Singer Linda Perry has said she had an instant connection with girlfriend Sara Gilbert.

The 46-year-old Perry and Gilbert, 36, began dating roughly 9 months ago.

“It's so awesome,” Perry told E! Online at the Critics' Choice Awards. “I would never have expected that me and her [sic] would be dating.”

“We met and we just instantly connected,” Perry said of Gilbert, a co-host of CBS' daytime talk show The Talk. “We're so alike but so different, too. It really works.”

Gilbert shares custody of six-year-old son Levi and four-year-old daughter Sawyer with her former partner, Glee writer Allison Adler.

During a recent The Talk episode, Gilbert described how paparazzi surprised her and Perry on a Sunday morning.

“The other day, you know, I was just out and paparazzi were there and I was ... it was Sunday morning, and I wasn't really prepared, and then there's all these articles out that I'm in a new relationship.”

Gilbert added she wished she could have decided when and how to discuss her love life.

“I kinda would rather do it on my terms. I guess then, when I'm in full hair and makeup.”