Bill Murray’s New Girlfriend Is Almost Three Decades Younger Than Him

Bill Murray, 72, is dating singer and television host Kelis, 42.

By Sean Thiessen | Published

Bill Murray the life acquatic
Bill Murray in The Life Aquatic

Bill Murray is playing in a new league. As reported by Page Six, the legendary actor is dating “Milkshake” singer Kelis. The newly minted couple is separated by a nearly 30 year age gap.

At age 43, Kelis has been in the music business for more than two decades. Bill Murray, 72, has been making movies for closer to 50 years. Despite the significant gap in age between the two entertainers, sources close to the couple say that the pair has formed a significant bond.

Bill Murray and Kelis met in the United States, but shots of Murray attending Kelis’s performance at Mighty Hoopla in London sparked more substantial rumors of the stars’ romantic link. Murray has also been spotted with Kelis at the same hotel.

A friend close to the couple noted that, though Bill Murray and Kelis may form an odd couple on the surface, they share recent life experiences that have connected them. The single stars are reportedly having fun and enjoying their time together. Murray and Kelis’s representatives have not made any official comments about the alleged romantic relationship.

News of the relationship comes on the heels of more serious allegations recently levied against Bill Murray. The actor has long carried a dubious reputation as a mega-star of a different Hollywood era, but stories about the actor’s inappropriate behavior on set led to the shutdown of his latest project, director Aziz Ansari’s Being Mortal.

Murray allegedly threw a glass dish at his co-star Richard Dreyfuss and threatened physical violence against one of the film’s female producers. These incidents tipped the situation over the edge, as women from the set of the film also reported that Murray was “touchy” with them without their consent.

Kelis in the “Milkshake” music video

Those statements clarified that Bill Murray did not touch anyone in an overtly sexual manner; he reportedly tugged at a woman’s hair and put his arm around her in an attempt at being funny. His actions were not received in that way. Bill Murray addressed the claims himself, acknowledging that his joking around was not taken the way he intended.

Bill Murray and Kelis have both had ups and downs with marriages in the past. Murray was married to Margaret Kelly from 1981 to 1996, and then to Jennifer Butler from 1997 to 2008. The latter relationship ended with Butler accusing Murray of infidelity, domestic abuse, and substance abuse.

Kelis claims to have been on the receiving end of an abusive relationship with her former husband, rapper Nas. That relationship was also reportedly plagued by alcohol abuse, though Nas denies the claims. The marriage, which yielded one child, ended in 2009. 

Long before she met Bill Murray, Kelis married photographer Mike Mora in 2014. Mora passed away in early 2022 following a long battle with stage 4 stomach cancer. He is survived by two children he had with Kelis.

Now Kelis and Billy Murray have formed an unlikely bond. Murray was most recently seen in theaters making his Marvel debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. In addition to Being Mortal, Murray will appear in the upcoming film Bum’s Rush, in which he stars alongside Anne Hathaway as the voice of a stray dog named Bum.