Josh Radnor broke the hearts of fans worldwide when he recently revealed that the How I Met Your Mother cast isn’t close anymore.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Half the Picture podcast on Sunday, August 17, the actor admitted that he and his former co-stars are “not even a little bit” close anymore over a decade after the hit sitcom ended.
“I don’t mean that in any dramatic way,” explained Radnor, who famously portrayed series protagonist Ted Mosby from 2005 to 2014.
The 52-year-old recalled how he and Neil Patrick Harris — who portrayed womanizer Barney Stinson — recently revisited some of the tension they experienced while filming the show. Harris appeared on Radnor’s HIMYMrewatch podcast, How We Made Your Mother, in March, where they discussed their on-set dynamic.
“I remember often when we were filming, and I sensed frustration from you because you wanted the scene to be like a good scene,” Harris told his former co-star at the time, “and I was looking at you like, ‘Motherf***er, I’m doing spit takes,’”
Radnor confirmed he felt the tension, but suggested it was partly caused by a blurred line between their characters and their real-life relationship. Ted and Barney’s on-screen dynamic, he explained, may have influenced how they viewed each other off camera.
The actor also acknowledged that his own insecurities played a part. As the least famous member of the main cast when the show began, Radnor said he struggled to manage his emotions as HIMYM became a major hit.
“I think that I was just trying to manage a lot of different things and emotions, and they came out sideways sometimes,” he said.
Radnor told the Half the Picturepodcast that his conversation with Harris was “an interesting conversation about the some of the tension” they had on set.
Despite their past friction, Radnor said there is still “deep and rich and probably everlasting” love among the cast, even if “it’s not an active love.”
He explained, “It’s a little more like family than friends in that you don’t get to choose your family. We were cast. We didn’t choose each other. And family dynamics come out to play when you’re in an environment like that for so long.”
2026-08-20 17:05:00
