The On-Screen Girlfriend John Krasinski Actually Dated In Real Life

In its first few seasons, the burning question at the heart of "The Office" was whether Jim and Pam would ever quit pining and finally get together. And, in the home stretch of that excruciatingly slow burn, one of the biggest things standing in their way was neither bad timing, as the lovestruck colleagues themselves suggested, nor Pam's fiancé Roy — it was Karen Filippelli, the Stamford transfer whose only crime was not being Pam, the woman viewers had already crowned the future Mrs. Halpert with an intensity that bled into real life. But here's the twist that none of the show's deliberate awkwardness could ever imply: The actor who played Karen, Rashida Jones, had once been the real-life girlfriend of John Krasinski, who played Jim, long before he married fellow actor Emily Blunt.

Krasinski and Jones reportedly began dating in 2005. Their romance fizzled after a few months and the two went their separate ways, but "The Office" eventually brought Jones on to play Karen, whose role was designated as a speed-bump between Jim and his destiny. In essence, the show recruited Krasinski's ex to play his on-screen flame for a limited window, only for Jim to break her heart and bolt back to Pam again. It's a cruel irony when taken out of context, and one would expect such a development to curdle into awkwardness on set, but it actually didn't. In fact, it turns out that Krasinski and Jones walked away from their short-lived fling without any bad blood, though whether it made it any more difficult to pretend to be a couple again — and this time on camera, while half the country booed her character — is a question only Jones can answer. And fortunately she has, twice.

In an issue of Us Weekly dated December 11, 2006, Rashida Jones was asked whether sharing scenes with a former boyfriend felt strange, but the actor waved the premise off entirely. "He's one of my closest friends," she reasoned (via OfficeTally), referring to John Krasinski. According to Jones, "He was incredibly supportive of me getting this job. [...] If you go out with somebody and it doesn't work out, there's always a reason why you liked the person to begin with." That's an incredibly mature answer to put the rumors to rest, but if her ex was firmly in her corner, the audience was another story.

The unfortunate truth about poor Karen is that she was engineered from the get-go to stall the much-anticipated Jim and Pam payoff, which understandably didn't sit well with the show's fans. The audience pretty much treated Karen like a homewrecker, despite the fact that she'd done nothing wrong. But Jones remained graceful even in the face of all the backlash, and despite being let go for that very reason after only one season. In a 2025 appearance on Amy Poehler's "Good Hang" podcast, reuniting the "Parks and Recreation" co-stars, she acknowledged, "It made sense. People did not like me." 

Jones elaborated, "Like, fans were not about it. I was the third-point in the triangle. It's fine, I accept it." As for her and Krasinski, they have both moved on. Krasinski has been married to Emily Blunt since 2010, and the couple shares two daughters. Jones, meanwhile, has been with Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig since 2016, and they welcomed a son in 2018.