Rachael Leigh Cook is feeling the butterflies as she officially calls her new man her “boyfriend” for the very first time.
“I’m trying to be very cool, which I’m not. I’m just trying to take it day by day, and I have to be honest. I can’t even say it out loud, but I’m going to try,” Cook tells ET Canada exclusively. “I can’t say boyfriend. I’m 40 and I haven’t said that word since I was 22. I was 23 when I married my ex, so let me be able to say it out loud.”
Cook closed her eyes, took one big breath and finally blurted it out: “Boyfriend. I’m a head case. He’s great, and I just need to not screw it up.”
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The “Josie And The Pussycats” actress met her new beau through her good friend and “13 Going on 30″ star, Judy Greer.
“I was complaining about some online interactions that I’ve had and Judy Greer said, ‘Well, when you’re ready to meet someone nice, you should meet Kevin.’ I told her that I’m sure her friend is great, but that seems like a lot of pressure because they’re friends and we’re friends and I need to figure out my disaster self for a while,” Cook admits. “And then sure enough, another two solid disasters later, I was like, ‘I’m ready to meet nice Kevin. Where is he?’”
Since then, the rom-com darling feels as though she’s living in one of her own movies.
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“I kinda do have the heart eye emoji,” Cook says. “I’m dating this really nice guy named Kevin and he’s a producer and also, get this, a swim coach. He swam in college on a scholarship because he’s just sporty like that. So he coaches in season, and he’s also this fancy producer guy. He’s so smart.”
“My friend told me that I need to stop dating guys who wear necklaces and I took that in, starting dating business, non-actor type guys, and man, she was right. She must have gotten it from Nikki Glaser’s Netflix special. Thank you Nikki Glaser, thank you my friend Dina. It’s going great,” she adds.
Cook was married to Daniel Gillies for nearly 15 years before announcing their split in 2019 and filing for divorce just last month. The pair share two children — Charlotte, 6, and Theodore, 5.
