Leslie Jones admits she was ‘in love’ with Saturday Night Live co-host Colin Jost

Former Saturday Night Live comedian Leslie Jones has admitted she pined over her co-host Colin Jost throughout her time on the show.

The 57-year-old Ghostbusters actor developed a crush on her co-star when she joined in 2014 after an open casting call the year before. Jones was 47 at the time, making her the oldest hire in SNL history before she exited the programme in 2019.

Jones frequently flirted with Jost during their bits together on the sketch show, and has now admitted that there was truth behind the banter.

“People don’t understand in that first year, maybe the first two seasons, I was really in love with Colin,” she told The Guardian in a new interview.

“I didn’t know how it was going to happen, whether we would just work late together and make out in his office and drink whiskey. I had all the visions. He was so cute, and funny, and he was just so white.

“Such a white nerd frat boy, that I was like: ‘I want him.’ Every time I would see him in the corridor, I’d shout: ‘I love you, Colin, you beautiful white stud!’”

Jost began dating Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson in 2017. The couple got engaged in May 2019 and married a year later. Jost sparked a minor controversy when he made what were deemed “vulgar” jokes at her expense during the 2024 Christmas episode.

Meanwhile, Jones said she has taken a step back from dating because she is “tired of raising boys”.

“People talk about society going through a ‘lonely man’ phase,” she said.

“It comes back to you all won’t do the work to become the person that you really can be. You’re waiting for me to solve your problems. You’re waiting for me to give you permission. Grow up – I’m not Build-A-Bear. F*** that s***. Every time I get on the dating apps, I’ll be like: ‘I want to call the FBI. All of the serial killers are here’.”

The comedian went on to praise the virtues of therapy, stating : “To be a good comic, you have to go deep into yourself, and have empathy and love yourself. It takes years to get f***ed up; it’s gonna take years to clean up.”

“It made me a better person, made me a better friend, for sure, made me a better comic,” she said.

Nearly ten years after the release of Ghostbusters, Jones reflected on the abuse she had suffered online at the hands of internet trolls, saying: “I am so tired of being the bigger person.”