Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney Explain That, ‘Yeah, We Still Like Each Other’

Twenty years of top-class television and two kids later, the greatest comedy power couple of our generation is still going strong — I guess Dee learned her lesson about talking shit on Mrs. Mac.

When Rob McElhenney first offered it to her, but upon his promise that he’d beef up the part of Dee and let Olson be as preternaturally funny as she obviously is, Olson agreed to the series that would soon change her life in so many ways.

Fast forward to 2025, and McElhenney and Olson are husband and wife, the parents of two Always Sunny-obsessed kids and the unofficial King and Queen of Television. And, unlike their characters on Always Sunny, McElhenney and Olson don’t viscerally hate to be in each others’ presence, as they explained in their t cover story for Variety earlier today.

“Yeah, we still like each other,” Olson said plainly, presumably before her husband wrote the umpteenth Always Sunny scene where Mac strangles Dee.

As Olson recalled, she was the first one in the workplace romance to catch feelings, right around the time when the cast was working on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Two. “Much like (FX President) John Landgraf, I was very impressed with this guy who wrote this thing, who was a waiter, just how well he ran our television show,” Olson said of her initial attraction to her now-husband before adding a damning ission that contradicts everything Sweet Dee’s song was supposed to convey.

“He looked like he was about 14 years old, and he just was like this little boy who just knew what he was doing,” Olson said of her own babyish Dayman. “He was so smart; he was so funny; he was great at collaborating. I calling my friend and being like, ‘I think I’m attracted to this person, but when I hug him, I can wrap my arms all the way around his body and back into myself. He’s very thin and young.’ He was not my type at all, and I was falling in love with him.”

Unfortunately for Olson, her tiny little baby boy wasn’t ready for a workplace relationship. “He didn’t feel the same way,” Olson lamented.

“I was professional!” McElhenney interjected.

However, at the wedding between their Always Sunny co-stars Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Olson and McElhenney began a forbidden, secret love that could have torn It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia apart, but, instead, blossomed into one of the most heartwarming love stories in sitcom history.

McElhenney explained that the secret to balancing romance and business was separating his work life from his home life — at least, as much as he could. “I’ve always tried desperately, even in the beginning and even after we started dating, to compartmentalize and to make sure that when we were having a personal conversation, we were having a personal conversation,” McElhenney explained. “When we’re having a professional (conversation) — and obviously those lines do get blurred — you try as best you can to make sure that what happens at work stays at work and vice versa.”

Additionally, the couple revealed that, as their careers continue to grow exponentially, they have instituted a “two-week rule,” in which neither partner is allowed to be away from the family for more than two continuous weeks for work. “I think that’s really important,” Olson said of their temporal boundary. 

As McElhenney explained, with both parents busy on projects across the globe, their two sons need to be guaranteed that at least one of them will be home at any given time. “You might not be getting both, but you’re getting one or the other,” McElhenney said of his promise to his kids. “We’re always making sure that no matter how busy we get, the messaging to the children is that they’re our number one priority.”

However, like any marriage, the Olson-McElhenney household isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. “The truth is that marriage is really fucking hard,” McElhenney acknowledged. "We’ve gone through terrible times, and we’ve gone through wonderful times. We’ve hit seemingly rock bottom, and we’ve hit heights that I couldn’t possibly imagine that I would meet with a partner. I’d like to believe that we’re going to continue that for the next 40, 50, 60 years together.”

Fingers crossed that means 40, 50 or 60 more seasons of Always Sunny, too. By then, Mac will be throttling Dee with a reacher-grabber.