Umair
Barbara Alyn Woods has a fun story.
During the Friday, March 28, episode of the Drama Queens podcast, the One Tree Hill alum, 63, playfully teased a behind-the-scenes secret from her guest spot on Seinfeld.
“I played someone going out [on a date] with Jason Alexander … You wanna hear some dirt?” she said. “I used to date someone from that show.”
As her co-hosts threw out names like Larry David and Michael Richards, Woods laughed, “No, I wish!” before revealing, “It was actually Seinfeld himself.”
She recalled first meeting Jerry at a comedy club, long before he became a household name.
“He did stand-up, and [we] even watched the pilot together when he had done the pilot,” she shared. Seinfeld, now 70, had invited her to watch an early preview of his soon-to-be-iconic sitcom, giving her a front-row seat to television history.
When asked what he was like, Woods had nothing but praise.
“He was very serious about being funny. I think a lot of comedians are that way—so serious people [and] not what you’d expect,” she explained. “[He was] super smart and intelligent and so nice to fans.”
Though their romance didn’t last, their friendship did.
They remained close enough that Woods later landed a role on Seinfeld in season 6. “We ended up being friends,” she said. “And then I ended up doing the show after we dated.”
Seinfeld eventually married Jessica Sklar in 1999, and the couple, still going strong, share three children, Sascha, 24, Julian, 22, and Shepherd, 18.
Woods, meanwhile, married John Lind in 1991, with whom she shares three daughters, Natalie, Emily, and Alyvia.
After divorcing in 2021, she found love again with Golden Bachelorette alum Mark Anderson in October 2024—who, fun fact, is the father of Bachelor winner Kelsey Anderson.
