Twelve years after the series ended, How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor said he is no longer close with his co-stars, despite the close friendship they portrayed on screen for nine seasons.
The beloved CBS sitcom followed Ted Mosby, played by Radnor, and his group of friends in New York as he recounted to his children the events that led him to meet their mother. When Radnor was asked on the Half the Picture podcast whether he was still close with the show’s stars, he replied: “No. Not even a little bit.”
“I don’t mean that in any dramatic way,” he added. “We had Neil [Patrick Harris] on the podcast, and he and I had a really interesting conversation about some of the tension we had on set that was fascinating and kind of healing,” he said, referring to the How I Met Your Mother rewatch podcast he hosts with series co-creator Craig Thomas. Harris appeared on an episode of the podcast earlier this year.
According to Radnor, he and Jason Segel “send each other texts every once in a while.” However, he added: “But I haven’t seen him in a really long time.”
As for Cobie Smulders, who played Robin on the series, Radnor said she has appeared on the podcast several times and that he's seen her mostly on Zoom.” He said the last time he saw Alyson Hannigan, who played Lily, was at his wedding in early 2024.
'I have love for all these people'
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The New Yorker)
“I have love for all these people,” Radnor said. “It’s like college where you have this very intense time together, and you think you’re going to be — you can’t imagine not seeing each other every day because you’ve seen each other every day for so long. And then it just disperses, and you just go out and live your life.”
Radnor added that he believes viewers long to believe the bond between the cast members continued off screen.
People really want to believe that me and Neil and Jason are hitting bars in New York City together
(Photo: CBS)
“I think that there’s a yearning, especially when a show is so centered around friendship — people really want to believe that me and Neil and Jason are hitting bars in New York City together. They really want to believe that.”
“I think it’s a little more like family than friends in that you don’t get to choose your family. We were cast. We didn’t choose each other. And family dynamics come out to play when you’re in an environment like that for so long. But you also have love that is quite deep and rich and probably everlasting, but it’s not an active love. Acting is like love affairs that you have, and then you move on.”