New Girl: All 7 Of Jess Day's Boyfriends Explained

Summary Jess Day dated a variety of men on New Girl, but ultimately ended up with Nick after a series of failed relationships.

Some fan-favorite partners included Paul, Sam, and Russell, but the chemistry wasn't the same upon their returns.

Nick and Jess finally got together after multiple seasons of dancing around their feelings and went on to get married and start a family.

New Girl saw Jess Day trying to have a fresh start after her boyfriend cheated on her, and before she settled down, she dated various men, all of them with a different story. New Girl followed Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), a bubbly teacher who after finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, moved into a loft with three strangers she found on the internet. Jess then had to adapt not only to living with roommates Schmidt (Max Greenfield), Nick Miller (Jame Johnson), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) but also to dating again, something her roommates helped her with.

Amid the awkward dates and failed romances, Jess got involved with a handful of men with whom she began a proper relationship, and some of them became so popular with viewers that many believe she should have ended up with one of them and not with Nick. Many of them returned at some point, but the chemistry they once had with Jess was no longer there, while others should have stayed for a bit longer. In total, Jess had seven serious relationships during the run of New Girl.

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Spencer

Played By Ian Wolterstorff

The events that kickstart New Girl were all Spencer’s fault. If not for Spender's selfish behavior, Jess never would have moved into the loft and developed strong friendships with her new roommates. While the audience can thank him for that, Spencer is truly the worst of the boyfriends Jess had on the series, and the audience doesn't get to spend much time with him.

Jess dated Spencer for six years prior to the events of the show. They lived together in his home, where Jess found him cheating on her with a woman named Rochelle. Jess only discovered that he cheated on her when she tried to come home early and surprise him, a story she recounted to her new roommates in the pilot episode of the series. Spencer appeared again in season 1 when Jess called him to get her things back, and thankfully, Spencer and his ego never showed up again, and Jess was finally able to move on.

Paul Genzlinger

Played By Justin Long

Paul Genzlinger was a music teacher at the school where Jess worked early in the series. They had a lot in common, such as a sensitive nature and a love for music, to the point where the guys thought of him as the male version of Jess. Paul was Jess' first serious relationship after Spencer. Though their first “date” (a Thanksgiving dinner) was a disaster, they gave their relationship a chance. When Paul told Jess he loved her, she didn’t know how to react, and they broke up.

Jess felt he was going too fast, and he didn’t want to slow down. They were ready for very different types of relationships at that point, and they needed to go down different paths. Paul returned when Jess, after breaking up with Russell, “backslid” into bed with Paul, but he was already dating someone else. His new girlfriend and Jess shared a lot of similarities, and it was easy to see why he ended up with her. After confessing what he did, Paul ended up proposing to her in front of Jess.

Related 25 Best New Girl Episodes Ranked New Girl aired a total of 146 episodes on Fox during its seven-season run. While many of these were brilliant, some were better than others.

Russell Schiller

Played By Dermot Mulroney

Russell Schiller was the father of one of Jess’ students, Sarah, and they met when Jess wanted to discuss Sarah’s disturbing artwork. Jess didn’t like him at first, as that meeting didn’t go as planned, but after he helped her when her car broke down, she gave him a chance. Nick, surprisingly, encouraged her to date Russell, believing that a relationship with someone so different from Jess' usual type might be good for her.

The age difference was evident when Jess felt Russell lacked passion, and Russell felt Jess' idea of passion was a sign of immaturity. They realized they wanted different things from a relationship. Russell returned a couple more times, and in season 7 he tried to get back together with Jess, but she was already in a committed relationship with Nick. In the meantime, Russell remarried and divorced twice, and even had a toddler that went to the same gym class as Ruth, Schmidt and Cece’s daughter.

Sam Sweeney

Played By David Walton

Sam Sweeney was a doctor whose relationship with Jess had an unconventional beginning. Jess and Sam met at the bar where Nick worked, and Sam mistook Jess for his blind date, Katie. Jess played along, and they began a “no-strings-attached” relationship, which continued even after he found out she wasn’t really Katie. With time, their relationship went from casual to serious, but they broke up after he learned that Jess and Nick had kissed. Sam believed Jess and Nick had to figure out what was going on between them.

They got back together in season 5, but it was so messy and awkward that Sam even filed for a restraining order from Jess, which she initially ignored. Ultimately, Sam realized that he had feelings for his best female friend. His relationship with her actually mirrored the one Jess and Nick had, allowing the show a bit of foreshadowing for the end of the series.

Related New Girl: 5 Reasons Jess Should Have Ended Up With Sam (& 5 It Was Always Nick) It's time for New Girl fans settle it once for all: who did Jess work better with? The handsome doctor Sam, or her best friend and roommate Nick?

Ryan Geauxinue

Played By Julian Morris

When Jess became a vice-principal, the school welcomed a new teacher: Ryan Geauxinue, from England. Jess was immediately attracted to him, but she tried to keep her feelings hidden as she was his supervisor, and getting involved in a romantic relationship with him would have violated many school policies.

Of course, she ended up giving in to her feelings, and they dated for a while, but he didn't spend as much time in her personal life as other romantic interests in the series. Their relationship came to an end when he took a job as a headmaster at a school back in England, and so he went back to the other side of the world. The two couldn't make a long-distance relationship work, and they both wanted to pursue their respective careers.

Robby McFerrin

Played By Nelson Franklin

Perhaps one of, if not the most awkward relationships Jess had in New Girl was the one with Robby McFerrin, who initially dated Cece, Jess’ best friend. Even when Robby dated Cece, he never quite fit in with Jess and her friends, so when the writers brought the character back to date Jess, it was a surprising decision.

Robby and Jess developed feelings for each other in season 6 when they were part of the “Single and Sufficient” club, but Jess didn’t feel a spark, and considered breaking up with him. When he got hurt at their gym, however, she didn’t want to break up while he was hurt and add to his pain. What ended their relationship was the discovery that they were third-cousins, making their relationship even more awkward than it already was for the fans of the show.

Related New Girl: 15 Best Nick & Jess Episodes For Fans To Binge As the central couple of New Girl, Nick and Jess have had their ups and downs. Relive this adorable sitcom relationship by watching these episodes.

Nick Miller

Played By Jake Johnson

Last but not least, is Nick. The attraction between Nick and Jess was hinted at as early as the pilot episode, when Nick wasn't particularly happy with Jess getting attention from other guys, and even Cece thought he had feelings for Jess in that first season. Their feelings for one another were not revealed until the season 2 episode "Cooler" when they kissed for the first time after being sent “behind the Iron Curtain” following a game of True American. Their kiss regularly ranks among the best on television and created a huge cliffhanger for the show.

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Nick and Jess did not immediately get together. Instead, they spent much of the rest of season 2 dancing around their feelings for one another because Jess was dating Sam at the time. Once she broke up with Sam, Jess and Nick gave their relationship a chance, going on their first date in season 2, episode 21, but remained unsure of whether they should date. Jess and Nick officially got together in the season 2 finale, but they ended up breaking up during season 3. The break up allowed each of them to explore other relationships and grow into the people they needed to be to make a relationship work.

They got back together during the events of the season 6 finale after Nick realized the main characters in his book were inspired by his own relationship with Jess, and by season 7, they were already in a serious relationship. New Girl’s final season saw Jess and Nick getting married, and a flashforward in the series finale showed that they built a family and continued to be very close to Cece and Schmidt, and Winston and Ally.