Keri Russell Told Matthew Rhys He Didn’t Have to Thank Her If He Won at the Emmys

Matthew Rhys was the talk of the town the night of the 2026 Emmys.

Not only did he make history, winning best actor in a comedy series and limited series for his roles in Widow’s Bay and The Beast in Me, but after his multiple acceptance speeches, internet commentators also wondered why he hadn’t thanked longtime partner Keri Russell, who accompanied him to the awards show and was also a nominee for her work on Netflix’s The Diplomat.

It turns out Russell had told him not to.

“He was just so nervous. I mean, we were all nervous,” the actress revealed in a Thursday appearance on Chelsea Handler‘s Dear Chelsea podcast. “And I looked at him a few days before and I said, ‘OK, well, can you articulate what you’re most nervous about?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, having to speak.’ And I said, ‘Totally.’ And I said, ‘Take me off your plate. You don’t have to thank me; I know you love me, take me off your plate. There’s so many people you have to thank. … That’s not what this is.'”

She added, “I don’t care if you want to thank the dog walker. You do whatever you want to do. That’s your minute. That’s your 45 seconds,” she added. “So I just said, ‘Take me off your plate.’ And we kind of said to each other, ‘We don’t have to thank each other.’”

Russell noted that Rhys still gets a “hard time” from people he didn’t thank in his 2018 Emmys acceptance speech when he won best actor in a drama series for his role, opposite Russell, in The Americans. Russell was mentioned in that speech, but in a joking way, playing off of how frequent Oscars director Glenn Weiss, who won for his role helming the 2018 Academy Awards telecast, had used his speech to propose to his then-girlfriend. Russell and Rhys have been a couple since their time on The Americans but have yet to officially tie the knot.

When Rhys won in 2018, he joked onstage that Russell told him if he proposed in his speech, she’d punch him in the mouth, with the camera quickly cutting to her as she shrugged in the audience.

Rhys is the only performer to have won Emmys for best comedy, drama and limited series actor.

Backstage, Rhys joked about their in-couple competition.

“It’s not playful,” he said when asked about the competitiveness with Russell. “I’ve got a lot of money on myself.”

“The kids ran a book, and I was the odds-on favorite. It’s going to be a rough week for her. I’m sorry,“ he added.

Turning serious, he said, “She’s always the class act,” recalling how, as best drama actress winner Rhea Seehorn revealed onstage, she “sends her fellow nominees Gloria Steinem quotes about being linked and not judged.”

And Russell, Rhys said, is “always really the winner, if I’m perfectly honest.” He added, “And I think next year she might get one, that’s my bet.”