Gillian Anderson Tries to Explain Why She Kissed David Duchovny Before Her Boyfriend at 1997 Emmys

"I don’t know why I kissed him first. I guess because he was on the show with me and we were practically married because we spent more time with each other than we did with our loved ones," Anderson said

Gillian Anderson is clearing the air about her kiss with David Duchovny at the 1997 Emmys.

The actress, 55, addressed the moment in which she and her X-Files costar, 63, shared a kiss before she turned to then-boyfriend Rodney Rowland for a smooch after winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series nearly three decades ago.

“OK so I’ve been told that you guys want some information about when I won the [Emmy] back about a century ago and I kissed David first and why did I not kiss my boyfriend Rodney,” she shared in an Instagram video.

“The fact is that David and I were actually living together and Rodney was my beard,” she teased before quickly clarifying, “I’m joking, that’s just a joke. Is that really mean?”

Related: Scully and Mulder 'Aren't Together,' But Gillian Anderson Says She and 'X-Files' Costar David Duchovny's 'Adult Friendship' Still Has 'Kinetic Energy'

Anderson noted that she and Duchovny shared a tight bond after starring on the sci-fi series, which ran for nine seasons from 1993 to 2002. It returned for a tenth season in 2016 and an eleventh in 2018.

“I don’t know why I kissed him first,” she shared. “I guess because he was on the show with me and we were practically married because we spent more time with each other than we did with our loved ones. We were there to celebrate the series and so yeah. Maybe? Maybe that’s what it was?”

The actress — who starred as Dana Scully on the Fox series — shared that Rowland was “a great guy,” adding, “[I] don’t think it bothered him. He understood. It was complex.”

Related: Mulder and Scully! Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny Have a 'The X-Files' Reunion

While the costars were never romantically involved off-screen, Duchovny told PEOPLE in June that he and Anderson had an instant connection during their auditions for The X-Files.

“I think immediately, when we were reading together on the stairs to go in to audition, we knew that we could work together,” he shared. “There was an immediate connection through the work that we could do, and that lasted for a long, long time.”

To the delight of their fans, Duchovny and Anderson have remained good friends over the years. In 2021, the two caught up in over lunch and shared a selfie on Instagram that went viral.

"I was having lunch with [Gillian], and as I was leaving she was like, 'Let's take a photo,'" Duchovny told PEOPLE In 2021. "I was told there was a big reaction to it! I never get that stuff, but it's really cool that people are interested after all these years."

Related: David Duchovny on His Viral Lunch Date with 'X-Files' Costar Gillian Anderson

Now, more than 30 years after The X-Files debuted, Duchovny understands why his friendship with Anderson has endured for as long as it has.

“When you share a seminal kind of experience in your life — this huge success with the show that we had — only we know what it's like to be in the center of that,” he explained. “It's almost like being in the same family. We know what it was like to be raised in that time. There's a certain kind of shared experience, knowledge, and past that never goes away.”

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All 11 seasons of The X-Files are available to stream on Hulu.

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