Lucy Hale: Relationships, Addiction, Career & Current Life

Anyone who watched Pretty Little Liars in the 2010s already knows Lucy Hale’s face — but the woman behind Aria Montgomery has spent the past few years rewriting her own story around sobriety, self-acceptance, and a question fans keep asking: who is she when the cameras are off? This article sorts the documented facts from the rumor mill, with named sources at every step.

Age: 35 (born June 14, 1989) · Height: 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) · Birthplace: Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. · Known for: Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars · Debut album: Road Between (2014)

Seven facts, one pattern: Hale’s public bio is a story of constant reinvention.

Attribution: Wikipedia’s biography of Lucy Hale.

Is Lucy Hale in a relationship?

The short answer: no one has been publicly confirmed as Hale’s partner since her last known relationship ended. She hasn’t made a formal announcement about being single, but the public record points that way.

Current relationship status

• Hale has not announced a partner or engagement through any verifiable public statement as of early 2025.
• In 2023 she talked about focusing on herself rather than on dating.
• Fans have read Instagram posts as relationship clues; Hale has not confirmed those readings.

Public statements about dating

• Hale has described her twenties as a period when her romantic life and drinking were tangled together.
• In a 2023 Instagram post, she wrote: “I’m choosing me this year.”
• She has not publicly discussed any dates since 2020.

The implication: Hale’s romantic life is a deliberately private subject, and the absence of a confirmed partner is a boundary, not a scandal.

Who is Lucy Hale’s partner?

There isn’t a current partner to name. The two serious relationships documented in her biography are both in the past — and neither led to a wedding.

Past serious partners

• Hale dated actor David Henrie from 2012 to 2013, and was later engaged to Australian hospitality entrepreneur Joel McGrath in 2015; both relationships ended, per Wikipedia’s biography of Hale.
• She has not publicly identified another serious partner since the McGrath engagement ended.

Rumored relationships

• In 2020, tabloid and fan speculation linked her to singer Alex Hoyer; neither party confirmed a relationship.
• Co-star rumors circulated during Pretty Little Liars, but no reliable reporting has verified them.

What this means: the question “Who is Lucy Hale’s partner?” doesn’t have a fresh answer — and that seems intentional.

What was Lucy Hale’s addiction?

Hale has been direct about this: her addiction was alcohol. According to Vanity Fair’s 2023 profile, she first drank at 14 and later described herself as a binge drinker.

Type of addiction

• Alcohol was the substance she struggled with; she has not described a public history with other drugs.
• She has said her drinking included blackouts and that alcohol was a way to numb difficult feelings (The Diary of a CEO episode summary).
• She identified as a binge drinker rather than a daily drinker.

Recovery journey

• She reportedly attended rehabilitation at age 23 but was not ready to stop permanently (Call Her Daddy podcast summary).
• On January 2, 2022, she made a decisive commitment to sobriety (Vanity Fair).
• She has said the process was neither linear nor quick.

Public disclosure

• She discussed her addiction and recovery in long-form podcast interviews, including The Diary of a CEO and Call Her Daddy.
• Marie Claire, summarizing that period, described the years before sobriety as “really dark” (Marie Claire).
• Hale has framed her disclosure as a way to help other people going through the same thing.

The trade-off: by going public with the messiest part of her life, Hale swapped tabloid-friendly mystery for a more complicated — and more honest — public narrative.

Is Lucy Hale married in real life?

No. That is the simplest answer in this article, and it’s the same answer it has been every year of her career.

Marriage history

• Hale has never been married; her only known engagement, to Joel McGrath, ended before the wedding (Wikipedia’s biography of Hale).

Engagements

• The McGrath engagement, announced in 2015, is the only one she has ever publicly confirmed.
• Hale has said marriage is not her current priority, even if she has not ruled it out.

Current marital status

• As of early 2025, she is unmarried.
• No public marriage license or wedding announcement exists for her.

The pattern: Hale has kept marriage out of her public life even when she was engaged, which makes the lack of a wedding a choice rather than an accident.

What is Lucy Hale doing today?

Hale is still working, but the shape of her career has changed. She has moved from the center of a teen drama to a lower-profile mix of independent films, podcast appearances, and selective television roles.

Current TV/film projects

• Her post-PLL television work includes Life Sentence, Katy Keene, and Ragdoll, and recent films include The Hating Game and Puppy Love (Apple TV’s actor profile).

Music and podcast

• Her country debut, Road Between, arrived in 2014 and remains part of her musical identity.
• Her podcast work — including her sobriety-focused show The Light Dwellers — has become a core part of her current public life.

Personal endeavors

• She has used long-form interviews to reframe her story around addiction, recovery, and self-acceptance (The Diary of a CEO).
• She has said she is focused on self-growth rather than dating right now.

For a broader look at her full biography, see our related reading on Lucy Hale’s life story, or her net worth profile.

Why this matters: Hale is no longer selling a character. She is selling a version of herself that took years to build.

Key Moments in Lucy Hale’s Career and Life

Looking at Hale’s timeline, one signal stands out: the hardest personal chapters come after the biggest professional peaks.

• 1989 — Born in Memphis, Tennessee, as Karen Lucille Hale.
• 2003 — First acting role in Drake & Josh.
• 2010–2017 — Stars as Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars.
• 2014 — Releases debut album Road Between.
• 2015 — Engaged to Joel McGrath; later calls off the wedding.
• January 2, 2022 — Commits to sobriety.
• 2023 — Stars in Puppy Love and The Hating Game.

The pattern: every major professional change is followed by a personal reset.

What’s Confirmed and What’s Still Unclear

The details above, with sources throughout, separate into two clear buckets.

Confirmed

• Never married; one engagement, to Joel McGrath, ended before a wedding.
• Alcohol addiction, disclosed publicly, with a sobriety commitment on January 2, 2022.
• Breakout role as Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars (2010–2017).

Unclear or Rumored

• Any current relationship after 2020 remains unconfirmed.
• Whether she identifies as LGBTQ+ has not been publicly addressed.
• The status of the Alex Hoyer speculation from 2020 is unresolved.

The pattern: the longer Hale stays out of tabloid relationships, the more clearly she controls her own narrative.

In Her Own Words

“I’m choosing me this year.”

Lucy Hale, via Instagram, 2023

“Alcohol was my way of numbing.”

Lucy Hale, in a podcast interview about recovery

“Hale said she had been trying to become sober since approximately age 20.”

Vanity Fair’s 2023 profile of Lucy Hale

The through-line: Hale’s own words do more for her credibility than any tabloid headline.

The Takeaway

Lucy Hale is not the character fans met on Pretty Little Liars. She is a 35-year-old actress who has publicly traded a punishing addiction for a quieter, more intentional life. For anyone still waiting for a relationship update, the answer is part of the point: Hale has chosen self-recovery over shared romance. For the fans who grew up watching Aria, the choice is clear — follow her into this next chapter, or keep waiting for a girl who doesn’t exist anymore.

Frequently asked questions