In Jon Hamm‘s buzzy new Apple TV+ series, Your Friends & Neighbors, the actor plays a man going through a midlife crisis.

His character, Andrew Cooper, has recently split from his longtime wife (played by Amanda Peet) and just lost his high-paying hedge fund manager job, into which he’d put years of blood, sweat and tears.

To cope, Coop drinks too much whiskey, mopes and ultimately turns to criminal behavior.

Jon can relate — at least to some of the questionable behavior.

In 2015, the 54-year-old had just ended his Emmy-winning seven-season run as Don Draper in the critically acclaimed AMC series Mad Men, leaving him at loose ends professionally.

“It doesn’t matter how awesome or successful or genre-defining, career-defining [a role is],” he recently told The New York Times of feeling adrift after the show ended.

“As soon as it’s over, everyone’s like, ‘What’s next?’” He’d also broken up with his partner of 18 years, screen- writer Jennifer Westfeldt, shaking up his personal life.

Realizing alcohol had become a problem, he spent a month in rehab, only to have college-era arrest for a violent hazing incident resurface.

“It’s like anything else, there’s no way over but through, right?” he told the paper of overcoming the difficult time.

A decade later, much has changed for the better: Jon is back in his element doing prestige TV.

His starring role in Your Friends & Neighbors — filming for season 2 is already under-way — follows celebrated turns in Fargo, The Morning Show and Landman.

He’s also found love and stability with his wife of nearly two years, actress Anna Osceola, 37.

“John’s friends have seen a profound change in him,” a source tells Star. “He seems fulfilled.”

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

The recent SNL host is no stranger to dark times.

A child of divorce, the St. Louis, Mo., native lived with his mother until she died of colon cancer when he was just 10. His father passed away 10 years later.

He says his friends’ families took him in and credits therapy with helping him navigate his grief.

“After I’d lost my dad, I had this horrible paralyzing inertia — and no one in my family was capable of dealing with it. So what do you do? Go and see a professional,” he said in 2016.

The source says ther- apy “saved” the star. “The loss of his parents is still very much with Jon, but he’s able to handle it now after years of counseling.”

After leaving the University of Texas-Austin in the wake of the hazing incident (“I was essentially acquitted,” Jon said in 2108, calling his younger self “a stupid kid in a stupid situation”), the struggling actor took local teaching jobs before heading to L.A. with $150 in his pocket.

“Except for being a teacher, a waiter and a bartender… the majority of my hopes and dreams were invested in being an actor,” he’s said.

Success was elusive. “Jon’s early years in Hollywood taught him that you have to just keep going and not give up when it gets tough,” says the source.

He was 36 when Mad Men began, and while he was thrilled to find success, the newfound attention was overwhelming. Alcohol became a crutch.

“You’re coming off of this Tilt-a-Whirl that’s going 9,000 miles an hour, and so many things have come unfixed,” Jon said of the issues that led him to rehab. (The actor admits he now drinks occasionally, in moderation.)

NEW CHAPTER

Anna helped him turn a corner.

The couple — who met on the final episode of Mad Men and were romantically linked in 2020 — tied the knot in June 2023.

His marriage surprised many after his nearly 20-year relationship with Jennifer never led to the altar. “He didn’t want to get married and didn’t think it was important,” notes the source.

“With Anna, he saw a future that he never realized was possible.” That future now includes children, much to Jon’s surprise (“I will be the old dad,” he joked.

“But so it goes.”) “Kids are part of the equation,” says the source. “Being around Anna makes Jon happy. He wants to build a family with her.”