Love and lust were at the heart of True Blood — and not just in the swamps of Bon Temps.
The HBO series followed telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who is from a small, fictional town in Louisiana. As she becomes entangled with the supernatural — including vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters and faeries — the show explores her adventures and the struggle to belong.
The fantasy drama premiered in September 2008 and ran for seven seasons until August 2014. It aired 80 episodes featuring the main cast, including Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Chris Bauer and Carrie Preston, among others.
While relationships on-screen usually didn’t last, cast members found love off-screen, some even with fellow True Blood stars. Paquin and Moyer turned their Sookie-Bill chemistry into a real-life romance, marrying in 2010 and welcoming twins two years later.
In honor of the show ending 17 years ago, here’s everything to know about the real-life loves of the True Blood cast.
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer
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Paquin and Moyer’s off-screen love story began on the True Blood set, where they met during casting.
“It was just like this … I don’t know this magnetism … and if you watch the show like those first few episodes when we’re coming together — it’s kind of like off the charts,” he said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in March 2024.
They got engaged in August 2009 and married a year later in August 2010, in a Malibu, Calif., ceremony.
Paquin and Moyer then welcomed fraternal twins, Charlie and Poppy, born in September 2012, per E! News, and share a blended family that includes Moyer’s two older children from previous relationships.
Off-screen, their partnership is also professional. The actors have worked together on several projects, including Flack and A Bit of Light.
While neither is particularly active on social media, Paquin and Moyer occasionally post about each other.
“And here is pic of my husband looking damn fine in all his sleazy, tanning bed, oily 90’s gangster glory,” she captioned a January 2024 photo on Instagram promoting Moyer’s Paramount+ show Sexy Beast.
Chris Bauer and Laura Cunningham Bauer
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Chris Bauer, who played the gruff yet good-hearted sheriff Andy Bellefleur in the series, is married to costume designer Laura Bauer.
She has worked on several television shows, according to her IMDb.
The couple have occasionally appeared together at red carpet events — most notably at HBO premieres — and Bauer has shared his love for his wife on Instagram a few times.
Over the course of their decades-long marriage, they have welcomed two children.
Carrie Preston and Michael Emerson
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Carrie Preston charmed audiences as Arlene Fowler, the feisty bar-owner and best friend to Sookie on True Blood.
Off-screen, she’s been married to actor Michael Emerson since 1998. Emerson is widely known for his roles in Lost and Person of Interest.
Though they met at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival years earlier, their bond has carried them through nearly three decades of life and art.
In March 2024, Preston spoke to PEOPLE about their marriage, noting how periods of time apart have kept their relationship fresh.
“I do think there is something to the old adage, ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’ I really do think that is true,” she said. “We really appreciate the time that we do have together.”
Their partnership extends into their professional lives, too, as Preston and Emerson have appeared together on stage and screen — most recently in Preston’s spinoff, Elsbeth, in which Emerson plays a formidable adversary to her lawyer character.
Alexander Skarsgård and Tuva Novotny
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Alexander Skarsgård is romantically linked to Tuva Novotny, a Swedish actress and director.
The couple share one child together. Skarsgård confirmed the news to Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet at Succession season 4’s premiere in March 2023.
Novotny, who reportedly has an older daughter from a previous relationship, maintains a private personal life.
Joe Manganiello and Caitlin O’Connor
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Joe Manganiello, best known to True Blood fans as the rugged werewolf Alcide Herveaux, has been in a relationship with actress and TV host Caitlin O’Connor since September 2023.
They made their red carpet debut in December 2023. Since then, Manganiello has posted snippets of their romance, including photos of travels, premieres and birthdays.
A source confirmed to PEOPLE in July 2024 that the couple “is going strong” and that Manganiello “treats her like a queen.”
“They love spending all of their time together,” the source added.
