We may see him as a great comedian, but his heart is full of romance. Their bond was so strong that right from the beginning, they fell for each other really fast.
You remember him as the 40-year-old Virgin, or as Michael Scott from The Office, who always ran into tough luck when it came to love, but in real life, Steve Carrell has been coupled up for 24 years. He met his wife Nancy Ellen Carell (née Walls) because both of them loved comedy and what better to make a marriage work than laughter.
He is best known for playing the eccentric-you-can't-help-but-love Michael Scott on the NBC television sitcom The Office and if you're a fan of the show you have probably seen Nancy in it. She had a recurring role on the show as Carol Stills, Michael's realtor and girlfriend. She was also a member of Saturday Night Live in 1995-96 and the couple has worked on The Daily Show together. However, they met long before they were officially part of the entertainment industry, according to Country Living.
Back when they were still nobodies and honing themselves to enter the industry is where their stories begin. Nancy was taking classes at the Second City Theater in Chicago and Carell was an employee there. She was also working at the bar across the street and he didn't leave it to chance. He would walk across the street to speak to her often. However, both of them were too shy to ask the other out. It is difficult to imagine the confident actor, who has played a multitude of characters, to feel nervous approaching the woman of his dreams.
"The conversation would go something like, 'Hey, you know, if I were ever to ask a woman out, it would be someone like you. Exactly like you,'" Carrell told Ellen DeGeneres. "And she'd say, 'If a guy like you were ever to ask a woman like me out, I would definitely do that.'"
"This went on for weeks," he continued. "Other people at the bar must have been like, 'Just do it! Put us all out of our misery.' And finally, we did. It was great," he added. He asked her out back then and they have been together for almost 24 years now.
The actor fell for her almost immediately. "She's beautiful, intelligent and really funny. She kind of checked all the boxes in my head, but I thought she hated me because she was very quiet around me. I thought she for sure knew that I was full of it, and I later found out that she was just as nervous as I was and trying to act cool," he said. It didn't take him long to know that she was the right one for him.
"I'll never forget standing at the altar and I saw her coming down the aisle – immediately a sense of calm came over me. There was an ethereal sense of how right it all was and more than anything it was very empowering knowing that person was going to be my partner and have my back. It just made me feel strong, and I'll never forget it," he adds.
Such love stories are few and far in between. But, when we come upon such couples it fills our hearts as well. In a hopeless world, seeing two people committed to each other through thick and thin has a restorative effect on us too. It gives us hope that we too can have a bond that strong with the one we love.
While both Steve and Nancy were from big families, they have two kids, Elisabeth and John. However, the couple is very grounded and want to raise them well. "My children don't expect to get everything and I think our greatest achievement so far is that they respect us and listen to us. I don't see that in all of their friends," he told The Guardian.
The actor played a hopelessly in love character in Crazy Stupid Love and just like the character from the film, his view of love is similar in life too. Whenever he's asked what's the secret to such a happy and successful marriage, he says, "There's no secret – I think you get lucky."
Well, they sure did!
References:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/28/steve-carell-despicable-me-family-values
https://www.countryliving.com/life/entertainment/a23693763/steve-carell-wife-nancy-carell/
https://www.etonline.com/tv/173952_steve_carell_was_too_nervous_to_ask_his_wife_on_a_date
