Revealed: Gillian Anderson is the Secret Hollywood Lover in Keith McNally’s Memoir

His Past Love Interests

In his new bestseller, Keith McNally, a notable restaurateur, spills the details of his passionate affair with a very famous actress from Hollywood.

He intriguingly refers to her as “X” throughout his memoir and offers only a few hints about who this well-known lover might be.

According to Page Six, the actress appears to be Gillian Anderson of “X Files” fame.

The Memoir’s Revelations

In his widely praised book, “I Regret Almost Everything,” McNally recounts how the actress reached out to him via a mutual acquaintance after reading about him in a 1998 Vanity Fair article.

Despite her fame from a TV series beloved by millions, McNally admits he initially didn’t recognize her.

He details how their acquaintance blossomed over phone calls and led to her spontaneous decision to visit him in New York, opting to stay at his modest fourth-floor apartment in Soho instead of a hotel.

Furthermore, McNally notes that their time together included seeing the Broadway play “Art,” dating her visit between February 12, 1998, and August 8, 1999. He also mentions a photograph of them appearing together in the media, specifically recalling it being in the New York Post, though it was actually published in the Daily News’s famous Rush & Molloy column.

The columnists George Rush and Joanna Molloy reported, “’X-Files’ star Gillian Anderson had a cozy dinner with British restaurateur Keith McNally on Saturday… McNally, who escorted the glamorous redhead back to her hotel post-dinner, insisted that, ‘She’s just a friend. Honestly, if there was more to it, we would have sneaked out the back way.’”

Concealing the Romance

The reason behind McNally downplaying the affair might be related to his intermittent relationship with Alina Johnson, whom he later married in 2002.

He reveals in his memoir, “The morning after ‘X’ left New York, I cleaned my apartment and rang up Alina, who was quite upset after seeing a photo of me with X in the New York Post.”

Interestingly, despite the secretive tone in his book, McNally had previously disclosed to the Wall Street Journal in 2019 that he dated Anderson, saying, “My girlfriend at the time asked me to ban Gillian Anderson, who had briefly been my girlfriend, [from my restaurants]… Of course, I said no.”

In his memoir, he also shares that on the first night of “X’s” visit, they did not engage in intimacy because she was exhausted—an experience he initially thought spelled doom for their relationship.

“I assumed spending the night together without having sex was a relationship-ender,” he confesses, “Little did I know that nothing excites women more than restraint.”

The following evening, he took her to dinner at his own restaurant, Balthazar, and later, they returned to his apartment.

“There’s hardly a better way to impress a date than by taking her to a restaurant you own,” he writes. “Within ten minutes of arriving home, I found myself next to X’s bare skin.”

However, he admits that the fling only intensified his feelings for Johnson, and after a few more meetings with “X,” he decided to end things to focus on repairing his relationship with Johnson, who would soon become his wife.

“A day after she departed from New York, I called [‘X’] and frankly told her that while I was fond of her, I wished for us to remain just friends. Without hesitation,” he recalls, “she yelled ‘F**k off!’ and hung up.”

Representatives for both McNally and Anderson did not respond to inquiries.