Shay Mitchell’s daughters keep asking why she and Matte Babel aren’t married. Her answer begins with how she sees their relationship: “Mommy and Daddy are like partners.”
The Pretty Little Liars actress, 39, discussed those conversations on the October 28 episode of Khloé in Wonder Land. PEOPLE reported her comments on November 1.
Mitchell and Babel have been romantically linked since 2017. They welcomed daughter Atlas in October 2019 and her younger sister, Rome, in May 2022.
When Khloé Kardashian asked whether marriage had ever been a priority, Mitchell said it hadn’t. She described her parents’ relationship warmly, saying they had been together for 40 years and had given her a positive example.
Her Daughters Want to Know Who Her Prince Is
Engagements among people they know prompt questions at home. Mitchell said her daughter wants the whole story whenever someone gets engaged. Books and movies have also supplied a familiar ending, a princess finds her prince and rides into the sunset. Her daughter has asked, “Who’s your prince?”
Mitchell doesn’t want that to be the only future her children imagine. She said remaining unmarried wasn’t an attempt to make a point and it was the family life they had grown up with. When asked about a wedding, she tells them, “I just don’t want it, and you don’t have to be.”
She described her daughter’s response as accepting but thoughtful, with the idea still sinking in. Mitchell also left room for her own preferences to change. She said she might feel differently in five years, but currently values knowing that she and Babel are both choosing the relationship as it is.
She Described Babel as Her Partner on ‘Today’ in 2024
During a May 20, 2024, appearance on TODAY with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager, Mitchell said she had known Babel since she was 19. Both had ties to Toronto, and they reconnected years after first meeting.
The conversation included a correction after Babel was referred to as her husband. Mitchell praised him as a father and described them as “awesome partners in life.” She was visiting the show to discuss her travel series, Thirst With Shay Mitchell, which followed her through South America.
In a separate December 2023 interview with Byrdie, she explained how they share parenting decisions. Babel was someone she could consult when unsure how to handle a situation with their children, and she valued their similar principles. She also acknowledged the caregivers who made it possible to combine work and motherhood, saying she had never claimed to be raising the girls without help.
She Has Considered a Future Commitment Ceremony
Mitchell explored another possibility during a May 31, 2023, appearance on Call Her Daddy. Speaking with Alex Cooper, she said Babel also helped with her businesses. Their partnership covered several parts of her life, not only romance.
Cooper also asked how she handled his work travel. Mitchell acknowledged that time apart could be difficult, but said trust and communication mattered more than worrying about hypothetical situations. She wanted both of them to maintain individual lives alongside the family they had built.
She was open to celebrating that relationship with a commitment ceremony, perhaps a decade later. Mitchell imagined their daughters in high school and the couple looking back on what they had accomplished together. The occasion would recognize the years they had already shared and their commitment to raising their family. “We went through storms and we are here and we are standing,” she said, imagining what they might tell each other.