Inside Jennette McCurdy’s dating history: from child star romance to ‘red flags’

Jennette’s first public relationship was with her fellow child star, Graham Patrick Martin; the pair reportedly dated for around four years in the mid ’00s.

Graham appeared on shows like Two and a Half Men and even guest-starred on iCarly in his youth, and has found continued success with appearances in Major Crimes, Law & Order: SVU, A Southern Haunting, The Rookie and NCIS: Los Angeles.

Perhaps Jennette’s most eyebrow-raising relationship was with iCarly script manager Paul Glaser, who was 13 years her senior. Despite their age gap, the actress shared with Vulture in 2015 that she didn’t appreciate the online discourse about her relationship.

“People online would make very rude comments about him and say, ‘What a creep to have had an eye on her for so long.’ But they didn’t know the whole story,” she told the outlet.

“That’s an instance when I really resented social media because I thought, these people are making it hard on me.” While Jennette has declined to share who inspired her new novel Half His Age, many have pointed out the similarities to her relationship with Paul.

“[We met] through work. There’s nowhere to meet anybody else. All I did was work,” she said on Call Her Daddy when asked about the unnamed man who inspired the novel.

“I think I was 18 by the time he started working on the show. I think. I’m not sure about that. It’s possible I was younger, but I was most likely 18.”

“He would show me movies that he thought I would like…which I did not like, but I pretended to like. He would play me music that I did not like, but I pretended to like,” she continued. “Red flags all over.”

Jennette added that she felt embarrassed about their romance in hindsight and wished she knew better. “He was like, ‘You’re so mature. I can’t talk to anyone this way. I can’t believe how smart you are.’ Like, are you kidding me? I was such an idiot. I’m so embarrassed.”

Jennette briefly dated NBA star Andre Drummond in 2013, after he shared that she was his “Woman Crush Wednesday” on Twitter.

“I found it sweet, gutsy, and flattering,” she wrote in an essay for The Wall Street Journal at the time. 

“It’s hard not to be impressed by a boy who will express his feelings for you in front of hundreds of thousands of people. I followed him back on Twitter and sent him a public message. We had a brief banter, and then he sent me a private message with his phone number. Inevitably, I utilized it.” Their romance ended shortly thereafter, and he now plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Jesse was her next love, whom she met while starring in the Netflix series Between in 2014. She reportedly dated the Canadian actor for a year, and declared her love for him in an interview with Vulture.

“This is maybe staking a big claim in my future self, but I would say that I certainly love him right, you know?” Jennette said.

“I feel like I’m learning to love in all the right ways and to accept love for who I am, versus an impressive version of myself. I think from an early age I learned to be whatever person people needed me to be.”

They split around 2015, and Between was Jesse’s most recent acting credit. Before meeting Jennette, he had appeared in Skins, NCIS and Finding Carter.

Jennette has kept quiet about her current partner and is fiercely protective of their relationship.

She briefly mentioned him on Call Her Daddy, revealing that they had discussed their future together. “I know I don’t want kids at this point in my life,” she explained.

“I’m also open to wanting kids at some point…[My partner and I] have discussed it, and neither of us really wants kids, but we are also open to changing our minds and being in that process together.”