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Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen aren't really separated — despite what you just saw on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'

Curb Your Enthusiasm returned to TV tonight after six years — hurrah! — but a line in the show about the status of Ted Danson‘s marriage to Mary Steenburgen gave us a brief moment of concern.

Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, pictured at a charity event in July, are only separated on TV. (Photo: Getty Images)
Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, pictured at a charity event in July, are only separated on TV. (Photo: Getty Images)

While Larry David attended his ex-wife’s fundraiser for PAM (a.k.a. People Against Mutilation, the awkwardly named charity working to stop female genital mutilation), they saw Danson, who was flying solo. When Cheryl Hines’s character asked him where Mary was, he replied that they had been separated for the last three months, adding that they’re better friends now than when they were married.

We know it’s a TV show, of course, and one that has actors playing fictionalized versions of themselves, but we also know that it’s “not too off from real life,” according to the actors themselves, so the scene had us feeling like:

Maybe it’s because we’re still not over Anna Faris and Chris Pratt, but the line had us feeling like this. (GIF: HBO)
Maybe it’s because we’re still not over Anna Faris and Chris Pratt, but the line had us feeling like this. (GIF: HBO)

So we went to the source (aka a publicist for the couple), who tells Yahoo Entertainment that things between the real-life married couple are fine. “The show is fictitious and it is just a make-believe storyline,” she reassured us. Thank goodness.

Danson and Steenburgen will actually both be on the show this season, as they have in seasons past, and hopefully they’ll resolve their reel — but not real — separation. (We’re not sure what she was teasing related to the show, but she did tell Entertainment Weekly in March, “We’re going to stir up a little bit of a hornet’s nest with it, I’m afraid, but it’s how he saw it and what he wanted to do.”)

Fake TV breakups aside, the two, who are among the busiest working couples on TV (with her Last Man on Earth and his The Good Place), are actually getting ready to celebrate their 22nd wedding anniversary on Oct. 7.

This was taken last year on their anniversary:

Celebrating our anniversary last week. 21 years with the love of my life!

A post shared by Ted Danson (@teddanson) on Oct 12, 2016 at 1:54pm PDT

In July, Steenburgen told Fox she’s happier than ever with her “ridiculously talented” husband, and that they’ve very supportive of each other’s careers. “I shoot [Fox’s] The Last Man on Earth from August to February, and Ted shoots [NBC’s] The Good Place from February to August, so there’s never a time when we’re both free,” she said. “We help each other learn lines every night.”


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