Dakota Johnson arrived at a recording studio in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, October 27, and she did not leave alone. According to Just Jared, she and Machine Gun Kelly were later photographed together, though neither faced the cameras.
No statement came with the photos. None was needed to restart the conversation.
Recent Sightings of Dakota Johnson and Machine Gun Kelly
Just Jared ran the studio photos as the latest chapter in a story that has been building since late summer. The 37-year-old Verity star and the 36-year-old musician, born Colson Baker, have now been seen together in two cities.
New York came first. On September 12, TMZ published photos of the pair entering Taylor Swift’s Tribeca apartment while the pop star was out of town. Glamour marked that as the moment the dating rumors took off. Four days later, a source told People the two had been hanging out and seeing each other.
Los Angeles followed six weeks later. A studio is a working space for a musician. Showing up there in the evening is a different signal than a dinner reservation.
Neither Dakota Johnson nor Kelly has publicly confirmed a relationship.
What a Source Said About Their Humor
People’s source gave the most specific detail anyone has offered. According to that source, the pair bonded over humor, specifically a shared “dry and dark sense of humor.” The same source said the two keep each other laughing. They have been seeing each other more often, and they grow closer each time they spend time together.
No label yet. The source was clear on that point too.
Dry humor is an odd thing to build a romance on, and also one of the most reliable. Jokes like that only land with someone who already understands where you are coming from. Nobody explains a deadpan line to a stranger. Laughing at the same dark joke means two people are reading the room the same way, and after a run of very public relationships, that kind of shorthand counts for a lot.
Skipping a label fits that picture. Both have spent the last two years with their personal lives turned into timelines. Keeping things undefined is a way of keeping them private for a little longer. Johnson has spoken in a recent interview about the headlines linking her to various mystery men, according to Just Jared. Being careful with what gets named makes sense from someone who reads her own coverage.
The Timeline of Their Connection
Glamour traced the backstory, and it starts with two endings.
Kelly and Megan Fox officially ended their on-and-off relationship in November 2024 after nearly five years together. On June 4, 2025, People reported that Dakota Johnson and Chris Martin had split after nearly eight years of their own on-and-off relationship. A source told the outlet, “It feels final this time.” That report came two days after Johnson was seen without her engagement ring.
Then came Role Model, the singer-songwriter born Tucker Pillsbury. TMZ published photos of him and Johnson at dinner with friends on December 29, 2025, and the sightings continued for close to a year. Johnson even ended up on his track “Love I You,” providing the flirty banter. In August 2026, he told Nylon he had hesitated to put her on it. “We’re not mixing work and relationships,” he recalled saying. She got in the booth anyway, and he called it an amazing cameo.
Johnson and Role Model had broken up “a while ago,” People reported on August 19, 2026. Glamour noted the song came out after the relationship had already ended.
The overlap that matters is July 3, 2026. According to a source who spoke with People in September, Johnson and Kelly hit it off at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. Two months later, they were walking into Swift’s apartment together. Swift sits at the center of this story in more ways than one: her wedding, her building.
Three years, three high-profile relationships for Dakota Johnson, and every one of them mapped by photographers before either person said a word. Kelly’s track record is just as public.
Where things stand now is simple. Two people who share a taste for dark jokes keep turning up in the same places. A source says they are growing closer. Neither has said so themselves, and nobody knows what they were doing in that studio on Tuesday night.
Sources: Glamour, Just Jared
