Inside Eric McCormack And Janet Holden's Relationship Before Their Sudden Divorce

In November 2023, it was announced that Janet Leigh Holden (also known as Janet McCormack) was divorcing Eric McCormack (and a lawyer broke down Holden's divorce filing against McCormack for us at The List). Although it's coming to a close, how did their relationship start?

While speaking with The Guardian in 2007, McCormack said he and Holden met in 1994 on a TV show's set. McCormack was starring in the series, and Holden was assistant director. Although he didn't say the name of the show at the time, he shared a photo on Instagram in 2020 confirming that it was "Lonesome Dove." McCormack quipped to The Guardian, "I was just coming out of a relationship, and not to be trusted."

He saw something different in Holden that he hadn't seen in the other women he'd dated. When McCormack tried to pursue a relationship, "At first she wasn't too keen. She knew actors are a lot of work: it would be like taking your work home with you. But I managed to convince her." Their relationship was kept under wraps until the end of the Season 1 filming.

According to TMZ, Eric McCormack and Janet Holden got married in August 1997, a few years after they met working on "Lonesome Dove" — and about half a year after McCormack snagged the role of Will Truman on "Will & Grace," according to his interview with The Guardian. McCormack also said how achieving mainstream success as someone already settled down and married was better because, "If it had happened when I was younger, you might have seen me falling out of nightclubs." 

McCormack and Holden have one child who was born in 2002 — a son named Finnigan Holden McCormack (via Pinkvilla). In an interview with iNews about how the "Will & Grace" reboot was directly tied to Donald Trump's election, McCormack explained that he and Holden were dual citizens of the U.S. and Canada. They thought about living in Canada during Trump's presidency but decided against it for their son's sake. McCormack told the outlet, "But then we were thinking 'We're two votes that need to be counted' and my son was born here. He identifies as Canadian but he's an American citizen and he needs to see that we're fighting for his country."

The "Will & Grace" cast member and his soon-to-be ex-wife Janet Holden kept most of their relationship private, but they didn't shy away from sometimes sharing glimpses on Instagram (especially in the form of selfies). In May 2019, Eric McCormack shared a selfie of himself and Holden at the BottleRock Napa Valley festival and captioned it, "Just ONE MORE DAY till @BottleRockNapa! Our 5th year!" He also shared details about an appearance he would make with some chefs at the event, which is a food and music festival in California.

McCormack posted snaps of himself and Holden at other events — and even shared a selfie of them with the legendary Elton John at an Elton John AIDS Foundation event in February 2020. He also posted a family selfie with their son to celebrate his birthday in 2021.

Holden shared family photos as well, such as a group shot of the three of them voting in 2020. In November 2023, a few short weeks before her divorce filing was announced, Holden shared a photo of herself from right before Finnigan Holden McCormack was born. Neither Holden nor McCormack has yet to make a public statement about their impending divorce.