Sean Hayes Pauses SmartLess to Grieve His Oldest Friend On Air

Sean Hayes stopped a recent episode of the podcast SmartLess to tell co-hosts Jason Bateman and Will Arnett that his oldest friend, Jeremy, had just died. Before the trio moved into their usual guest interview, Hayes asked if he could "be honest about where I'm at" rather than keep things light, and they told him to go ahead.

Hayes said he'd learned the day before that Jeremy — a Toronto friend whose family had been close with his own for generations, going back to their great-grandparents — had passed after a rapid decline over several weeks. He said he was relieved the suffering was over but was thinking of Jeremy's wife, daughter and parents. Bateman responded with an audible "fuck. Oh, God. I'm so sorry," and Arnett asked gently whether the death had come suddenly.

Hayes used the moment to reflect on how death always catches people off guard even though, as he put it, everyone knows "the deal." He said that morning, while driving his kids to school, he'd been turning over a simple resolution: reach out to the people you love before you lose the chance.

"My oldest friend in the world, Jeremy, passed away," Hayes said. "And I loved him so much."

He closed the tribute urging listeners toward the same instinct that had been running through his head that morning — call the people on your mind and tell them what they mean to you — before Bateman and Arnett told him they loved him too and the show moved on to its guest.

The exchange is a reminder that SmartLess, built on loose banter between three old friends, still leaves room for its hosts to drop the format entirely when something real is sitting on their chest.

Heard on SmartLess — "RE-RELEASE: Matthew Rhys" (2026-09-17).