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Jane Lynch and her girlfriend make the cutest pair.
By Nicole Pomarico — Written on Sep 12, 2020
For over a decade — and before and after a marriage to someone else — there's been someone special in Jane Lynch's life: Her girlfriend, Jennifer Cheyne. Though they dated in the early 2000s, Lynch and Cheyne ultimately broke up only to find their way back together again more than 10 years later after Lynch's divorce from Lara Embry, and they've been inseparable ever since. And in interviews, it seems that Lynch has nothing but positive things to say about her longtime partner.
Who is Jane Lynch's girlfriend and partner, Jennifer Cheyne?
Who is Jennifer Cheyene?
Jennifer Cheyne is a screenwriter who writes on her Stage 32 profile that she's currently working on two different screenplays, one about a mother/daughter relationship and one about a competitive horse racer.
"After studying at UC Berkeley and earning a BA in French and Psychology, with a minor in Creative Writing, I undertook an MFA in Screenwriting. I admit it — it was online," she wrote. "It taught me the basics and a few other things and I am self-taught from there (partly because it's just quicker!). I have been writing for many years but homed in on screenwriting because of its visual nature, as well as its ultimately collaborative nature."
Jennifer Cheyene went back to school in her 40s.
Cheyne attended school at UC Berkeley at 49 before deciding to spend time in Paris after graduating and as she wrote in a blog on Women's Voices For Change, she was proud of herself for taking such a big risk.
"It was so recently that people with degrees from fine schools awed me," Cheyne wrote. "I met a woman, too, who had lived in France and spoke French, and I was in awe of her. Women who knew how to cook and who wore pearls awed me. But all of that will be me now. nd there’s nothing awesome about it. Life is choices, and we make them every day. And with each turn we take and each thing we try, we get to be utterly imperfect, and yet we’ll still arrive. And that is a pretty great lesson to get, at any age."
She shares her adventures on Twitter.
Though Cheyne's Instagram account is private, she does share bits and pieces of her personal life on Twitter, where she posts photos of her home life with Lynch and uses the platform to speak out about her political beliefs (much like Jane Lynch also does). Cheyne also has a son named Harry, but she doesn't post about him, presumably to keep his life private.
Lynch and Cheyne have three rescue dogs together.
Lynch and Cheyne are passionate about rescuing dogs, and they share three of their own: two black cockers, Rumi and Bernice, and a pitbull/shepherd mix named Millie. In interviews, Lynch has said that they let the dogs sleep in their bed with them, so it sounds like they are truly part of the family.
“We do have a California King. And it’s funny, the one that takes up the most room is Rumi — and he’s the smallest,” Lynch said at the time. “We do have to move pillows between them we have to build like a fort because they get mad at each other. If you kick them, oh, it can be real drama.”
Lynch says that she and Cheyne work well together.
In a recent interview, Lynch explained that she admires Cheyne for being able to do the things that Lynch herself is not good at, like figuring out how to use the miles they've accumulated over the years to buy the things they want — and she's able to fix anything around the house, including plumbing.
"That's the greatest thing about her, because I get overwhelmed, and I have no patience with details," Lynch said. "She's very methodical and she takes things very slowly. She's really smart. We work so well and we're really grateful that we found each other."
Jane Lynch has explained how she and Jennifer Cheyne function so well as a couple.
In 2019, Lynch said that breaking up and getting back together with Cheyne when they were older and wiser has helped them realize how they best function as a couple.
"We're very different people now — we don't have the same insecurities we used to have," she said. "We live very peacefully. We have our own routines and separate spaces to retreat to within our home, but then we'll have coffee together in the morning and meet for a meal."
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.