Charlie Hunnam’s next date with Morgana McNelis involves an axe murder, a deeply unhappy Victorian family and several hours on the couch.
The Sons of Anarchy star says he and his longtime partner plan to watch Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story together, repeating what they did with his previous season of the Netflix anthology. Hunnam told E! News that the pair sat down and watched the entire Ed Gein Story installment in a single day, according to Just Jared.
“We had such a nice time last year,” Hunnam recalled. He also called it a “fun day,” before acknowledging that “nice” and “fun” are slightly odd descriptions for a marathon centered on one of America’s most notorious killers. Either way, he said it was “a day to remember” and that they intend to do it again.
This time should be easier for Hunnam personally. Instead of carrying the season as Ed Gein, he plays Andrew Borden, father of Lizzie Borden, and says the supporting role brought far less responsibility and required much less emotional cleanup afterward.
They Turned ‘Monster’ Into an At-Home Ritual
Hunnam rarely offers much detail about everyday life with McNelis, which makes the image of the two spending an entire day watching his work unusually specific. “We sat down and watched the whole thing in a day and binged it together,” he told E! News of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
The experience apparently went well enough that they have already decided to repeat it when the Lizzie Borden installment arrives. For a couple that has spent most of nearly two decades keeping its private life largely outside the spotlight, the ritual is strikingly ordinary, stay home, sit together and watch all of Hunnam’s latest series at once.
McNelis has nevertheless become more visible alongside him during the past year. She joined Hunnam at the 2025 Emmys and later accompanied him through awards season, including the 2026 Actor Awards.
McNelis Has Rules for How His Dark Roles Come Home
Watching Hunnam’s work at home is one thing. Living with the character while he is making it is another, and McNelis established boundaries around that years ago. In an earlier E! News interview, Hunnam recalled that she became frustrated when intense jobs left him returning home emotionally depleted.
“She got frustrated with me showing up and being a bit of a shell after doing a role,” he said. McNelis eventually laid out what he called their “rules of engagement”, give the job whatever it requires, then take enough time afterward to return to the relationship as himself.
Hunnam took that particularly seriously after playing Gein. He said he typically gives himself at least a week to decompress after demanding work, but the Monster role prompted an especially unusual farewell.
After filming, he drove from Chicago to Wisconsin and visited Gein’s grave. Hunnam described the trip as a way to say goodbye to the character and put “a full stop at the end of the thing.”
McNelis had already noticed smaller traces of Gein making it home. At the 2026 Critics Choice Awards, Hunnam said he had kept slipping into the voice he developed for the role until she finally objected.
“I was slipping in and out of it all the time,” he said. Her response was blunt: “Dude, you have to stop with the voice.” “At breakfast, it’s a little too much,” Hunnam joked.
He Has Called McNelis His ‘Wife’ Without Confirming a Wedding
Charlie Hunnam talks “really beautiful” New Year’s with his wife and being “blown away” by how many people watched “Monster”!#CriticsChoiceAwards #CriticsChoice pic.twitter.com/3RM0z6VYOA
— ExtraTV (@extratv) January 5, 2026
Hunnam created another small mystery around their relationship in January when he casually referred to McNelis as his “wife” while discussing their New Year’s celebration at the Critics Choice Awards.
The couple had gone to bed early before starting Jan. 1 with a hike and some intention-setting. The wording immediately prompted marriage speculation because Hunnam and McNelis had never publicly announced a wedding.
In 2020, he said he already considered himself “sort of” married to McNelis, explaining that the “official government sanction” of marriage mattered far less to him than its romantic meaning. McNelis, he acknowledged at the time, felt more strongly about getting married.
His New ‘Monster’ Role Was Much Easier to Leave Behind
Hunnam returns to Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s anthology in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, but this season places him on the other side of the violence.
He plays Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father, who was killed alongside his wife, Abby Borden, in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. Lizzie was charged with the murders but ultimately acquitted.
“There was a lot less responsibility, obviously,” Hunnam told E! News of playing a supporting role this time. He said carrying an entire Monster season demands an enormous amount because of how heavily the series leans into drama and emotion. “So, I was very happy to be here in support of Ella this time,” he said of Ella Beatty, who plays Lizzie.
Andrew was still far from an easy or pleasant character for Hunnam to explore. He described the show’s version of him as a man consumed by unresolved grief, anger and resentment until those feelings curdle into hostility toward the people around him.
Hunnam nevertheless said he did not need the same psychological distance once filming ended. “It didn’t feel like I needed the same space to exorcize this from my being in the way that it felt like I needed some time to let go of Ed,” he told E! News.
The official Netflix cast also includes Vicky Krieps as Bridget “Maggie” Sullivan, Rebecca Hall as Abby Borden, Billie Lourd as Emma Borden, Jessica Barden as Nance O’Neil and Sarah Paulson as Aileen Wuornos. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story arrives on Netflix Sept. 17.