Renée Zellweger Finally Opened Up About Her Relationship With Ant Anstead

While a weekend of mindless HGTV binging isn't completely foreign to most people, the soothing, low-stakes home renovations don't often lead to new love, but that's what Renée Zellweger told Harper's Bazaar in a new interview. When she was grieving the loss of her friend and publicist Nanci Ryder, the actress said that she was hoping for a distraction when she caught an episode of Celebrity IOU that featured her pal, Brad Pitt.

"It was around Judy," Zellweger told Bazaar. "Late night, and I remember I watched the Property Brothers with Brad Pitt."

She felt inspired to help out and thank the nurses that cared for Ryder, Jerome and Jerald Cowan. When she found out that there was a spin-off planned for Celebrity IOU involving cars, she knew she wanted to get involved — and that's how she met her new boyfriend Ant Anstead.

"Yeah, we do joke about that," Zellweger said of the idea that Ryder brought the couple together. "She's always doing her best. It made me smile. It made me smile to think on this, yeah, the serendipity of it all."

Zellweger and Anstead met in June 2021 and started dating shortly after, making their first official appearance as a couple in August. The two have been spotted throughout Los Angeles and Orange County ever since, with Zellweger and Anstead making appearances at the beach and parks together.

"There is so much respect between them," a source told People in September 2021. "They spend as much time as possible together when they aren't working on other projects. They truly like each other as well as their romantic attraction. The relationship is serious."

And while this is the first time Zellweger has spoken about the relationship, Anstead has shared his feelings — and how he owes it all to the show.

"I'm really grateful to the show because these amazing things happen in your world and sometimes when things collide, they collide at the most obscure times when you least expect them. And that's what happened in this case," he said. "I"m grateful for that [...] Renée and my relationship is something that's really private. It's something I'm not really willing to talk too much about. It's really early in our relationship and I don't want to put any pressure on that."