Jean Smart’s boyfriend Joe Pacheco kept the spotlight with her at the Emmys, where the actor made his red carpet debut with Smart at the 2024 ceremony. Pacheco later posted a photo on Instagram saying he was heading to the show with his date, calling Smart incredible and amazing.
That is why searches around Jean Smart husband keep circling back to Pacheco now. Smart has been publicly tied to a new relationship after losing Richard Gilliland in 2021, and the pairing has become part of the story around her latest awards run on Hacks.
Pacheco is not just a plus-one. He had a small role as a police officer on The Sopranos in 2000, then began playing Bart Daley in Apple TV's The Morning Show in 2019. He also appeared as Ava's mom's boyfriend, Jack, on the final season of Hacks, a credit that folds him even closer into Smart’s professional orbit.
Smart has been careful but open about the relationship. In June 2025, she confirmed she was dating a wonderful actor, and in May 2026 she said she had met him at a friend's party. The timeline leaves one piece of the story out in the open: when exactly the romance began, even as the couple’s public appearances keep making that answer feel less relevant than the fact that they are clearly together.
Smart’s career momentum only sharpens the attention. She won the Golden Globe for Best Female Actor in a Television Musical/Comedy for Hacks for the third time and is nominated in 2026 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. If she wins again, she could take that Emmy category for the fifth year in a row, become the first lead actor to win for every season of a single TV show, and tie Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Cloris Leachman for the most acting Emmy wins.
For now, Pacheco is the man walking that road with her. His Instagram post made the relationship public in plain language, and Smart has since described him as an extremely lovely man. The next marker on the calendar is the 2026 Emmys, where her awards chase and their relationship may again land in the same frame.
