Anya Taylor-Joy’s marriage to Malcolm McRae has given the actor something she did not expect to find: enough security to become more adventurous. In a July 28 interview with Elle UK, Taylor-Joy said their relationship has made her feel grounded while encouraging her to take bigger professional risks.
“I don’t want to sound smug, but I love him so much,” she said. “To have a best friend who goes through life with you, it has given me a sense of security that I didn’t really ever dream about.”
Marriage, she added, had not been part of a carefully arranged life plan. Now that she has it, Taylor-Joy said she feels “emboldened to take more risks” because the relationship is “nutritive and solid and healthy and so fucking fun.” Her practical review was even more concise: “I laugh, like, 90% of the time.”
How the couple protects their relationship
Taylor-Joy, 30, and McRae, 32, both work in entertainment, where travel and conflicting schedules are routine. Their approach to staying connected is notably simple: they check in every morning.
That can require some effort because neither appears especially interested in being permanently reachable. Taylor-Joy said McRae uses a basic phone, while she has largely stepped away from social media.
“I do sometimes feel like I don’t know what’s going on, but I think it’s so nice to be fully present,” she said.
The low-tech arrangement also serves as a privacy strategy. Taylor-Joy and McRae have kept much of their relationship out of public view, even as her profile has expanded through major film and television roles. Apparently, a marriage can continue without a constant stream of updates proving that it exists.
For Taylor-Joy, the trade-off is less access to the daily online conversation and more attention for the life directly in front of her. Her comments suggest that privacy is not simply about avoiding scrutiny. It is part of how the couple maintains stability across demanding careers.
When did Anya Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae marry?
The couple met at a recording studio and began dating in 2021. McRae, an Alabama-born musician and actor who previously worked as a paralegal, is a member of the band More*. Vogue France has reported that he wrote the group’s song “Really Want to See You Again” shortly after meeting Taylor-Joy.
They secretly married at a courthouse in New Orleans on April 1, 2022, with two close friends present. Taylor-Joy then traveled to Australia to film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The couple did not publicly confirm the marriage until April 2024.
They later held a larger celebration at Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a 15th-century palace on Venice’s Grand Canal. Although some early coverage described it as an October 2023 wedding, W Magazine and la Repubblica placed the ceremony on September 30, 2023. Photographs and reports circulated in early October, which likely caused the difference in dates.
Guests included Cara Delevingne, Julia Garner, Nicholas Hoult, Miles Teller and Keleigh Teller.
Why they chose to elope first
Taylor-Joy explained in a May 2024 Elle interview that she and McRae wanted their first wedding experience to belong entirely to them.
“We’re just real romantics,” she said, adding that they had eloped with their two best friends and “had the time of our lives.” She described the New Orleans ceremony as magical, while saying the later gathering with their families was “so beyond beautiful.”
The private ceremony also reflected how Taylor-Joy has spoken about the relationship more broadly. “I have found my person,” she said in 2024. “I cannot believe that we get to do life together.”
McRae offered his own public confirmation on their second anniversary that year, calling Taylor-Joy “the love of my life” and writing, “Happy second (first) anniversary my love,” a reference to the couple having both a legal wedding and a larger celebration.
Security arrives as her career gets bigger
Taylor-Joy’s comments about taking risks come at a busy point in her career. She is starring in and executive-producing the Apple TV thriller Lucky, which premiered July 15. Novelist Marissa Stapley has said she pictured Taylor-Joy while creating the title character, giving the casting an unusually direct connection to the book’s origins.
The actor has also joined The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Her recent public appearances have largely focused on those projects rather than her private life.
That context gives her remarks about marriage more weight. Taylor-Joy is not describing security as a reason to retreat from ambitious work. She sees it as a foundation for doing more, including moving further into producing and taking on another major franchise.
For audiences accustomed to celebrity relationships being presented as either glossy spectacle or approaching disaster, her version is comparatively grounded. The emotional payoff is not that marriage solved every complication. It is that having a dependable partner appears to have made uncertainty elsewhere feel more manageable.
