'Beetlejuice' Star Catherine O'Hara Talks Dating Eugene Levy Before Marrying Her Husband

Catherine O'Hara has been in Hollywood since the mid 1970s, winning over our hearts with roles like Delia in Beetlejuice, Kate in Home Alone, and the iconic Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek — a role that led to her winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award.

Throughout much of her impressive career, Catherine had her husband, Bo Welch, by her side. This couple loves to laugh and have fun with each other, as folks saw when Bo used his phone to play an applause sound effect during Catherine's Golden Globe Awards speech back in February 2021. Moments later, he then hilariously tried to drown out his wife's speech with orchestra music.

Clearly, Bo and Catherine are all about humor in their relationship. But before there was Bo, Catherine later confessed on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live, she once had a thing for another comedian — her fellow Schitt's Creek star Eugene Levy. The two apparently met at Second City in Toronto, and while they were there, Catherine and Eugene had a brief fling.

"So, everybody at Second City theater tried to date everybody. Like, 'He makes me laugh. I should go out with him,'" she told Andy Cohen at the time. "So, we did maybe one or two dates."

Eugene Levy (left), Bo Welch (middle), and Catherine O’Hara (right) circa 1989.

Time went on, however, and nothing ever became of it. In 1977, Eugene married his wife, Deborah Divine, and Catherine would soon meet Bo. But still, Catherine remembers her time with Eugene fondly. "He's a gentleman, [he] has always been a gentleman. And we get to have this working relationship because we didn't go anywhere."

As for Catherine's real-life husband, the two met back in the late 1980s while working on the iconic Beetlejuice. The actress, of course, was starring in the movie, while Bo was the production designer for the film. At the time that they met, Catherine described Bo as "very attractive."

As for how the two met on set, well, they have Beetlejuice director Tim Burton to thank for introducing them. "I was grouching to Tim Burton about how this guy was talking to me all the time and never asking me out," she recalled to InStyle in 2018. "We had a break between filming in Los Angeles and on location, and in that time, Tim told Bo that he should ask me out."

"Our first day of shooting at the house was the day that Bo finally asked me out, so that’s what I see when I look at the scenes we shot there," she added. "Matchmaking Tim Burton!"

Bo and Catherine at the Batman premiere in 1989.

It turned out to be the right move for many reasons. Both Catherine and Bo got to be together while their respective careers took off. In the early days of their relationship, Bo was a production designer on Tim's other films, such as Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns, according to The Sun. He later made his film directorial debut with The Cat in the Hat in 2003. He even was nominated for an Emmy for his design work on A Series of Unfortunate Events in 2019.

Meanwhile, after they began living together, Catherine became plenty busy herself playing Miss Malone in The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, Gloria Henner in Betsy's Wedding, and much more.

Catherine and Bo at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in February 2020.

In 1992, Catherine and Bo tied the knot officially, welcoming their two sons a few years later — Matthew in 1994 and Luke in 1997. If that wasn't enough, the Welch family has experienced moments similar to other roles in Catherine's career. As she told People in January 2024, she happened to lose her sons while commuting in New York City.

"We were in New York once; I think it was New York. Bo and I got on the subway, we turned around, the doors are closing, and they weren’t on," she said. "I screamed and people screamed with me. Everybody joined in ... It makes me sick to think what could have happened."

Thankfully all was well, and Matthew and Luke eventually got jobs working in Hollywood. They even got the chance to work with Catherine on Schitt's Creek (which she revealed to Vanity Fair in June 2020), bringing their family full circle.

Adrianna Freedman

Associate Editor

As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.