered on January 21.
MacDowell told the Boston Herald that she’s been able to help provide the production team with some perspective so that playing an older character who’s navigating romance feels authentic to her.
“I did work with the writer-creators who were really open about my feelings for what my character does,” she said. “I’m so appreciative. That doesn’t always happen.”
“It’s really important because I have to be this person, ” she continued. “And I am this age and I do know what the complexity is like to be this age and to have to be in a romance. It’s completely different than when you’re younger!”
MacDowell told the Boston Globe that Del’s romance during the first season “had some real humor with how I got disengaged from that man and how it didn’t pan out,” but that a new budding romance in the second season will come with its own unique moments.
“This year there’s another man and I do something that is so out of the box for someone my age with him — but I won’t tell you exactly what it is,” she said. “It’s a little risky for Hallmark but it’s not going to upset anybody. I love it because it allowed me as a 65-year-old woman to portray someone vital, strong and powerful. I was proud of these writers for giving me that opportunity.”
MacDowell may have been talking about a nearly nude skinny dipping scene — a first for Hallmark Channel — that she recently revealed will happen this season.
“I have on my underwear, but I thought it was pretty brave for Hallmark to do, or anybody, (with) a 65-year-old woman,” she told Today. “And I loved how I played it.”
“The Way Home” airs Sunday nights on Hallmark Channel at 9 p.m. Eastern time.