Adam Brody Says Marrying Leighton Meester After One Year of Dating Was an “Easy” Decision

After just one year of seeing one another, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester shocked fans by tying the knot in a top-secret vow exchange in 2014. During an appearance on Sirius XM’s The Jess Cagle Show on March 8, 2023, The O.C. star opened up about that special day and how marrying the Gossip Girl alum was a no-brainer. “My wife and I actually got married very fast after we started dating,” the actor says. “That’s how sort of easy a decision it was for me and us. I was never scared of the idea of marriage or kids. It always seemed like a route I would go [down] eventually, and I was excited when it came together [and] when I met the right person.”

Brody and Meester first met when Josh Schwartz, who produced The O.C. and Gossip Girl, introduced the two of them in the mid-2000s. The actor recalled that encounter on an episode for Anna Faris’ Unqualified podcast in March of 2021. “The whole [Gossip Girl] cast was eating at Canter’s [in Los Angeles], and I lived at Canter’s for my entire 20s,” he shared. “I was leaving, and [Josh] introduced all of us.” Brody added that since Meester played Blair Waldorf—who was known for plotting schemes against others—on Gossip Girl, he didn’t have the best first impression before actually meeting her. “I had no idea whether she was a good person or not,” he revealed. “In fact, I kind of assumed she probably wasn’t for the first handful of years that I didn’t know her just because, I don’t know, Gossip Girl.”

Brody wasn’t able to refute that assumption until he got to know Meester better when they worked on The Oranges together in 2011. In February of 2013, Us Weekly announced that the actors were dating. Nine months later, People broke the news Brody had popped the question, and Meester had said “yes.” They got married a year after the news broke that they were dating, but the couple didn’t reveal any details from their big day since it was a private and secretive affair. Brody confirmed the news by responding “Yeah” after a member of the paparazzi asked him whether he had gotten married. They are now parents to Arlo and their son, whose name hasn’t been publicly released.

Since becoming husband and wife, the couple regularly attends red carpet events together. Their latest date night happened on March 14, 2023 at the premiere of Shazam! Fury of the Gods in Los Angeles. For the event, Meester wore a metallic copper dress and rocked bangs, while Brody sported a navy suit and white button-down shirt. While speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Brody shared the meaning behind their hairstyles. “She has an identical haircut to our daughter, and I have an identical haircut to my son right now—like a curly mullet,” he says.

In an interview with Access in March of 2022, Meester gushed about her husband’s parenting style. “He’s everything that I imagined he would be as a father when we decided to have kids,” she expressed. “It is really amazing.” Brody also talks to the press often about his feelings for his wife. In March of 2021 during his Unqualified podcast appearance, he said, “She is the strongest, best person I know. She is my moral compass and North Star, and I just can’t say enough good things about her character.”