John Mulaney’s Ex-Wife Anna Marie Tendler’s Memoir Focuses on Bad Men. Wonder Who It Could Be About?
Anna Marie Tendler, the celebrated multimedia artist and ex-wife to Emmy-winning comedian John Mulaney, will release a memoir titled Men Have Called Her Crazy this upcoming August 13th. I wonder how many of those men calling her crazy sound like Jon Lovitz if he was a reporter from the 1950s.
Mulaney and Tendler’s much-publicized divorce in mid-2021 shattered many Mulaney fans’ image of their favorite fast-talking, suit-wearing comedian who had mined so many iconic bits from his relationship with his ex-wife. As Mulaney explained through a characteristically sing-song patter in last year’s Baby J Netflix special, “likability is a jail,” and much of the comic’s charm came from his reflections on his relationship with Tendler. Whether Mulaney was describing his chemistry with his then-girlfriend as “like having a lawyer for everyday stuff” or “jokingly” calling his then-wife a “bossy Jew,” Tendler’s place in the comic’s child-free life was a tentpole of his stage persona. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Mulaney and Tendler separated, and your Millennial sister’s celebrity crush quickly moved on to start a family with actress Olivia Munn.
Since the split, Mulaney has made no mention of Tendler in his comedy after featuring her as an off-stage main character for so many years, though he’ll make an occasional and brief reference to his divorce here and there. However, with Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler seems entirely unlikely to return the favor, promising that her memoir will be “about the endless source of my heartbreak and rage — men.”
“I have been writing this book for two years,” Tendler wrote in her memoir announcement. “More accurately though I have been writing it for close to four decades.” The acclaimed Victorian style lampshade artist continued, “I have never been more proud of any work. It is a story about mental health; about being a woman; about family.”
The synopsis of Men Have Called Her Crazy on the Simon & Schuster website hints that, in the memoir, Tendler will go in-depth on her side of the story about the tumultuous events of 2021 that culminated in her and Mulaney’s divorce — the description reads, “In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, ‘There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.’” While Mulaney’s stint in rehab during that time was a hot topic in both gossip magazines and his own stand-up comedy, little has been reported of Tendler's own struggles with mental health and her own journey to wellness.
“As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men,” the synopsis continues, “Unrequited love in high school; the 28-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was 16; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-thirties; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.” Famously, Mulaney didn’t want to have kids during his marriage to Tendler and made many jokes about the subject before he and Munn had their first son Malcolm mere months after Mulaney and Tendler’s divorce.
While Tendler clearly won’t dedicate the entirety of Men Have Called Her Crazy to her ex-husband’s behavior, it’s safe to assume that we’re going to hear a side of the story of their relationship that won’t pull punches for punchlines — as one Instagram user commented under Tendler’s announcement, “When a woman gets bangs, you know shit’s about to get real.”
