As Emma Stone launched into her 2024 Golden Globes acceptance speech, uttering the words, "Dave, I have to start with you really quickly. I love you so much, thank you for everything," one might have been forgiven for a momentary confusion over who she was referring to. She was, of course, speaking of Dave McCary, her husband since at least September 2020 and co-parent to their now-four-year-old daughter, Louise.
But back when she won a Golden Globe and then an Oscar for 2016's La La Land, there was no Dave in sight quite yet. The Emmy-nominated Saturday Night Live writer wouldn't be seen by the public at her side until six months after that triumphant 2017 awards season had come to a close.
Seven years later, in March 2024, Stone won her second Best Actress Oscar for her spirited performance in Poor Things as a reanimated woman in the midst of a sexual and moral awakening. And her tendency to not talk about the current state of her personal life made Stone's awards season shout-outs to McCary all the more special. "I really want to just thank my family, my mom, my brother Spencer, my dad, my husband Dave, I love you so much," she said on Oscar night March 10, 2024, her voice increasingly hoarse with emotion. "And most importantly, my daughter, who's going to be three in three days and has turned our lives technicolor. I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl."
And then it was on with the celebrating. But the star born Emily Jean Stone—Louise shares her mother's middle name—has for the most part managed to achieve that enviable balance between being a full-on famous person and rather private when it comes to her young family. "There’s nothing I feel luckier about," Stone told Vogue of being Louise's mom in an interview published August 11. "She’s the greatest gift of my life, for sure."
Becoming a parent had "streamlined everything," the Bugonia star added. "It’s a clichéd thing to say, but it changes everything. And simplifies everything." And while Stone met McCary through SNL, the 37-year-old (as of November 6) only the latest actress to find love at 30 Rock, he straddles that line of being in the business but not of it.
She has hosted the long-running NBC sketch show five times to date, most recently in December 2023, as well as made four cameo appearances—the first in May 2014 when then-boyfriend Andrew Garfield made his hosting debut (returning the favor for his surprise appearance when she hosted in 2011). McCary, meanwhile, started as a writer and segment director when season 40 premiered later that year.
Stone returned to Studio 8H for a cameo that November after she and Garfield broke up in 2015. A November 2016 Vogue cover story noted that Stone was single—which she admitted had been "interesting." "It's been a good year," she told the magazine. "And sad. Pros and cons." So, maybe her third time hosting SNL in December 2016 was the charm—or perhaps her cameo on Ryan Gosling's episode in September 2017 was the visit that changed everything.
In any case, the last thing she and McCary loudly confirmed was their 2019 engagement, a long-since-deleted photo posted on his Instagram of Stone flashing her ring serving as their announcement. While McCary's account still exists, no posts remain, and Stone not only doesn't have Instagram, she doesn't even possess a computer (though she has a full-service smart phone). "I'm not outwardly on social media," she told Fresh Air host Terry Gross on NPR in January 2024. "I look at things on social media...I see it but I don't have any desire to have a social media presence myself or have my own account. It's not for me, it's not for my brain."
Stone, who has spoken frankly about her struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, explained that the pressure to engage would be too great
