Mary-Kate Olsen’s Friends Think She Should ‘Tread Carefully’ Amid Reunion With Ex Sean Avery
Mary-Kate Olsen’s friends are worried about her spending time with ex Sean Avery. The former couple was photographed together over Memorial Day Weekend and a source exclusively tells Life & Style what’s going on between them.
“I don’t think Mary-Kate and Sean are seriously dating,” the insider notes. “But they are hooking up. And he has a reputation for being a bad boy, so she should tread carefully.”
The pair was spotted visiting a store for The Row, one of the brands Mary-Kate, 37, owns with twin sister Ashley Olsen, in Amagansett, New York. Later, they spent time with mutual friend Andy Cohen in the Hamptons. The outings came 17 years after they were first romantically linked.
“Sean obviously has a bad reputation, not just as a player, but as a guy with a terrible temper,” the insider admits. “He’s not the kind of man Mary-Kate’s loved ones would encourage her to date.”
The former hockey star’s marriage to Hilary Rhoda ended in 2022. She was granted a protection order after accusing Sean, 44, with whom she shares a 3-year-old son, Nash, of domestic and child abuse. She also claimed he admitted to having an OxyContin addiction amid their breakup. Sean has not commented on the allegations. Meanwhile, Mary-Kate’s divorce from ex-husband Olivier Sarkozy was finalized in 2021. The exes started dating in 2012 and tied the knot in 2015.
“[Mary-Kate and Sean] have hooked up on and off for years when they are single,” the insider explains. “When they dated the first time, Sean was heavily playing the field. Mary-Kate was in love with him, and he was seeing lots of other women. She was heartbroken over it. Their relationship wasn’t healthy.”
Sean has a history of bad behavior on and off the ice. He was repeatedly penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct before he retired from the NHL in 2012 and admitted to arguing with a Dancing With the Stars producer when he competed on the show in 2014 — the same year he quit the off-Broadway play Negative Is Positive following a verbal altercation with a crew member. In 2023, Sean was convicted of attempted criminal mischief after a 2019 road rage incident.
However, Sean’s bad boy behavior doesn’t seem to be a problem for Mary-Kate. “[She] is often attracted to the wrong guy,” the source says. “Friends just hope that if she and Sean do get serious again, it doesn’t end in disaster.”
