Jenny Slate on Being Single for the First Time as an Adult

Jenny Slate is loving the single life.

Last year, the actress, 35, split from her husband and frequent creative collaborator, Dean Fleischer-Camp. Since their breakup, Slate’s dated Hollywood heartthrob Chris Evans and enjoyed nights out with eligible bachelors like Jon Hamm.

“This is the first time in my adult life that I haven’t been in a relationship, that I’m just all alone, and I do whatever I like to do,” she recently told Vanity Fair. “Because I’m a person who also likes to keep an eye on my mental health and my body health, I’ve treated myself nicely.”

Complicating her newfound freedom, however, is the press attention that accompanies her more high-profile hookups. “I don’t think anybody would,” she said of the extra spotlight. “For me, it connects to a very deep-seated belief within a patriarchal system. If you’re a woman, the system actually owns your private life; the system has an opinion on your decisions; the system has a verdict on how you have sex and who you have sex with, and anything in between. For me, I am not open to that. I get really pissed about it, because it’s only my business.”

Slate made a Handmaid’s Tale reference to bring the point home: “I’m also just really not open to being known as the woman dating so-and-so. I think that’s four tiny steps away from being Offred.” (In the show, handmaids are named “Of” followed by their husband’s first name.)

Her new film Landline hits theaters July 21.