Life partners and cohosts! Before Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell joined forces on The Real Love Boat, their own romantic saga began in 2004.
“We met at a Maxim Hot 100 party in Las Vegas. True story,” Romijn revealed while guest-hosting The Wendy Williams Show in February 2019. “It was a pool party in Las Vegas.”
O’Connell added more context, saying, “Just to give a little more details, Rebecca was in the VIP section of the party, and I was not. I saw you in the VIP section and you were newly single, and I was like, ‘I got to get some of that, right there.’ It was a pool party, so I took my shirt off. I did some pushups right there and got some oil. I was super flexing. I had met my wife once before that at the time. But through the rope I was like, ‘Hey, Rebecca!’”
During a May 2022 appearance on The Talk, the X-Men actress opened up about meeting the Kangaroo Jack actor while she was in the process of divorcing John Stamos.
“Going through a divorce is awful,” she explained. “It’s terrible. I was with him for 10 years. Divorce feels like a failure, and there were a lot of things that I had to let go of that were very sad.”
Despite meeting at a difficult time in Romijn’s life, the Punisher actress and O’Connell moved quickly in their relationship.
“We had a couple dates in Las Vegas and then I flew home, and I needed a ride home from the airport and I called Jerry and he drove me home and basically never left,” the Ugly Betty alum said on The Talk.
The duo got engaged in September 2005 and exchanged vows in July 2007. They welcomed twin daughters, Dolly and Charlie, in December 2008. The Stand By Me actor has made jokes over the years about his kids driving him crazy. In November 2019, he exclusively told Us Weekly he and his wife were “afraid” to split because of what would happen with their daughters.
“One of us might end up with our kids,” the New York native joked at the time. “We stay together and not for the kids, so not one of us has to deal with them. We would have a rare anti-custody battle.”
Dad jokes aside, O’Connell doesn’t miss an opportunity to tell Romijn how much she means to him. In July 2022, he shared a sweet tribute to the Femme Fatale actress via Instagram, in honor of their 15th wedding anniversary.
“This one puts up with my mommy issues, cheapness and is infinitely out of my league. INFINITELY. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Love ya babe,” he captioned a selfie of him and his other half swimming.