Josh Radnor is not close to his How I Met Your Mother co-stars
Josh Radnor told the Half the Picture podcast he is not even a little bit close to his How I Met Your Mother co-stars after 208 episodes across nine seasons. He said it is not dramatic. The josh radnor 8216not even comments point to a college-style split, with lasting love that is no longer active.
The actor’s remarks, first reported by Variety, answer a question fans still ask whenever the sitcom trends on streaming and TV recaps: whether the original five remain a tight off-screen crew.
Key Takeaways
- Radnor said he is “not even a little bit” close to his How I Met Your Mother co-stars, adding, “No. Not even a little bit.”
- He framed the distance as ordinary, not a feud: the group dispersed and you “just go out and live your life.”
- On his podcast, he and Neil Patrick Harris discussed on-set tension in a talk Radnor called fascinating and healing.
- He still texts Jason Segel now and then, mostly sees Cobie Smulders on Zoom, and last saw Alyson Hannigan at his 2024 wedding.
Is Josh Radnor still close to the How I Met Your Mother cast?
When asked if he is still tight with his How I Met Your Mother family, Radnor’s answer was blunt. “No. Not even a little bit.”
He quickly framed that as a lack of drama, not a public breakup. “I don’t mean that in any dramatic way,” he said, according to Variety.
The CBS comedy ran nine seasons and 208 episodes. Radnor now hosts a How I Met Your Mother rewatch podcast with series co-creator Craig Thomas, which keeps the show in circulation even as the original five are not a daily social circle.
What did he say about Neil Patrick Harris and on-set tension?
Harris appeared on Half the Picture earlier in 2026. Radnor said they had “a really interesting conversation about some of the tension we had on set that was fascinating and kind of healing.”
The Variety report does not spell out what that tension was. Radnor did not present it as a feud that ended the friendship on its own. He treated it as part of working together for years, then talking it through later on a podcast he hosts.
Where does he stand with Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, and Alyson Hannigan?
Contact is uneven and mostly light. Radnor said he and Segel “send each other texts every once in a while,” but he has not seen Segel in “a really long time.”
Smulders has been a guest on his podcast a few times. He has “seen her mostly on Zoom.” He recalled seeing Hannigan last at his wedding in 2024.
“I have love for all these people,” Radnor said. He compared the years on set to college: an intense stretch when you cannot imagine not seeing one another every day, until the group “disperses.”
Why does he compare the HIMYM cast to family rather than friends?
Radnor said the bond is “a little more like family than friends” because “you don’t get to choose your family.” The five were cast; they did not choose one another. “Family dynamics come out to play when you’re in an environment like that for so long.”
He still described the feeling as “love that is quite deep and rich and probably everlasting,” but “not an active love.” Acting, he said, “is like love affairs that you have, and then you move on.”
That is the takeaway for viewers still hunting a full-cast hang: affection remains, proximity does not. Variety is the source of record for these comments.