The Truth About Bill Maher's Bachelor Lifestyle And Why He Never Married

Bill Maher, now in his 70s, has never been married or had children. Is this a sad story about an aging celebrity who didn't find true love or missed out on a lifelong romance with his soulmate? Nope, as it turns out, Maher never got married simply because he doesn't understand the appeal of the concept.

In a June 2019 interview on "The Howard Stern Show," the host tackled the topic when Stern asked his frenemy Maher about how often Maher has said he would never get married or have kids. Stern wondered if this was because a family would have gotten in the way of Maher's comedy career, "shifting your focus to the point that you couldn't be funny." Maher, who hosted "Politically Incorrect" on ABC from 1993-2002 before beginning his two-decade-plus run on "Real Time with Bill Maher" in 2003, said, "That's not why I never got married." He confessed that he'd been in love before, "but I never understood how you could be with the same person just day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year."

Stern, who has been married to Beth Ostrosky since 2008, said he loved being settled. The same couldn't be said for Maher, who loves being alone. "I like all my time." Maher, who briefly had a minority stake in the New York Mets, recalled people asking him how he had the money for it. "No, wives, no alimony, no children, no stupid hobbies."

Because Bill Maher hasn't settled down with someone, Howard Stern asked if the HBO star ever worried about women he spent time with going to the press and talking about their relationship. Maher wasn't concerned. "If you're a nice person and treat people well, what's less of a concern? Most people who get in trouble, it's because they do schmucky things."

It was, however, once a concern for Maher. In 2004, ex-girlfriend Coco Jensen sued him for $9 million in a palimony suit which accused Maher of abuse, as well as promising to marry her and give her children (via The Smoking Gun). It was dismissed a year later and Maher moved on. Since then, he has dated a wide variety of women, but none of them led to a walk down the aisle and the pitter patter of little feet.

Starting in October 2024, Maher was linked to Al Pacino's ex-girlfriend, Noor Alfallah, with a source telling People they'd gone out several times. A year later, after being seen leaving a Halloween party together in West Hollywood, Alfallah addressed the rumors by telling TMZ she and Maher were friends and nothing more. If that's so, it's probably just the way he likes it.