Ta Leoni regularly goes fishing by herself in upstate NY its a very Zen pastime

May 2024 · 5 minute read

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Téa Leoni’s new CBS show, Madam Secretary, premiered on CBS last night. Téa plays a newly minted Secretary of State. I haven’t seen it yet, but I heard a review on NPR that claimed it’s no Good Wife or West Wing because the writing is poor. Maybe I’ll watch the first episode though, my standards are low.

As part of promotion for the show, Téa did an interview with Parade magazine. At one point she talked about her 17 year marriage to actor David Duchovny. She didn’t dish details but she did praise Duchovny as the father of her children and added that she could never hate him. That’s faint praise, but it’s praise. David is also quoted saying nice things about his ex. Téa and David’s divorce was made final this summer. They previously split, reconciled and then split again. Their first breakup followed David’s inpatient rehab treatment for sex addiction in 2008. They have two children together: Madelaine West, 15, and Kyd Miller, 12. (Their son is really named Kyd.) Here’s more:

On her now-over marriage
As Leoni enters into a new TV marriage, her real-life one has recently ended; she and David Duchovny, who have two children—Madelaine West, 15, and Kyd Miller, 12—divorced this summer after 17 years together, punctuated by two separations. But their relationship is better than amicable, says the actress, whose ring finger still bears the wedding-band tattoo she got in 2007 to match Duchovny’s. “Listen, David gave me the two greatest gifts on the planet; I don’t know how I could ever hate him,” she says. “We’ve always loved each other, and we adore these kids. … I’m not playing stupid—I understand feelings can get hurt and things can get icky. We’ve had our moments like that. But these kids are too important, and he feels the same way, I know it. He’s a good guy.”

Duchovny, who has a place in New York but has been in L.A. working on a series about Charles Manson, had the kids for “most of the summer,” adds Leoni, who visited. “It’s fun to spend time as this unit that we still are, and it’s easy to communicate about them. There was that brief moment when the kids said, ‘Oh, I can work a scam on you here and him over there,’ and we were like, ‘News flash—no!’”

For his part, Duchovny says, “Téa and I had a long time together; we’ll always be connected and there for each other.” He knew Madam Secretary was something special for her when she “committed to it right away. She usually takes a long time to consider things from all angles.”

Leoni is also happy to be filming in New York, where she grew up. “L.A. is good for like four days, and then you’ve gotta get out,” she says. “I wanted my kids close to my parents and David’s mother. I wanted them to get to know their grandparents. I was very close to mine.”

She’d rather be fishing – really
Leoni is diplomatic about social media in our lives, though she prefers to keep her distance. “People seem to really enjoy it, but watching people scrolling through ­relationships with their thumb? It seems weird. I’d rather be fishing.”

She’s not kidding: An avid fly fisher, Leoni likes to get away for brief solitary trips in upstate New York to cast for trout using barbless hooks. “It’s a very Zen pastime,” she says. “My favorite meal is when I pull in something good-sized, skin it right there on the river, and bring it home and fry it. All but a few dinners go back.”

For now, she’s immersing herself in the world of politics as seen on TV. “Women are masters of diplomacy,” she says. “We’re probably at an unfair advantage, maybe because we know we can’t rely upon a good right hook. We may have one, but that’s not where we’ve been taught to go. I want to celebrate that there is a difference between the sexes; I want that bipartisanship to last forever.”

She leans in closer. “I do know this already: Secretary of state may be the most fascinating job in the world, and I would never want it in real life. I’d still rather be fishing.”

[From Parade Magazine]

That’s awesome that she loves to fish by herself. It sounds very relaxing. The article also notes that Téa has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2001. She’s made multiple overseas trips on behalf of the organization, and she’s been familiar with their work all her life. Téa’s grandmother was the president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for 25 years. I didn’t know that about her.

As far as her relationship with David, she’s probably dealt with so much crap from him over the years, (as did he from her) but she’s keeping it classy for the sake of their kids. These two remind me a little of Courteney Cox and David Arquette’s split, except they’re not spilling the beans as much. It’s nice to see a celebrity couple focused on their kids instead of nursing perceived wounds.

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Photos of T&eachute;a and David together are from 2010. Photos of T&eachute;a alone are from 2014. Credit: WENN.com

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