Hollywood couples are notorious for being dramatic and toxic. There’s the break-ups and make-ups and while it is fun to watch from afar, it cannot be all that fun to live. Thankfully Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally agreed and created a stable, healthy relationship amid the chaos of show business. This funny duo is not only a match made in comedy heaven but also represent real-life couple goals. Their relationship is equal parts comedy and mutual respect.
“First and foremost we [make] each other laugh … I think that’s at the heart of if any relationship is gonna survive, you have to be able to laugh about things,” Offerman stated.
Mullally agrees: “We really like each other, and we try to treat each other well. I feel like Nick and I have the best relationship and the best marriage.”
To understand how this comedic couple of Will and Grace and Parks and Recreation fame make it work let’s look at a timeline of their relationship.
How they met . . .
Mullally and Offerman first met in 2000 working on the play The Berlin Circle at the Evidence Room Theatre in Los Angeles. They were first drawn to each other’s talent.
“We had a lot of scenes together, and I started thinking, ‘Wait a minute, he’s funny.’ And then I started thinking, ‘Wait a minute, is he cute?’ What’s happening?” Mullally recalled in an interview with Buzzfeed in 2013.
“When we did the first read-through with a cast of 25 sitting in a circle, Megan just stuck out as so hilarious,” Offerman recalled in a 2011 interview with Sundance TV’s “The Mortified Sessions.”
At the time Mullally had just finished filming season 2 of Will and Grace while Offerman was sleeping on a friend’s couch.
One bump in the road early on was their age difference. Mullally was 41 when they met and Offerman was just 29. Thankfully Mullally was not aware of that fact or she might have acted differently and not given him a chance.
“I thought he looked old! And he was mature, so when I found out he was 29, I said these two words: You motherf——-. And I almost ran my car off the road,” Mullally recalled. She eventually calmed down and the pair clearly moved past it.
Engagement
To keep Mullally on her toes, Offerman fake-proposed three times in Paris, France before doing it for real. His actual proposal happened in 2002 in London, England – the couple’s favorite city in the world.
Mullally knew something was up the day of the proposal. “I couldn’t figure out what was up with him,” Mullally remembers. “He was sucking and chewing on his mustache like crazy. I thought to myself, ‘What is going on? He has never chewed on his mustache before!’ “
“It was in Regent’s Park that I bent my knee and presented my hand-carved, walnut, heart-shaped ring box,” Offerman recalled. “Magically, the ducks on the water and birds in the air began to furiously copulate all around us. Something made the moment bigger than the two of us. It was fated by Mother Nature.”
Marriage and wedding . . .
Mullally and Offerman had a surprise wedding at their Hollywood home on Sept. 20, 2003. “We had our family and closest friends fly out and told people we were having an Emmy party. When they arrived, we said, ‘Welcome to our wedding!'” Mullally stated.
When asked why they got married, Offerman says: “We fell in love, and before long, we could just tell that we wanted to stay together and make a life together. We wanted to declare to each other and our friends and family that we were in it to win it.” This was Offerman’s first marriage and Mullally’s second – having previously been married to Michael A. Katcher from 1992 to 1996.
Co-stars and collaborators . . .
Mullally and Offerman’s relationship is not only romantic but also professional. The pair have frequently appeared together on screen and stage as co-stars. In the world of television, Offerman appeared on Mullally’s series such as Will and Grace and Children’s Hospital. Likewise Mullally appeared as Tammy Swanson on Parks and Recreation. The couple have worked together on nine films including Stealing Harvard, The Kings of Summer, and Infinity Baby. They also appeared together in the Broadway play Annapurna in 2014.
Beyond the stage and screen, they also co-wrote a novel, The Greatest Story Ever Told and have a podcast In Bed With Nick and Megan. They toured with their comedy special “Summer of 69: No Apostrophe” in 2015 and 2016. The couple clearly loves working and being together.
Offerman and Mullally make their hectic schedules work by following the two-week rule, which is very simple. “We made a deal that any job that’s going to keep us apart for more than a couple of weeks, we discuss,” Offerman explained.
Children . . .
Mullally and Offerman do not have any children. On May 15, 2017 they opened up to GQ Magazine about why this is. “I never had a burning desire to have children. But then I met Nick, and I thought ‘This is the only person I’d do this with,’” Mullally explained. “So we tried, but I was a little long in the tooth for that sort of thing. But we didn’t turn it into a soap opera. We tried for about a year or so, and it didn’t happen, and took that to mean it wasn’t meant to be.”
Nude photo . . .
Offerman and Mullay like to keep things real. This is why they bared it all and appeared naked in New York Magazine in February 2010. This was all Mullally’s idea.
Mullally explains: “Neither of us are paragons of physical perfection. That’s why I pitched that nude-photo idea: It’s as if we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but of course we’re not. Yet before we met with you, Nick told me how beautiful I looked in my pajamas in the hotel. I didn’t really, by somebody else’s standards, but it’s very nice to hear that, especially as an actress in Hollywood. Nick has said he would divorce me if I got Botox.”