Overview

• Recent articles from Page Six, The Daily Beast and the Marin Independent Journal have widely reported that the unnamed ‘X’ in McNally’s 2025 memoir is Gillian Anderson.
• Identification hinges on clues in the book about a 1998 Vanity Fair mention and a visit to see the Broadway play Art, narrowing the affair to February 1998–August 1999.
• A contemporaneous Daily News gossip column by George Rush and Joanna Molloy noted a dinner between McNally and Anderson, providing archival corroboration.
• McNally had publicly referred to Anderson as a “brief girlfriend” in a 2019 Wall Street Journal interview, yet his new memoir omits her name.
• Representatives for both McNally and Anderson have not responded to requests for comment, leaving the attribution unconfirmed by either party.