Meet Helen Hunt’s famous actor boyfriend who brags she’s made his life ‘so rich and full of love’

Almost 40 years ago, Helen and Jeffrey dated. “We dated in 1988!” the actress revealed during a June 2025 interview with Flow Space. “I’ve never really talked about that. And I always thought he was lovely and sweet and talented and dreamy.”

Back then, Helen was a rising child actress. Her big breakthrough on The Mary Tyler Moore Show led to a string of appearances in studio films. In 1988, she starred in Stealing Home alongside Mark Harmon and Jodie Foster. Jeffrey landed his first role in Working Girl with Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, and Melanie Griffith.

The two met co-starring in the 1988 TV movie Shooter. After breaking up, Helen explained that she and Jeffrey “had very different lives for decades, and then, in some crazy way, found each other again.”

Jeffrey first broke into the industry in 1988 with a few small roles in film and television, but he is best known for portraying Jake Manning in Once and Again from 1999 to 2002. Soon after he acted alongside Kiefer Sutherland in 24, and alongside Drea de Matteo in Desperate Housewives.

Most recently, Jeffrey’s starred in Big Little Lies, Law & Order, and So Help Me Todd.

During their relationship hiatus, both Jeffrey and Helen had other relationships. After Helen split up with her husband of 16 years, Matthew Carnahan, her daughter Makenna Lei encouraged her mom to date again.

“The sentence was, ‘You should date someone hot,‘” Helen recalled to Flow Space. “I mentioned [Jeffrey], and we had mutual friends, and we had breakfast.”

The rest was history!

Before reconnecting with Helen in 2022, Jeffrey was married to actress Francia Dimase, who is best known for her role in the hit legal television show JAG. While the two haven’t shared when they tied the knot, they were together for over two decades and officially divorced in June 2022.

Jeffrey and Francia share three daughters together, twins Eloise and Miranda, 30, and Iris, 23. The actor is very close with his children, calling them “The Blessing Of My Life.” While Iris is quite private, Eloise and Miranda document their lives on social media. Like her dad, Eloise is an actor, while Miranda is a music consultant and curator for brands. 

Helen seems to be a presence in Jeffrey’s daughters’ lives. In August 2025, the modern family traveled to Michigan for a music festival in a small plane.

After reconnecting in 2022, the couple made their red carpet debut in October 2023 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 20th Anniversary Gala. To the event, Helen wore a classic black midi dress while Jeffrey wore a black suit with a white and black polka-dot shirt.