Updated on September 10, 2019.
In January 2019, Jenny Slate “stepped out” with “a new man” at Sundance Film Festival. This was nearly a year after she split, again, with Chris Evans. (You can read a timeline of Chris Evans and Jenny Slate’s relationship here.)
However, this article is not about Chris Evans. This is about Jenny’ Slate’s “new man.” For a time, the internet was abuzz trying to figure out who he was, with a Getty Image credit simply referring to him as Jenny’s “guest”:
But, the internet quickly figured out the mysterious “guest” kissing Jenny Slate: Ben Shattuck. It’s been about seven months since that photo, and the couple seems to be going strong, so we thought it was finally time to give you all the details on Ben Shattuck. (How many times can we write out Ben Shattuck? Shall we stop? We’ll start calling him Ben.)
Ben is a writer and artist. (JK, think we have to go with the full name. Ben feels weird and intimate, and we don’t know him yet!) Ben Shattuck is a writer and artist. (Better!) He graduated from Cornell in 2008, where he attended the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. In 2013, he attended the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Ben Shattuck also paints! Here are his paintings. They’re also on his Instagram (he’s @benshattuck_art, duh).
He’s had a bunch of awards and residencies, let’s just screenshot his website for you:
Woah! Go Ben Shattuck!
Currently, he is the director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency and the curator at the Dedee Shattuck Gallery. (Dedeee is his mom.) What is Cuttyhunk Island, you ask? It’s an island off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. (This is gonna be relevant later!)
Here’s Ben Shattuck in Cuttyhunk holding a fish:
Here’s Ben Shattuck (location unclear) holding a baby:
Here’s Ben Shattuck, in Cuttyhunk, with a horseshoe crab on his head:
Shall we get to the part with Jenny Slate? Yes, let’s get to Jenny Slate!!
We’re unsure when exactly they started dating.
On April 16, 2019, she re-grammed Cuttyhunk Writers’ call for applications (Cuttyhunk Writers, remember, is run by Ben! Okay, Ben feels right at this point).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwUvl3ilyX-/
On May 4, she took him to a film premiere. He’s named in this Getty Image caption this time!
And then, on May 20, she posted again about a residency, this time calling Ben Shattuck her boyfriend and “her sweetie”! OMG!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxr2dqRhL4T/
Honestly, Cuttyhunk looks gorg.
A day earlier, on May 19, Ben posted a picture of Jenny on his Instagram:
He calls her his “dream date,” and she’s holding a record of whale songs. Whales seem to be a motif in their relationship, as we turn to…
June 4, when Jenny posts a picture with Ben! In Cuttyhunk, OBVI. She wrote, “Fantasy achieved/complete 🐳🆒❤️.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTK8_BlUhi/
On the same day, she shared a photo of her (likely, again, in Cuttyhunk) just captioned with whale emojis:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTPK05F4TL/
Here’s Ben in the same spot, on the same day:
Are you also all in on their relationship? Same. Are you ready to move to Cuttyhunk? Same.
But it gets better!
On June 15, Jenny posted a picture of their place cards at a wedding with hearts drawn all around them:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byvy7WhltHp/
And then, she posted a picture of Ben, again calling him her boyfriend, with a heart eye emoji:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byv9INvls3r/
Ben, not to be outdone, posted a gorgeous photo of Jenny and a dog:
On June 17, Jenny Slate was Cuttyhunk Elementary School’s graduation speaker. The graduating class? One person. Cuttyhunk has a year-round population of around 12 people, and eighth grader Gwen Lynch was the last student enrolled in the island’s school. When she graduated in June, none other than Jenny came to speak to her. (Jenny has great advice.)
“You want to say something worthwhile to these very, very young adults who are going into the world,” Jenny told The New York Times. “But to give a full graduation speech to one girl, one young woman, it’s an honor and something I take really seriously.” The graduation ceremony was attended by about 100 people.
The last student at one of the smallest schools in the US, built in 1873, is graduating.
Cuttyhunk Island, Mass., has a year-round population of 12, but 13-year-old Gwen Lynch “had the best beginning a child could ask for.”@SteveHartmanCBS is “On the Road” pic.twitter.com/99wJyscVPT
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) June 21, 2019
Here is Jenny talking about the experience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFyQ1CaKLJ0
“She did not request me, I found this out from The New York Times,” she said. (The eighth grader requested Michelle Obama, then Oprah, and didn’t really know who Jenny was!)
Anyhoo. We’ll update this with more news about their relationship and Instagrams from Cuttyhunk as they get posted! Bye!
Update September 10: Jenny and Ben are engaged! Jenny took to Instagram to share the news — it did not happen in Cuttyhunk, but in Paris.
She writes, “He took me to France and made a picnic and made me feel happy and free and then he asked me to marry him and i screamed YES.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2NaDSRFSny/
Mazels!!
Header Image of Jenny Slate and Ben Shattuck by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival; watercolor hearts by beastfromeast/DigitalVision Vectors
