Meg Ryan Has a ‘New Lease on Life’ After Moving to Montecito and Returning to Acting

Meg Ryan is positively glowing and happy right now as she enjoys a career resurgence and getting out there socially, and sources say she has no regrets moving forward and isn’t looking back.

“She’s finally bounced back and has a new lease on life,” an insider exclusively tells Closer. “Things are really improved comparing then to now.”

“Meg used to sweat the small stuff and get stressed out,” the source adds, noting that the actress was previously “in a bad push-and-pull relationship with the original rebel John Mellencamp.”

However, her life has “calmed down” a lot now that she “moved to Montecito.”

“She has a healthy friend group and is quite involved in the Zen way of living,” the source adds. “She’s looking forward to 2025 with a positive outlook.”

Meg made her long-awaited acting comeback in the 2023 film What Happens Later with David Duchovny after an eight-year acting hiatus. She also cowrote, directed and executive produced the rom-com, which is based on Steven Dietz‘s play Shooting Star about two ex-lovers who get trapped in an airport together overnight.

The Golden Globe nominee explained why she felt like it was the right time to return to acting in What Happens Later.

“Well, really it had to do with the fact that the script came to me during COVID, during lockdown,” she told Parade in October 2023. “It struck my imagination probably because of that, because those two people were stuck together.”

Meg felt like David was the perfect fit to play Bill in the film, telling the outlet that it was “a chance for him to do something maybe a little different than he’s done before.”

When asked if she planned on taking another acting hiatus after What Happens Later, Meg said she was unsure.

“I really don’t know. I love this little movie, so right now, I just want to get it out there,” she said at the time. “Right now, it’s this feeling of … You know when you blow up a balloon and then you tie the end and you just sort of puff it up into the air; you give it a little tap and see where it goes? It’s kind of that feeling right now. It feels like we just finished it, so I don’t have an imagination yet for the next thing.”

Meg’s son, Jack Quaid, whom she shares with ex-husband Dennis Quaid, has also ventured into the acting business. He currently stars in The Boys on Amazon Prime Video. The rom-com icon praised Jack, 32, for his performance in the series and slammed those who claimed his Hollywood success was due to nepotism.

“You don’t wish it [on anyone]. It’s too hard and it’s too weird,” she told Glamour in November 2023 while responding to the scrutiny. “Jack is really talented. He’s more of a natural than I’ll ever be. That nepo stuff is so dismissive of his work ethic, his gifts, and how sensitive he is to the idea of his privilege.”