Kaley Cuoco and fiancé Tom Pelphrey’s unorthodox sleeping arrangement has done wonders for their relationship.
“He started sleeping in the guest room,” Cuoco, 40, said of Pelphrey, 43, during the Monday, February 9, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, revealing that her fiancé had been struggling to sleep with their dogs in their bedroom.
Cuoco added that sleeping separately turned out to be a “game-changer.”
“Tom is a night owl. Goes to bed very late,” the Big Bang Theory actress explained. “I go to bed earlier because I’m the one who gets up [with their daughter, Matilda, 2] in the morning. … We’re totally on different sleeping schedules.”
Cuoco said Pelphrey asked her during a couple’s therapy session, “How would you feel if I sleep in the other room?”
Cuoco was shocked by the idea at first and worried what other people would think about the sleeping arrangement. However, Pelphrey argued that he and Cuoco never see each other at night due to their different schedules.
After sleeping in separate rooms for the first time, Cuoco realized that it made both her and Pelphrey “very happy.”
“He sleeps great. No dogs in his way,” Cuoco continued. “I’m up with Matilda at 7 a.m., she comes in bed with me, I can turn things on. We don’t have to worry about waking him up. … It just works for us.”
Though sleeping separately worked out for her and Pelphrey, Cuoco admitted that she first feared it would lead to another breakup. (The 8 Simple Rules alum was previously married to Ryan Sweeting from 2013 to 2016 and Karl Cook from 2018 to 2022.)
Kaley Cuoco and ex Karl Cook Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
“Well, it was just like, ‘Oh no, if we’re not sleeping together, like, is the next step this?’ ‘Cause everyone knows I’ve had these divorces, and like, what does that look like?” Cuoco said. “I think all that went through my brain really quickly. And then I realized I’m actually doing something really good in my relationship.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Cuoco opened up about her split from Cook, 35, and subsequently meeting Pelphrey.
“He’s amazing. I have not a single bad thing to say about that guy,” Cuoco said of her ex-husband.
Cuoco also recalled sitting on the floor of the house she shared with Cook and “sobbing” amid their divorce because she worried that she had “ruined” her life.
“That is the lowest point of my life I ever had. I couldn’t get up. I was so depressed. I thought I blew up my life,” she explained.
Kaley Cuoco moved on with Tom Pelphrey less than one year after she filed for divorce from equestrian Karl Cook. Before she began dating Pelphrey, Cuoco announced her separation from Cook in September 2021 after three years of marriage. She was previously married to Ryan Sweeting from 2013 to 2016. Thank You! You have successfully […]
As she struggled through her divorce, Cuoco said her manager wanted to set her up with Pelphrey. She initially refused to meet him but changed her mind when she found him via Instagram.
“So I scan [his Instagram] and I get this feeling that I’m going to spend my life with him. I texted my best friend Zosha in that moment,” Cuoco explained. “She still has it and I said, ‘This is crazy, but I have to put it in writing. I think I’m going to meet the man I’m going to spend my life with.’ She goes, ‘What do you mean?’ I’m like, ‘Just keep this text.’ And it was Tom.”
Cuoco and Cook met at the final season premiere of Ozark in 2022. The pair welcomed Matilda in March 2023 and got engaged in August 2024.
Cuoco said on the podcast that she “never thought” she would have kids until she met Pelphrey.
“I always loved him, but I felt like I missed the mark,” Cuoco said of her relationship with Cook. “And then with my ex, I kept thinking I didn’t want kids with him, or I don’t know what it was. Something was missing. But I met Tom [and] we both wanted it so bad. And then we got pregnant easily, and we were so excited.”
