Jonathan Bennett’s Essentials: Palm Springs, Workouts & Vancouver Chains

When former Mean Girls actor Jonathan Bennett appears on the Zoom screen, he’s freshly tanned, which he informs Observer is courtesy of a recent trip with Carnival Cruises—one of the many he’s taken and posted about to his over 1 million Instagram followers. Now, he’s back on the West Coast, tuning in from his sunny home office in Palm Springs to talk about a few of his favorite things. 

In the background, festive Hallmark posters are on display. Bennett, 45, has become the holiday channel’s go-to leading man in recent years, starring in everything from the reality show Finding Mr. Christmas to The Christmas House, which made history as the network’s first TV movie to prominently feature a same-sex storyline.

However, just because Bennett has become the network’s holiday go-to guy doesn’t mean he’s necessarily always ready to celebrate. Instead, his only time to relax is after his busy season is over. “By the time actual Christmas comes, I don’t want to talk about Christmas!” he spills. “I’ve talked about Christmas for two months straight, and even though I love it, I’ve already had my Christmas.” Instead, he and his husband, Jaymes Vaughan, will sit on the couch, order takeout and “just rot and do nothing.” 

Bennet and Vaughan are very much a “we,” whether celebrating (or not celebrating) the holidays, or decamping from Hollywood to Palm Springs, where they relocated after spending years in Los Angeles. They made the move after getting married, because, as Bennett declares, “nothing good comes out of West Hollywood after 20 years.”

Bennett finds quiet comfort in his routine, whether it’s visiting the same restaurant every time he’s filming Hallmark movies in Vancouver or falling asleep to true crime shows alongside Vaughan. His career means he spends a lot of time away from home, so he values consistency and familiarity. 

“I am a creature of habit,” the former Flywheel instructor admits. “When I’m traveling or if I go to Vancouver for the 100th time to shoot a movie, I will still eat at the same four or five places every time, even though there are a million restaurants. I will always go back to the places I know.”

These cozy escapist tendencies translate to his pop culture pursuits. He avoids watching comedies because he can “hear the writing” and “see the setup” as an actor. Instead, he adores RuPaul’s Drag Race and watches true crime on repeat. 

“I only like the ones where you don’t know who did it at the beginning,” he tells Observer. “Studies show—and by studies, I mean TikTok, so it must be true—that there’s something relaxing about watching true crime, because you know that at the end they’re going to catch the killer, and you’re going to find out who it is.” 

Here, the General Hospital actor walks Observer through a day in his life, from his early-bird wake-up to his secret technique for memorizing his scripts at the gym, and takes readers behind the scenes of his perfect day in Palm Springs.