Gillian Anderson finally explains why she kissed The X-Files costar David Duchovny at the 1997 Emmys

Gillian Anderson is putting The X-Files fans out of their misery, by finally addressing her infamous Emmys kiss with David Duchovny.

Fans of the the sci-fi series remember the moment well: it was 1997 and Anderson had just been announced as the winner of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the Emmys. But she surprised viewers by turning to kiss the Mulder to her Scully, rather than her then-boyfriend, Rodney Rowland. 

In a Friday TikTok, Anderson finally cleared the air after nearly three decades of fans wondering.

“Okay, so I’ve been told that you guys want some information about when I won the Golden Globe a century ago and I kissed David first” she said, mixing up the two award shows. (While the moment in question where she kissed Duchovny before her then-boyfriend occurred at the Emmys, Anderson also kissed him after winning at the Golden Globes that same year.)

"The fact is that David and I were actually living together and Rodney was my beard,” Anderson joked with a straight face, before clarifying, “I’m joking. That’s just a joke. Was that really mean?"

After getting that quip out of the way, the Sex Education star delved into her choice to celebrate with her costar before her boyfriend.  

“I don’t know why I kissed him first,” she admitted. “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.”

She added, “And we were there to celebrate the series. So yeah, maybe that’s what it was.”

The kiss between the duo has gone down in internet history largely because of the long-simmering will-they, won't-they tension between Anderson's Dana Scully and Duchovny's Fox Mulder. The mystery of whether or not the characters would end up together haunted fans throughout the show’s nine-year run, and that off-screen intimacy only contributed to the frenzy. 

Meanwhile, Anderson said that former boyfriend was unfazed by the kiss.

"Rodney was a great guy,” she said, “I don't think it bothered him. He understood."

She concluded, "It was complex. That's all I got."

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Duchovny and Anderson have been known to kiss and tell. In 2015, they shared the stage at The Cutting Room in New York, where Duchovny played songs from his record, Hell or Highwater. On her way to the mic, Anderson stopped to share a quick kiss with her former Mulder which incited fans once again.

Later that month, Duchovny shut down the rekindled fan frenzy.

“The whole thing about Gillian and I dating is so weird,” he told TVLine. “It’s never happened, it’s not going to happen, we’re friends… I see Gillian, I kiss her hello. She’s my friend. If somebody gets a picture of that, if it’s on stage and she comes up to sing with me, I’m going to kiss her hello.”

He added, “You can have Mulder and Scully, and that’s gonna have to be enough.”