Whether he’s playing a vampire, Tarzan, or a man woven entirely out of wicker (we get you, Olivia Colman), Alexander Skarsgård has a knack for capturing hearts. But while his onscreen romances may be anything but ordinary, the actor has kept his real-life relationships pretty low-key.
Over the years, Skarsgård has dated fellow celebrities from Amanda Seyfried to Kate Bosworth and Alexa Chung. But for the past several years, he’s been quietly settled down with Swedish actress and director Tuva Novotny. The private pair rarely step out together or discuss their relationship publicly, but they’ve gone well beyond dating rumors: they’ve even welcomed a child together.
Here’s everything you need to know about Skarsgård’s girlfriend, Tuva Novotny.
She’s a Swedish actress and director.
Novotny is a Swedish actress, screenwriter, and director who has worked across film and television for more than two decades. She began her acting career at just 16, landing a lead role in the Swedish TV series Skilda världar, which ran from 1996 to 2000. She then went on to star in many Swedish films and TV shows, as well as a few American movies, including Eat Pray Love and Annihilation.
In 2018, Novotny made her feature directorial debut with Blind Spot, a drama about mental health that she also wrote. The movie landed her the New Talent Grand Prix at Copenhagen’s CPH PIX Festival that year. In an interview with the Golden Globes, Novotny explained that directing had long been a dream of hers, but one she wanted to pursue on her own terms.
“I always knew I wanted to direct, but I wanted to make sure that I was [ready] for it,” Novotny said. “Ten years ago, some friends of mine asked if I could direct a few episodes of a Norwegian TV series, and they brought me onto their next project. This was very good as a self-esteem enhancer. And after those TV series, I decided that either I do TV for the rest of my life, or it is now that I decide to do my own things. I took a year off and started writing a couple of scripts. [I] wrote a series for a Norwegian channel, so it kind of happened organically, but also at a point where I felt it was the right moment.”
Since then, Novotny has directed two more feature films: Britt-Marie Was Here (2019) and Diorama (2022).
Novotny on the set of Eat Pray Love in 2009.
Her parents were in the arts and film.
Novotny was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to parents who both worked in the arts. Her mom, Barbro Hedström, was an actress and sculptor, while her father, David Novotný, was a Czech film director. As a kid, she reportedly took part in children’s theater and trained in classical ballet before landing her first major acting role at 16 years old.
She was first linked to Alexander Skarsgård in 2022.
Skarsgård and Novotny’s relationship wasn’t reported until November 2022, when the pair were photographed out in New York City with their newborn baby. They kept the news under wraps for months before Skarsgård confirmed they had welcomed a baby boy. “We have a son who is eight months old now,” the actor told Swedish outlet Aftonbladet.
She has three children, including her son with Alexander.
In addition to her son with Skarsgård, Novotny has two teenage daughters with her former partner of over 10 years, Nicolai Bjerrum Lersbryggen. In a 2025 interview with The Times, Skarsgard mentioned Novotny’s older children, referring to them as his stepdaughters: “I have two teenage stepdaughters, so it’s not like they can come with me and be out of school for six months,” he told the outlet.
In the same interview, the actor also reflected on how being a father changed him. “It’s been an adjustment for someone who’s a selfish asshole like myself,” he joked. “I’m so used to being able to go somewhere on a whim, take a job, like, ‘Oh, seven months in the Kalahari Desert? No problem.’ Now your priorities obviously change, and you have to take other people’s needs into consideration. It takes a lot more planning to make it work because I still love to work, but it’s about finding that balance.”
She likes to keep her personal life private.
In a rare interview with Vogue Scandinavia in 2024, Novotny explained why she rarely does press or interviews. “My job is public and then what I do outside of work is super private,” she said at the time.
That outlook extends to her relationship with Skarsgård. They’ve both kept their romance so private, in fact, that they have only been photographed together at a public event once, at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
Alexander Skarsgård, Tuva Novotny and Christos Nikou at the Venice Film Festival in 2024.