Steve Martin Fuels Meryl Streep and Martin Short Romance Rumors

Steve Martin seemingly hinted at the Meryl Streep and Martin Short romance rumors.

On Friday, October 18, Martin, 79, posted a screenshotted photo via Instagram of himself, Streep, 75, and Short, 74. In the picture, taken in February 2023 at an afterparty for Broadway’s Pictures From Home, Martin crossed out his face with an emoji, just highlighting Streep and Short next to each other.

Several fans filled up Martin’s comment section asking if he was confirming Streep and Short’s potential romance.

“Are u confirming this relationship?!” one user wrote while another shared, “I don’t know why the thought of Meryl and Martin makes me so happy but it honestly fills my heart with joy.”

When dating rumors started swirling in January after the longtime friends were spotted sitting next to each other at the 2024 Golden Globes, a rep for Short denied that the actor and Streep were dating.

“They are just very good friends, nothing more,” the rep shared in a statement to The Messenger in January.

Short later emphasized that the pair were just “close friends.”

“We’re not a couple. We are just very close friends,” he explained during an appearance on the “Club Random with Bill Maher” podcast in January.

Streep and Short made headlines once again after they were spotted holding hands at the Only Murders in the Building season 4 premiere afterparty in August. Deadline shared a clip of the duo interlacing fingers as they walked alongside Martin at the Los Angeles party.

Shortly after they were seen getting close, Short shared that he has a lot of “love” for Streep.

“I think it’s been a friendship that always grows if you work with someone and love that person,” he told Extra in August.

Streep was previously married to Don Gummer. In October 2023, a rep for Streep confirmed that the former couple had split after nearly 40 years of marriage. (The pair share children Henry, 44, Mamie, 41, Grace, 38, and Louisa, 33.)

“Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than 6 years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart,” the rep told Us Weekly in a statement.

Short, for his part, was married to wife, Nancy Dolman, from 1951 until 2010 when she died after battling ovarian cancer. (The couple shared kids Katherine, 40, Oliver, 38, and Henry, 35.)

“It’s tough. I still communicate with her all the time,” Short explained to AARP magazine in January 2019. “I believe that when people die, they zoom into the people that love them. This idea that it just ends, and don’t speak of them — that’s wrong. That’s based on denial that we’re all going to die. So to me, she’s still here.”