'I Trust Him with All of My Heart' (Exclusive): Minnie Driver Had an 'Epic Connection' Meeting Partner Addison O'Dea

For Minnie Driver, finding love with partner Addison O’Dea didn’t happen overnight. It was a slow burn that came after years of friendship.

Having met at a breakfast party years earlier, Driver, 54, and O’Dea, 45, became friends when he helped her deliver necessities during wildfires in Malibu in 2018.  

“I needed to deliver things to my neighbors, and I couldn't get in except by boat, which really wasn't allowed, and Addison helped me launch what we call the 'sea-based incursion," Driver tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

Even then, the two shared an “epic connection." She admits, “I could see what an amazing person he was from the minute I met him" and soon romance bloomed. Driver and O’Dea marked their “first formal date” with an appearance at the 2019 Chanel pre-Oscars award dinner, which actress shared on Instagram in November 2023 in honor of their five-year anniversary.

"It’s our anniversary today," Driver wrote in the post's caption. "Five years filled with laughter, grief, creativity and becoming our little tribe of 4 (counting Bob)."

Although Driver, who currently stars in this season of The Serpent Queen, has been romantically linked with others in the past —including Harrison FordandMatt Damon — her relationship with O’Dea continues to be singular and special, in part because of O’Dea’s remarkable qualities.

“He doesn't have an ulterior motive. There is no double speak in the way in which he speaks — it is what he thinks. I trust him with all of my heart,” she explains.

“What I've realized about love from this vantage point is that love is made up of all of these things I'd never seen them just demonstrated right off the bat in a person: respect, kindness, c -

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ompassion, friendship, intelligence, humor and enormous security,” Driver continues, adding, “It takes a long time for you to maybe discover qualities in a person, but I saw them very quickly in Addison.”

For more on Minnie Driver, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.

O’Dea is now a member of Driver’s “little tribe” of four, which includes her 15-year-old son Henry and her dog Bob. The quartet spent much of their time together during the pandemic — a period that taught her some valuable life lessons. In an Instagram post from December 2020, the actress expressed gratitude for the “good things” in her life then, which included “waking up” to her family everyday.

“The good things this year: Waking up to these three faces every day. Eating together. Allowing each other to work/scream/worry/sleep/run/play. Going on an odyssey during a pandemic, so we could be with family,” she wrote in the caption.

“It feels bananas to set intentions for the coming year beyond: stay healthy, don’t put anyone unnecessarily at risk, be grateful for what I have and keep mining for creativity within the current paradigm,” she continued. “Maybe the first realisation of the new year is also the last of this one : there is absolutely nothing beyond this present moment, so perhaps futurizing is corrosive and in the words of a few – be here now.”

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The Serpent Queen airs at 8 p.m. ET on Fridays on Starz.

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