Sterling K. Brown and his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathé, playfully argued about whether his Paradise character was in the wrong for how he introduced his wife to his former one-night stand.
During the Monday, March 30, episode of the “Paradise: Official Podcast,” Brown, 49, explained why he thinks Xavier didn’t need to immediately tell wife Teri (Enuka Okuma) that he slept with Gabriela (Sarah Shahi).
“Did I lie? Excuse me, she is my therapist. What am I supposed to say?” he quipped. “The jump-off [should be] that I hooked up with [her] the one time because I thought my wife was deceased.”
The season 2 finale, which premiered on Monday, showed Xavier introducing Terri to Gabriela as his “therapist.” While Terri didn’t understand the tension, viewers knew that the meeting was awkward considering Xavier and Gabriela’s racy hookup in season 1.
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“That’s exactly what you were supposed to say,” Bathé, 49, told Brown, who fired back, “Why do I do that on the first time that they meet each other?”
Bathé, who has been married to Brown since 2007, urged his character to consider “radical honesty,” adding, “I would have told her. I was yelling at the screen. It was the jovialness. I was like, ‘You are a damn liar!’”
In response, Brown joked that his real-life wife “shouldn’t host” the show’s companion podcast because she wasn’t being impartial.
“Nobody should do that on the first time,” he added.
Paradise, which premiered in January 2025, initially appeared to be set in a serene and wealthy community forced to face the realities of a shocking murder. In typical Dan Fogelman fashion, the political thriller introduced a twist when Paradise was revealed to be an underground bunker housing the world’s most prominent individuals after an apocalyptic event destroyed the rest of humanity.
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In addition to hosting the podcast, Bathé made a guest appearance in season 2. She previously spoke to Us Weekly about getting the opportunity after being a fan of the show when it originally debuted on Hulu.
“Initially, I was a little bit lukewarm about doing the podcast because I was like, ‘There’s no way [they can top season 1],’” Bathé shared in February. “Dan is a genius. He’s got great writers, but I thought that it’s not going to be as good as season 1.”
Bathé was happy to be proven wrong, saying, “How do you top perfection? You can’t match perfection. So, I was going to try it, but I was [preparing] for a sophomore slump. I was wrong. Not only was I wrong — but I was so very wrong.”
She continued, “It’s incredible. I don’t know how they create a perfect season of television in season 1 and then take it apart and take the pieces and put them back together in an even more — or just as interesting — way. I kept asking that question, and they’re all so humble.”
Paradise is currently streaming on Hulu and has been renewed for season 3.
