Gracie Abrams reveals the sparks behind her romance — and what happened when she made music with Paul Mescal

Gracie Abrams gets candid about her Paul Mescal romance, the tightrope of privacy, and the effortless studio chemistry that made their collaboration feel second nature.

Gracie Abrams is pulling the curtain back a bit on her relationship with actor Paul Mescal, and yes, it is feeding directly into the music. She has kept that romance pretty measured for a while now — more public over the last two years, but still selective — and her latest comments draw a clear line between sharing and oversharing.

Where she is drawing the line now

On The New York Times Popcast, Abrams talked through the balance: collaborating with Mescal on the song 'Imaginary Friend' without turning the relationship into content. She said she is more comfortable letting a few windows stay open while keeping most doors shut.

'I don't like the feeling of hiding.'

That does not translate to an open-door policy. She still wants privacy, just without the weird performance of pretending nothing is happening. She also described the relationship itself as steadying — a calm center that holds, even when the public is nosy about it. Instead of tracking every outside opinion, she is hanging on to the happiness and perspective that come from experiences she actually knows are meaningful.

The music of it all

Abrams said the 'Imaginary Friend' collab with Mescal was not some orchestrated couple milestone. It happened the way their best ideas usually do: at home, with friends around, in a creative space where everyone swaps work and energy. In her words on the podcast, writing it together was fun, not a Big Statement — more like the most natural thing to do in a house built for making stuff.

She also called that moment one of the most personal cuts on her upcoming album 'Daughter From Hell', because it came together the way real life does — quietly and without ceremony. That outlook — keep the art honest, keep the rest simple — is the same lens she says has shaped how she has been thinking back on her time around the Eras Tour.

Quick catch-up

• Over the last two years, Abrams and Mescal have eased into being a little more public, while she stays picky about what to share.
• On NYT Popcast, she addressed the idea that collaborating might invite more attention into their relationship, and said she is comfortable sharing some things while keeping boundaries.
• She calls the relationship a source of peace and stability, and focuses on what actually matters to her rather than outside noise.
• 'Imaginary Friend' came together at home, in their usual creative flow with friends — not a planned, capital-R Relationship moment.
• June 26, 2026: Abrams dropped a new single, 'Look at My Life' — with the lyric, 'But oh well look at my life, bet you can't tell but it's kind of a bad time.'

The short version: Abrams is not hiding, she is just not turning her life into a rollout strategy. The music benefits anyway. And when a song like 'Imaginary Friend' lands because two people wrote it on a regular day at home, that tends to be the good stuff.

Thoughts on Abrams and Mescal writing together? Does the low-key approach make the songs hit harder, or do you want more of the curtain pulled back?