The Real-Life Tragic Story Of Yellowstone's Kelly Reilly

The following article includes references to mental illness.

Fans of “Yellowstone” are all too aware that Beth Dutton has not had an easy life. Played by actor Kelly Reilly, Dutton has gone through everything from surviving a bomb to being attacked by two men. The many tragedies she faced made the fiery banker a polarizing character, which surprisingly makes her relatable. “She’s not just one thing. She’s like 10 women in one,” Reilly said of Dutton on “CBS Mornings.” The “Sherlock Holmes” star continued, “We know her as, like you said, insane and fierce, but there is such a deep soul and incredible depth of heart and love and devotion for her family.”

While Reilly has not gone through nearly as much as her “Yellowstone” character, she has endured many tragic moments during her life. The “Triage” star’s introverted nature means she’s not quick to share too much about her personal life, but there have been times she’s opened up about certain moments that have sadly caused her emotional distress over the years.

Before being known for “Yellowstone,” Kelly Reilly starred in the 2014 ABC television series “Black Box.” Her character, Catherine Black, was a neuroscientist living with bipolar disorder while hiding the diagnosis from her family and colleagues. On playing someone with a mental illness, Reilly shared with HuffPost, “I am amazed that I’ve come across so much ignorance. I find it difficult listening to people speak so unabashedly about ‘crazy’ people that to me, it is shocking and uneducated.” She vented that some folks have no filter when it comes to mental health and added, “It is still such a taboo subject, we are still facing a lot of prejudice, which frustrates me because I immersed myself in everything I could read and met as many people as I could that live with bipolar.”

Reilly was so dedicated to portraying Black as well as she could that she did her research about bipolar disorder by talking to health professionals, per The Seattle Times. “I feel very protective of making sure that we tell this story truthfully. There’s no point in making it if we don’t honor it and we don’t ignite it with truth and with all aspects of truth,” she declared.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

Beth Dutton is such a complex character in “Yellowstone” that Kelly Reilly had to really dig into her acting chops, but some of the emotions she portrayed came from her own personal experience. She revealed on “The Drew Barrymore Show” in November 2024 that a year before landing the Western drama, she had experienced a loss. Reilly didn’t share details, but she said, “I was in a deep grief and I hadn’t figured out who I was beyond that in that moment, and I was in a fog at that moment. And then this character lands in my lap and I’m like, ‘What am I going to do with this?’ And she became this sort of life raft for me.” She explained that Dutton became an emotional shield while she was processing her grief, and she became so attached to the character that she missed her when she was not filming.

Unfortunately, “Yellowstone” ended after Season 5, although there was soon talk of a spinoff featuring Reilly and her on-screen husband Cole Hauser. After the series concluded, the actor shared on Instagram, “Words cannot convey how I feel about the people I got to work and create with. … The words I got to say and the woman I got to inhabit the past 7 years. It changed me. It lit me up. It challenged me in every way possible and I will forever be grateful for it.”

Before Kelly Reilly married her real-life husband Kyle Baugher, the British star was engaged to actor Jonah Lotan, whom she started seeing in 2006. Their meet-cute happened when Lotan struck up a conversation with Reilly in a New York bar and asked her out, per The Telegraph. “He’s just heaven,” she gushed in the 2007 interview. Reilly was set to marry the following year, but sadly, she revealed in a 2009 interview with the Independent that she and Lotan had called off the wedding. “I’d … rather not talk about it. Only because I’m trying to protect myself and my life. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be … but ah, it’s not, it’s a bit complicated,” she stated, hinting that the reason for the breakup was the distance.

After Reilly wrongly got dragged into Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s divorce drama, she eventually met Baugher around 2010 and had to maintain another long-distance relationship, as the financier was based in New York. “I spend a lot of time across the pond. I spend a lot of my time on [airplanes]. I’m probably going to do the move soon. I’d like my life to be in one place,” she shared with Guardian. It looks like Reilly jumped across the pond for love, as she told The Telegraph in 2014 that she was now living in New York, but it wasn’t easy. She revealed, “I suffered terrible homesickness at first — for English people, pubs, humor, all my family and friends — but I love New York, it’s my favorite city.”

Although “Yellowstone” isn’t an action-based drama, Kelly Reilly had to get physical for some of her scenes, such as riding horses and performing some of her stunts. One in particular was pretty daunting, as Reilly had to run toward a pack of real wolves in a Season 1 episode, per First for Women. Naturally, the UK native was hesitant about putting her life in danger, but she was reassured by production. “The crew said, don’t worry. We’ve got these invisible pieces of cord so if they do run at you, that will trip them,” she recalled. Some string hardly seems like a deterrent against angry wolves, but Reilly bravely shot the scene and was unharmed.

Wolves weren’t the only wild animals Reilly had to worry about. Because “Yellowstone” was filmed in the West, the cast also had to watch out for snakes. During the second half of Season 5, the set was moved to Texas in an area that was full of poisonous creatures, Cinemablend reported. “We had a snake wrangler, and they found a bunch of them. All the big rattlesnakes and the tarantulas. Like, I’m from South London. Like, the most scary thing in England is a stinging nettle,” Reilly told the publication. Thankfully, there were no reports of any snake bites after “Yellowstone” wrapped.