Ali Wong Recalls How Boyfriend Bill Hader's Romantic Gestures Won Her Over

Ali Wong was unsure if she would find love again after her divorce.

In 2022, the comedian separated from Justin Hakuta, whom she officially divorced this year—and she was surprised when that part of her personal life made headlines.

“I didn’t expect the news of my divorce to be so widespread and public,” Wong said in her new Netflix comedy special, Ali Wong: Single Lady, per People.

“I felt really embarrassed and ashamed, but I didn’t realize that all of these media outlets were acting like a Bat-Signal, letting all potentially interested men know that I was suddenly available," she added. "I’ve never been pursued this much in my life.”

It seems that one man immediately made his intentions known to Wong after getting her number from a mutual friend. That person is her now-boyfriend Bill Hader.

“‘Hey, Ali. I just happened to hear the news of your divorce today, and I gotta tell you…I’m excited,’” she recalled Hader saying over the phone. “‘I am, Ali, because, look, I have had a crush on you forever, and I actually told my best friend years ago that you were my dream girl. And I know this sounds crazy, but, uh, I want you to be my girlfriend.’”

Soon after receiving that phone call from Hader, she traveled to London, where she “discovered that this man had sent me a bouquet of flowers.” He did the same thing in Amsterdam, Cologne, and Copenhagen.

But she continued dating men that weren’t him.

“I think for the longest time I was so focused on getting dicked down,” she said, joking. “Because the task of finding a boyfriend, someone who I consider talented, someone who makes me laugh, someone who I have a real connection with, someone who I look up to as an artist, someone that I would feel proud to introduce to my kids, my peers and my friends and my mentors, I mean, that seemed impossible, you know?”

But now, after dating briefly in 2022, Wong and Hader made their relationship official in 2023.

“I did fall in love again,” she said. “Some of you might know who the guy is. And it just so happens to be the man who sent me all of those flowers in Europe.”