Actor Aubrey Plaza continued to return to the public eye Tuesday night, eight months on from her husband Jeff Baena’s tragic death.
The filmmaker, who Plaza married in 2021, died by suicide aged 47 in January, after which it was revealed they had split four months before his death.
The grief-stricken star has kept a low profile since his devastating passing but made a rare public appearance this week when she was spotted courtside at a WNBA game.
Plaza soaked up the action at Barclays Center as the New York Liberty took on the Minnesota Lynx in a rematch of last year’s WNBA Finals.
She was joined by broadway and legend and close friend Patti LuPone, who she starred alongside in the hit Marvel series, ‘Agatha All Along,’ last year.
The pair appeared to be in good spirits as they were spotted waving a flag on the sidelines and being greeted by Ellie the Elephant, the Liberty’s iconic mascot.
Actor Aubrey Plaza continued to return to the public eye at an WNBA game on Tuesday night
The Parks and Recreation star was joined by broadway legend Patti LuPone (right)
Plaza cut a casual figure in athletic shorts and an oversized t-shirt, while LuPone donned a blue and white printed jumpsuit and leather jacket, finishing off her look with a pair of blacked out sunglasses.
The duo became fast friends while working on the set of ‘Agatha All Along,’ with Plaza even briefly moving in with the on-stage icon while Plaza was performing a play.
Plaza’s courtside appearance came just hours after she gave her first interview following her husband’s death.
The ‘Agatha All Along’ star detailed her grief as she joined her close friend and former ‘Parks and Rec’ co-star Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast.
‘Just to get it out the way, people want to see you and want to see how you are, they love you. You’ve had this terrible, terrible, tragic year…,’ Amy said.
‘You lost your husband, you’ve been dealing with that and you’ve been looking for all different ways in which to feel and find support.’
When Amy asked how she was feeling, Aubrey stated: ‘Right in this very, very present moment, I feel happy to be with you. Overall, I’m here and I’m functioning. I feel really grateful to be moving through the world. I think I’m okay, but it’s like a daily struggle’.
She went on: ‘This is a really dumb analogy and it was kind of a joke at a certain point, but I actually mean it. Did you see that movie The Gorge? It’s like [an] alien movie or something with Miles Teller…
Plaza’s husband Jeff Baena died by suicide aged 47 in January, after which it was revealed they had split four months before his death (the couple in 2017)
‘In the movie, there’s like a cliff on one side and there’s a cliff on the other side, then there’s gorge in between and it’s filled with all these like monster people that are trying to get them. I swear when I watched it…
‘I was like that feels like what my grief is like … or what grief could be like. At all times there’s like a giant ocean of awfulness, that’s like right there and I can see it…
‘Sometimes I just want to dive into it, and just like be in it. Then sometimes I just look at it, and sometimes I try to get away from it. But, it’s always there.’
The Gorge is a 2025 movie starring Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Sigourney Weaver, with a synopsis listed as: ‘Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge…
‘Protecting the world from a mysterious evil that lurks within. They work together to keep the secret in the gorge.’
Her chat with Amy is her first discussion of her grief, having made a brief comment about his passing shortly after, saying through a representative: ‘This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support…
‘Please respect our privacy during this time.”
In March, it was revealed that Aubrey had secretly split from Jeff just four months before his shock suicide at 47 after parting ways in September last year.
Plaza has detailed her grief in her first interview since her Baena’s tragic death earlier this year, as she appeared with on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast this week
They had been separated since September 2024, an LA County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report obtained by DailyMail.com revealed; pictured in 2016
An LA County Medical Examiner’s autopsy report obtained by DailyMail.com revealed that the filmmaker and actress had separated back in September of last year, and she had been living in New York at the time his body was discovered on January 3.
The report detailed how the Life After Beth director had been ‘experiencing marital difficulties’ in his final months and how he had been in therapy.
An investigator noted in the documents that Aubrey, whose name was redacted in the final report, said she had spoken with Jeff the night before his death.
The report also tragically revealed that Aubrey had been concerned for her estranged husband’s wellbeing.
The paperwork said: ‘In October 2024, Baena made concerning remarks to [Plaza] which prompted her to call a friend to perform a welfare check on her husband. Baena had been attending therapy since that event.’
The medical examiner’s report also determined that Baena did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death.
It stated that Aubrey ‘knew her husband to be alive’ as of January 3 because he had sent her a text message that morning.
The report indicated that a dog walker discovered his body after hearing loud music coming from his home, which she said was ‘unusual.’
After she called him and didn’t get an answer, she entered the home and discovered his remains.
Shortly after his death, a representative for Plaza said in a statement obtained by DailyMail.com: ‘This is an unimaginable tragedy. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has offered support. Please respect our privacy during this time.’
