Kelsey Anderson Reveals How Dad Mark Met Barbara Alyn Woods

After months of cute social media moments, Kelsey Anderson officially confirmed her dad Mark Anderson’s relationship with actress Barbara Alyn Woods.

“Mark is in a relationship. Her name is Barbara, and she is the best,” Kelsey, 26, gushed on the Friday, February 21, episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “She is super sweet. She has great daughters. We got to spend Christmas with them all together, and yeah. They are going strong, and he’s super happy. And now he’s in L.A. a lot because she lives in L.A., so I get to see him pretty often now, too.”

When asked how long the couple have been together, Kelsey revealed that Mark, 57, and Woods, 62, have been dating for “five months or so.”

Kelsey’s timeline closely matches with when Mark and Woods first sparked romance rumors in October 2024. “When Cinderella and Prince Charming have a baby …🫅👸👶,” Woods captioned an Instagram snap of herself and Mark dressed as the famous Disney couple for Halloween, alongside her daughter Natalie Alyn Lind dressed as Grogu from The Mandalorian. (Woods shares daughters Natalie, 24, Emily, 22, and Alyvia, 17, with her ex John Lind.)

Podcast hosts Joe Amabile and Serena Pitt went on to ask Kelsey about the couple’s connection to One Tree Hill, as Woods famously portrayed Deb Scott, the mother of James Lafferty’s Nathan Scott, on the hit teen drama.

“I never watched the show, so I didn’t know, but I’m pretty sure one of my sisters did,” Kelsey confessed. “But it’s funny, a bunch of my friends are big fans of the show, and they were freaking out. I was like, ‘Oh, I feel like I need to go watch it.’ But they were like, ‘She’s a little crazy on the show,’ but I was like, ‘In real life, she’s not crazy. She’s great.’”

Bachelor fans met Mark while Kelsey competed on season 28 of The Bachelor last year. Shortly after she and Joey Graziadei got engaged on the ABC reality series, Mark joined Bachelor Nation as a member of The Golden Bachelorette’s debut cast. Though he connected with leading lady Joan Vassos, he was ultimately eliminated ahead of hometowns.

On the podcast, Pitt, 26, asked Kelsey whether she has given her dad any dating advice, given that she is in a “more serious relationship” than he is at the moment. Kelsey said she hasn’t, stating, “I feel like my dad’s got it figured out now. I feel like, definitely, him going on the Golden Bachelorette helped him a lot with just kind of pushing himself to put himself out there.”

She went on to share that it was Woods who reached out to connect with her father first. “They were just friends and then they started going on dates,” Kelsey shared. “And then my dad realized how much they just work very well together.”

Kelsey even complimented Woods by saying the actress reminds her of her late mother, Denise, who died of breast cancer in 2018. “Honestly, she does remind me a lot of my mom in the sense of she brings out the fun side of my dad,” she explained. “He’s more of a quiet and just calm person. And she brings out a fun side of him and she’s just very vibrant, just like my mom was. So yeah, it’s special.”

Mark, Kelsey and Graziadei, 29, were featured in many Instagram pics Woods shared of their blended family’s Christmas celebration in December 2024. “Christmas 2024 @fariaresorts Belle River Mansion,” she captioned the carousel, the first slide of which featured the two families doing funny poses on a staircase while sporting matching pajamas. “A week of laughter and love and family ❤️🎁❤️🎄❤️.”