James Franco and longtime girlfriend Isabel Pakzad have stepped out for a glitzy date night while celebrating Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special.
Franco, 46, and Pakzad, an actress and director, hit the red carpet at New York’s Rockefeller Center on Sunday, February 16, smiling for the cameras as they stood arm-in-arm.
The Pineapple Express actor looked sharp in a black tuxedo while Pakzad, 29, opted for a grey tailored two-piece embellished with intricate florals.
The couple, who reportedly began dating in November 2017, are rarely spotted on the red carpet, however, did attend the 2024 Cannes Film Festival together in May last year to celebrate the premiere of Kinds of Kindness starring Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Willem Dafoe, Joe Alwyn and Jesse Plemons.
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In December 2021, Franco spoke frankly about his love life on an episode of SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Podcast,” revealing that a sex addiction meant he “could never be faithful to anybody,” prior to Pakzad.
“I had girlfriends … I cheated on everyone before Isabel,” the actor admitted at the time before adding further insight into previous relationships. “Along the road of trying to get success and climb the top of that mountain, attention from women, success with women also became a huge source of validation for me,” Franco said during the December 23, 2021 episode. “The problem with that is, as I’m sure you can guess, is that there’s never enough. I’m just trying to fill that hole and it never gets filled.”
In 2018, Franco was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by five individual women in an article published by The Los Angeles Times in January that year. Two of the four women who were former students of Franco’s filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit in 2019 which Franco settled in 2021.
While Franco initially denied the allegations, he later admitted he slept with students but believed the interactions were consensual.
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“I didn’t sleep with anybody in that particular class, but over the course of my teaching I did sleep with students, and that was wrong,” Franco said during the December podcast. “But … it’s not why I started the school, and I wasn’t the person that selected the people to be in the class. So it wasn’t a master plan on my part, but yes, there were certain instances where … I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn’t have been.”
The podcast also delved into Franco’s friendship with former onscreen collaborator Seth Rogan, with Franco revealing the pair parted ways in light of the allegations.
More recently, Franco confirmed that the relationship was not what it once was. “I haven’t talked to Seth,” Franco told Variety in October 2024. “I love Seth, we had 20 great years together, but I guess it’s over. And not for lack of trying. I’ve told him how much he’s meant to me.”
