Aubrey Plaza shared an emotional statement Monday following the death of her husband Jeff Baena, who was found dead in his Los Angeles home on January 3 of a reported suicide.
“This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support,” Plaza and the Baena and Stern family shared. “Please respect our privacy during this time.”
Plaza had been set to present at the Golden Globes Sunday but was not in attendance following the death. Her loss was mentioned by “The Brutalist” director Brady Corbet while he accepted an award for the film.
“Finally, tonight my heart is with Aubrey Plaza and Jeff’s family,” he said.
Baena began his career as an assistant to Robert Zemeckis, but got his first big break co-writing “I Heart Huckabees” with David O. Russell after first working as an editor assistant to the “Fighter” filmmaker. Baena’s first solo debut was 2014’s “Life After Beth,” a zombie comedy starring Aubrey Plaza and Dane DeHaan that he wrote and directed. The film got into the Sundance Film Festival and premiered there before securing distribution from A24.
Plaza explained to People back in 2021 how spending the COVID-19 lockdown together helped to strengthen their relationship despite everything that was going on in the world.
“We were quarantined for months and months like everybody else,” she said. “And we did enjoy it. I think it was, obviously other than all of the catastrophic things happening in the world, just on a personal level, relationship level, was kind of nice to just be forced to be in one place for that long.”
Plaza and Baena had been dating since 2011 and quietly married back in 2021. She appeared in nearly all of his films.
