Anna Marie Tendler, victorian lampshade maker, bulldog owner, and ex-wife of John Mulaney, opened up to Harper’s Bazaar about her “surreal” year in the aftermath of her sudden divorce from the comedian last spring. “Everything that has transpired has been totally shocking and I think surreal,” Tendler told Harper’s Bazaar. “In a way, I feel like, well, it can only go up from here, because I reached the depth of where I could go.”
The artist now lives in a house she and Mulaney had bought together in 2020, though she has only lived there alone. Instead, Tendler made the house into her own art project, filling the rooms with her delicate lampshades and art as she finished up a master’s degree last year.
Tendler opened up about her work, saying it was the months of isolation that helped her dive into her art: “I feel so lucky that so much of my work is this mundane, detail-oriented handwork. I’m working with a needle and thread, and it’s like, if I’m not on it, I’m going to prick myself with a needle and f*ck something up.” That intricate work is shared heavily on her TikTok, which has gone viral with several videos of Tendler speaking candidly about art and heartbreak.
As for Mulaney, who spoke infamously about not wanting children when he was with Tendler, the comedian just welcomed a child with actress Olivia Munn last month. When asked if she’s reconsidered her desire to have children, Tendler claims she’s considering freezing her eggs. “There were things I never even thought about before because that was just a closed door. So now that it feels like not as much of a closed door, it’s something that I ruminate on a lot.”
Read Tendler’s full interview here.