It takes two to spark romance rumors.
Or in this case, only one outing between Mary-Kate Olsen and former hockey pro Sean Avery. Over a year after the pair spent a day together in the Hamptons, Sean is setting the record straight about the nature of their relationship—well, sort of.
“We've been friends for 20 years,” he told The Daily Mail in an interview published Aug. 12. “That's a long time relationship. We were like kids in New York growing up together.”
And after reportedly laughing off the romance rumors, he spoke to how quickly rumors can pick up speed in today’s connected world. “That's the beauty of social media now and the algorithm,” he mused. “And I embrace all of that because anything that kicked that algo, you got to get that algorithm going. That's the name of the game.”
He continued, “Of course people are always going to speculate, especially with her. She's an icon.”
In fact, the 45-year-old had nothing but praise for how Mary-Kate and her sister Ashley Olsen have navigated their careers.
“What I will say is that, what an incredible example of somebody that has reinvented herself many times,” he said. “She's one of the OGs and the two of them, what they've done with their career under the scrutiny, like, as an athlete, as an artist, as an actor, I have nothing... I mean, the two of them are incredible.”
The 2024 springtime reunion in the Hamptons—a rare occasion for Mary-Kate, as she and Ashley often try to avoid the spotlight—came five years after Mary-Kate, 39, split from her ex-husband Olivier Sarkozy, 56, and two years after Sean’s wife Hilary Rhoda filed for divorce in 2022.
But, according to the retired NHL player—who shares son Nash, 5, with Hilary—the pair have since reconciled. “We’re raising Nash,” Sean revealed in his interview. “Everything’s great. We're parenting, we're together.”
Mary-Kate, for her part, has remained tight-lipped not only about her split from Olivier, but also any other potential romances that have come her way since.
After all, she once shared how she and Ashley have always been “discreet people."
As she explained to i-D in 2021, "That's how we were raised.”
For a look back at the Olsen twins’ decades-spanning careers, keep reading.
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