Abbi Jacobson and her wife, Jodi Balfour, have a plan for long drives. In certain states, they become sisters. The “Broad City” star told Page Six exclusively about the habit at a special screening of “Tangles” earlier this week.
Jacobson and Balfour Pretend to Be Sisters While Traveling
Cross the country, and there are states where the two of them are sisters. Then she added two more words. “In case.”
Two words, and they carry the whole thing.
Jacobson, who is openly gay, said she is grateful to be able to work in Hollywood without hiding her s*xuality. She acknowledged to Page Six that many people were not able to do the same. “It’s really wild how we’ve come so far in a lot of areas,” she said.
Her point sits in the gap between those two statements. On a set, she can be exactly who she is. On an interstate, depending on the border she just crossed, she and her wife decide to be someone else. Jacobson did not name the states. She did not describe anything that had happened to them. She described a precaution, the kind a couple builds quietly and then stops thinking of as unusual.
Married couples do not usually rehearse a cover story. Holding hands at a gas station, sharing a motel room, calling each other by a pet name in a diner: most pairs NEVER weigh any of it. Jacobson and Balfour have agreed in advance on a version of themselves that is safer to show strangers. The fact that she called it “wild” and still described it so plainly says it has become routine.
The Couple Met During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Jacobson met Balfour, 39, virtually during the pandemic. They kept the relationship to themselves for a year. Then, in October 2021, they went public.
On Instagram at the time, Abbi Jacobson wrote of “one year with this incredible human.” She added that she didn’t know how she got so lucky.
Secrecy came first for these two, by choice. Public came second.
Their Wedding Took Place in 2024
The actresses married in 2024 at Public Records in Brooklyn. Balfour is known for her role in “For All Mankind.”
A wedding is the most public declaration two people can make. Jacobson’s account to Page Six shows that the declaration does not travel evenly. In Brooklyn they are wife and wife. A few hundred miles into a cross-country drive, the story they tell can change.
Abbi Jacobson Voices a Character in ‘Tangles’
The actress was at the screening for her latest project. She lends her voice to “Tangles,” an animated drama based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel. It follows a young woman named Sarah caring for her mother after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein and Seth Rogen also voice characters.
The screening benefited Hilarity for Charity, the nonprofit founded by Lauren Miller Rogen and Seth Rogen to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s and support affected families.
Jacobson also looked back on “Broad City,” the Comedy Central series she co-created and starred in with Ilana Glazer from 2014 to 2019. It now streams on Hulu. “It was like the most fun I’ve had,” she told Page Six.
She spent the same conversation talking about a show that made her famous for being loudly herself and about the roads where she and her wife go quiet. Jacobson did not say whether they still plan to make the cross-country drive.
Sources: Page Six
