Walton Goggins is used to playing complicated men. But few roles reflect his personal life as clearly as Rick Hatchett in The White Lotus. Behind his Hollywood ascent lies a deeply personal story – the suicide of his first wife, a transformative journey through grief, and a love that helped him start again.
Is Walton Goggins married?
Yes, The White Lotus and Fallout star Walton Goggins has been married to filmmaker and writer Nadia Conners since 2011. The two first started dating in 2005, not long after Goggins endured one of the most painful chapters of his life – the loss of his first wife, Leanne, to suicide. What began as an awkward blind date turned into a life-changing partnership, one that has grounded Goggins through a second act in his career that includes leading roles, critical acclaim, and, unexpectedly, sex symbol status.
Conners, known for the 2007 environmental documentary The 11th Hour and her recent narrative debut The Uninvited, is no stranger to Hollywood. In March 2024, she cast Goggins as the husband in her debut feature film, which premiered at SXSW. Though inspired by their real-life social circle, the movie wasn’t a biopic – “just a party that went sideways,” Conners has said.
The two share a son, born in 2011, just months before their wedding. Their relationship is rooted in creativity and mutual admiration. “To be in a relationship with someone who has something profound to say about everything – that’s a real gift,” Goggins told Military.com shortly after their marriage. “Love is the great releaser.”
What happened to Walton Goggins’ first wife?
Before his marriage to Conners, Goggins was married to Canadian dog trainer Leanne Goggins, who died by suicide in 2004. Her death devastated Goggins, who later described the aftermath as emotionally paralysing. “It’s a very complicated story,” he told GQ in a 2025 interview. “Ultimately, it was revealed the decision that she’d made. And yeah, I thought it was really unrecoverable for me. Life on the other side of that.”
In the years following her death, Goggins traveled the world seeking solace – visiting India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and, most meaningfully, Thailand. It was a journey that mirrored the one taken by Rick Hatchett, his character in The White Lotus season 3. Goggins said the experience of filming the series in the same places he’d once wandered in grief was surreal.
“I realised, ‘I’ve been on this road before,’” he said. “And then the next island we went to, I realised, ‘I’ve definitely been on this beach before. I know this boardwalk.’” It was only on his final night in Bangkok that he grasped the emotional symmetry between his past and present selves. “God, I wish I could whisper to that guy, ‘You’re going to be okay. Just keep walking.’”
How Walton Goggins turned grief into meaning on screen
Goggins has never shied away from emotionally charged roles, but in The White Lotus, viewers saw a deeper layer – a man quietly grappling with his past while searching for purpose. He credits the resonance of that performance not just to the writing, but to the lived experience he brought with him. “I haven’t had the time to fully unpack the symmetry between those two people showing up at the same place, separated by 20 years,” he admitted.
Why the internet’s obsession with Walton Goggins makes perfect sense
At 53, Walton Goggins has unexpectedly found himself an object of intense internet thirst. Hosting Saturday Night Live in May, he leaned into the new “sex symbol” label with disarming charm, showing off clickbait headlines about his brooding White Lotus character and receding – but “holding its ground” – hairline.
The appeal, of course, goes deeper than looks. Goggins embodies something that’s rare in Hollywood: emotional honesty, intellectual depth, and a refusal to conform to the industry’s idea of “leading man” perfection.
