THE RUNDOWN
Tuva Novotny is a Swedish actress and director with more than two decades in the film industry.
She and Alexander Skarsgård were first romantically linked in 2022 and now share a son.
Despite her global acting credits and festival-recognized films, Novotny opts to keep her personal life largely out of the public eye.
Alexander Skarsgård is known for playing enigmatic, unpredictable characters—from Eric Northman in True Blood to Lukas Matsson in Succession. When it comes to his real life, the award-winning actor prefers to keep things quiet. That discretion extends to his relationship with Swedish actress and director Tuva Novotny. While their first date isn’t known, the pair was first romantically linked in 2022 and have since welcomed a child. Skarsgård confirmed the news of his baby in March 2023 after he was seen out with his firstborn in November 2022.
Below, everything to know about Novotny, Skarsgård’s partner and mother of his child.
She’s a multi-hyphenate with decades in the film industry.
Novotny, 45, began acting professionally at age 16 , but her exposure to the arts started far earlier. “I wasn’t pushed; I was inspired,” she told Vogue Scandinavia in 2024, recalling how she directed plays with her siblings and grew up immersed in music, painting, and theater.
Since then, she has racked up an extensive list of acting credits, including roles in Eat Pray Love, Annihilation, and more. She’s also made a name for herself behind the camera. Her film Blind Spot (2018) explored mental health and family trauma. The project—the first film she has directed—earned her the New Talent Grand Prix at Copenhagen’s CPH PIX Festival that year.
“Blind Spot refers to what we don’t see in our everyday life,” Novotny said in a 2018 interview with the Golden Globes. “Where we can be surprised about what is going on in people’s lives, where they go around smiling and pretending that everything is fine, and they are actually having a very difficult time. That is the blind spot that I am referring to.”
Novotny had built up directing experience before doing the project, working in TV: “I always knew I wanted to direct, but I wanted to make sure that I was [ready] for it,” she explained. “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.”
She went on to direct more films: Britt-Marie Was Here (2019) and Diorama (2022). “After Blind Spot and Britt Marie Was Here, I felt safer about directing small or bigger-budget movies and taking on new creative challenges,” Novotny told Variety in 2019.
Her parents also work in the arts.
Novotny is the daughter of Czech director and writer David Jan Novotný and Swedish actress and artist Barbro Hedström.
Though Novotny’s early exposure to the creative world was significant, she told Vogue Scandinavia that her career path felt natural. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” she said.
She and Skarsgård share a child.
In April 2022, Novotny appeared pregnant at the Swedish ELLE Fashion Awards, though she did not publicly confirm the news at the time. Months later in November, the couple was photographed in New York City pushing a stroller, adding fuel to speculation they welcomed their first child.
While at the Succession season 4 premiere in March 2023, Skarsgård confirmed the news to Entertainment Tonight, saying, “Thank you very much,” when congratulated. He then held up a stuffed animal he had just been gifted, adding, “I got this on the red carpet.”
A few days later, he offered a more specific confirmation to Swedish outlet Aftonbladet, revealing that they had a baby boy. “We have a son who is eight months old now,” Skarsgård said.
In a May 2025 interview with The Times, Skarsgård reflected on how parenthood changed his lifestyle. “It’s been an adjustment for someone who’s a selfish asshole like myself,” he said. “‘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.’”
He also referenced his role in helping to raise Novotny’s children from a previous relationship: “I have two teenage stepdaughters, so it’s not like they can come with me and be out of school for six months.”
She rarely does press.
Despite her extensive resumé, Novotny tends to avoid media attention. “I don’t see myself as a public person,” she said in her 2024 Vogue Scandinavia profile. “For many years, I wouldn’t do interviews; I wouldn’t watch my own stuff.”
She added, “My job is public and then what I do outside of work is super private.”
Vogue Scandinavia wrote that Novotny previously had an Instagram account for work but has since deleted it.
She has strong opinions on celebrity and motherhood.
Novotny has spoken about balancing her creative ambitions with motherhood. “It’s super important that you keep yourself intact, and that’s difficult being a parent,” she told Vogue Scandinavia.
Noting that she has “always worked through parenthood,” Novotny added, “Work for me is a place where I feel inspired and I meet people—there’s that social aspect. Bringing that back home is a good thing for parenting—for me, at least. Only being a parent sometimes can be claustrophobic.”
She also acknowledged the changes in the industry since she began acting as a teenager in the ’90s. “It was a different time,” she said. “It was hot times, and they wanted me to be hot.”
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