Critics Choice Awards 2025: How to Watch the Ceremony and Red Carpet

Lately, Chelsea Handler has been exploring a new romance.

However, she isn’t ready to kiss and tell just yet.

"I’ve been down that road before with having a public relationship, my last relationship,” the Chelsea Lately alum said on the Feb. 4 episode of Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy. Not that she’s opposed to having people know about her love life. "No, it’s not that," she noted. "It’s more out of respect for their privacy, you know what I mean? I don’t want him to have to be exposed to my world."

Still, Chelsea was willing to spill some tea—sharing she met her mystery man "a long time ago," but that they "didn’t really become lovers until about six or seven months ago."

"I’ve known him for years," the 2025 Critics Choice Awards host continued. "I’ve always been attracted to him, but he was not available. And I always have wanted someone like him in my life. He’s hot, he’s awesome, he’s sweet and so caring and completely sees me and understands that I am not available a lot."

Why Chelsea Handler Is Done Talking About Her Split From Jo Koy

However, there was a time when Chelsea was all in with Jo Koy. The two had been friends for years. In fact, he frequently appeared on her E! late-night show Chelsea Lately, which ran from 2007 to 2014.

Still, it wouldn’t be until much later that a spark would form. As they previously recalled to The Hollywood Reporter, Jo asked Chelsea in December 2020 if he could call her—to which she replied, “Not if you’re trying to f--k me.” The comedians continued to stay in contact over the next eight months, the outlet added, and their relationship shifted from platonic to romantic in August 2021.

“She basically asked me to kiss her,” Jo told the publication before Chelsea clarified, “I said, ‘I think you have a crush on me, and if you do, you should do something about it and see what happens.’”

The following month, the pair made their relationship Instagram official.

"People hear me talk about how Jo's renewed my faith in men," Chelsea said to THR, "and they must think, 'Oh my God, if Chelsea Handler’s in love and all soft and mushy, it could happen to anyone.'"

“He has renewed my faith in men in many ways,” the 49-year-old told E! in January 2022. “It reminded me that when you don't settle and when people are like, 'You're in your 40s, you can't be so picky.' I was always like, 'Yes, I can. I can be as picky as I want. I don't need a man to be with.' Like, I'm having this great life regardless of whether I find someone or not, so I never really lowered my standards. And it's a good lesson for all women and anyone who hasn't met their person yet, to not ever lower your standards because then someone comes along that meets your standards.”

Chelsea Handler Talks Dysfunctional Family, New Tour & WILD Goop Gifts

So when Chelsea felt like her relationship with Jo was no longer meeting her standards, she knew it was time for them to go their separate ways—the pair announcing their breakup in July 2022 one month shy of their first anniversary.