Suzanne Somers’ Widower Alan Hamel and Joanna Cassidy Talk About Their Romance (Exclusive)

Joanna Cassidy and Alan Hamel are celebrating their blossoming connection.

The Blade Runner actress, 80, and former television host, 89, recently caught up with PEOPLE, sharing some details about their new romance.

“I know a lot of people and I have a lot of wonderful friends, but I’ve never gone out of my way to connect with people. It just happened naturally. And I’ve introduced Joanna to many of my friends, and there’s still a whole pack of them that you haven’t met yet. These are people that we just met somewhere, and a relationship happened, and it marinated over a bunch of years and brought along other people. And that’s really it. I never put any real energy into it,” Alan says.

“I’m blessed. I’m grateful for that. And I’m grateful for the relationship that I have with Joanna. It’s very special. And she has given kudos all her life to everybody around her other than herself, which is very selfless. I can’t do that. I’m not built that way, but I admire it.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

For about 18 months in 2023 and into 2024, Hamel quietly mourned the loss of his wife, Suzanne Somers. He reconnected with Cassidy, whom he’d known after she appeared as a guest on his show years ago. Cassidy also starred with Somers in the 1985 miniseries Hollywood Wives.

“I’m grateful for my relationship with Joanna. We have good times together, and we were talking about it the other day — and do you call me your boyfriend, or did we leave that in high school? It’s really weird to use the term ‘boyfriend’ at this place in life. So we talked about different things like ‘companion’ and ‘partner.’ ”

“You’re a buddy,” Cassidy joked.

“You’re more than my buddy. You’re a lot more than my buddy,” Hamel replied.

“I think that there’s a safety, there’s a measure of safety in that where you just feel comfortable, but more than comfortable, you just want to be around that person because you feel good,” Cassidy says of the relationship.

Asked if they’re in love, the two exchanged bashful comments.

“Love has so many definitions. There’s romantic love, there’s family love… I think that people see one another for the experiment,” Cassidy says.

“They have a date, they have a coffee, they have a dinner. And then you are with someone where you go, ‘Oh, this is pretty good. Wow, I’m going to hang in here for a while,’ ” she continues. “And then I get to the three-month part. Well, we’ve gotten past that, so I think we’re in good shape, and I think who knows where this will go, but every time we are together, it’s exciting. It’s fun.”

“We live in different cities,” Hamel notes. “I live in the desert, and Joanna lives in Los Angeles. And so the geography, it’d be a lot easier if we lived in the same city, because when we do get together, it’s for a number of days. We’ve been actually testing, I think so far we’ve been able to spend six and a half days together, and we’re okay with this. Yeah. So I think the next one, we’ll probably add another day or two. And so we’re doing it very gradually.”

Hamel admits, “I’ve never lived alone in my life. I had a couple of weeks when I first started working when I was 18, but aside from that, I’ve never lived alone. It was a whole new experience for me, and I found I didn’t like it. And it’s not that I want to live with anybody at this point. I don’t think I’m ready to do that. But I’m grateful, and I’m really grateful for the relationship I have with Joanna.”

“It is an honest relationship, and we don’t BS each other, and we’re able to talk. She told me one day, she said, ‘We speak about things I’ve never talked to anybody about before in my life,’ and I feel honored for that. We get on the phone at night, and sometimes we’re on so long that I can almost hear a gentle little snoring sound from the other end.”

One of the highlights of their long-distance relationship is their ability to “sit on the phone for hours.”

“We talk about anything and everybody, really. So whatever it is, I always look at relationships that happen as being like a jigsaw puzzle, and suddenly all the pieces are starting to fit together, and you don’t really understand why. And haven’t you been staring at that puzzle for years, and you haven’t been able to put it together, and then all of a sudden, one day, you pick up the right pieces,” Hamel says.

Hamel also laughs about how his new partner is still getting used to him coming from a background full of hugging and kissing.

“I have apologized to Joanna on several occasions for being the hugger that I am, but it’s part of my DNA, it’s been bred into me. And so I have apologized to her. I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to try to cool it a little bit here and not be as demonstrative.’ So that lasts for 10, 15 minutes. But anyway, I’m going to turn her into a hugger, a big hugger.”