It's a match made in teen TV heaven. Leighton Meester, who played Blair Waldorf on Gossip Girl, and Adam Brody, who played Seth Cohen on The O.C., were first linked back
in 2011. News of their romance sent fans into a frenzy. Since then, they've quietly married, co-starred in a few films, and have now reportedly welcomed their second child, a son, together. Below, a rewind on their low-key love, including what they've said about each other's iconic CW characters.
2011
Meester and Brody, although both actors on hit teen series' produced by Josh Schwartz, met on the set of another project. Both co-starred in the indie comedy The Oranges. “They were always close and friendly,” a source told Us Weeklyof the duo’s dynamic during filming.
2012
The co-stars reunited in September 2012 for a screening of The Oranges in NYC.
Usreported that Meester split from her actor boyfriend Aaron Himelstein over the holidays. She had previously dated her Gossip Girl co-star Sebastian Stan. Brody had been most recently linked to Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria and dated his O.C. co-star Rachel Bilson until 2006.
February 2013
Us Weeklybroke the news that Brody and Meester were dating on February 6, 2013. The article claimed that the pair had been "hanging out" for weeks, with a trip to Bangkok at the start of the year and stop at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on February 1.
A couple days after their relationship became public, Meester hid from paparazzi in Brody's car, per E! News. Towards the end of the month, the outlet snapped them walking to a Mexican restaurant in Venice, California.
June 2013
Brody and Meester made their first public appearance as a couple at the premiere of his film, Some Girl(s). They held hands during the outing and posed alongside Brody's co-star Mia Maestro.
September 2013
Neither Meester nor Brody confirmed their 7-month relationship. But E! spotted the couple walking through NYC towards the end of the year.
November 2013
On November 20, E! reported that the couple was engaged after less than a year of dating. Neither actor weighed in on the news themselves. A month later, the pair was spotted kissing in South Africa.
February 2014
On February 18, Us Weekly confirmed that Meester and Brody had tied the knot in a secret wedding, according to multiple sources. "Leighton and Adam got married in Northern California by the ocean a couple of weeks ago," a source told E! News. "It was a very small and intimate wedding with close family and friends. It was beautiful."
E! hinted at a possible honeymoon spot, reporting that the couple had recently been "seen relaxing" at St. Regis Punta Mita Resort in Mexico. A few weeks prior, Meester reportedly had her bachelorette party at Hamburger Mary's in West Hollywood.
June 2014
Meester and Brody walked their first red carpet as a married couple at the Tony Awards. She wore a white Antonio Berardi gown and he wore a dark suit with lightly-patterned tie. Meester had made her Broadway debut in March 2014, co-starring alongside James Franco and Chris O'Dowd in the play Of Mice and Men.
August 2014
Brody slyly referenced his relationship with Meester during an Ask Me Anything with fans on Reddit. A fan asked Brody, “How’s Leighton?” According to Us Weeklyhe responded, “She’s swell!” He also covered how many kids he'd like: “I say twelve. And I decide,” he joked. When asked what life was like at the Brody-Meester household he replied, “I do some stuff but she definitely does the heavy lifting (figuratively),” he said of Meester. “Literally, I do the heavy lifting.”
November 2014
The married couple re-teamed onscreen in the indie comedy Life Partners, which sees the friendship between Meester and Gillian Jacobs' characters torn apart when Jacobs begins dating a character played by Brody.
September 2015
Usconfirmed that Brody and Meester had welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Arlo Day. The new parents did not confirm that they were expecting (when rumors swirled in May), nor did they reveal the baby's gender or name. TMZ reported that Arlo was born on August 4, per the birth certificate.
August 2016
Brody and Meester kept quiet for the next year after their daughter's birth. However, they did step out together for the Startup premiere in Los Angeles.
January 2017
The couple attended the 2017 InStyle Golden Globes after party on January 8. Meester wore a white Galvan dress with cobalt-colored Sophia Webster pumps, while Brody wore a dark blue suit and tie combo.
June 2017
Later that year, the couple granted their first joint interview to Entertainment Tonight while volunteering at Feeding America's Summer Hunger Awareness event in Los Angeles.
During the conversation, the couple joked that they “occasionally” talked about how their iconic teen characters had ended up together in real life. “Once a year, randomly, on our Seth and Blair day," Brody joked. "It’s good for a laugh." Meester added, "It doesn’t excite us, I think, because we’re just human beings … but it’s exciting to us that it’s exciting to you. It’s cool."
September 2018
It would be more than a year before Meester would open up about their relationship again. In an interview with PorterEdit, she said, “I wouldn’t change anything [in the past] because I’m happy where I am now. And I think that’s one of the many wonderful parts of not only having a child and meeting your soulmate, but also, I feel really lucky career-wise, really in a place that I want to be.”
March 2019
Meester also spoke about her life as a wife and mother with Shape magazine. "I just don’t believe in balance," she explained to the outlet. "I think that’s not possible if you’re a working mother — and with single mothers, I cannot even imagine that. Some days my husband cooks dinner and some days I do. Other days, I’m too tired and I eat a bowl of cereal for dinner. It’s just the thing we do to make it work." She also mentioned that Brody had taught her how to surf.
That same month, the couple attended their first red carpet in more than two years. Meester was on hand to support Brody at the premiere of his new superhero flick Shazam!.
May 2019
On May 8, Brody guest-starred on the season 1 finale of Meester's ABC comedy, Single Parents. In the episode, he plays Derek, the ex of her character, Angie.
When asked about working with her husband for the third time, Meester told The Hollywood Reporter, "He’s my best friend," adding, "I wanna work with him on everything, and I think he’s the best in everything." Brody went on to appear in four subsequent episodes of the series—two in October 2019 and two in January 2020.
July 2019
Brody and Meester made a rare public appearance at the film premiere of Ode to Joy, posing with director Jason Winer in West Hollywood.
August 2019
The following month, the couple had another public date night at the premiere of Brody's film, Ready or Not. She wore a salmon and purple belted Michael Kors dress while he opted for a black suit and plaid tie. Meester went IG official with her husband of more than five years. She captioned a shot of them at the premiere, "Me and my hero #readyornotmovie."
Brody opened up about his marriage in a profile with GQ. "She's more inherently private than I am," he said of his wife. "I don't seek publicity but if I'm sitting next to you on the subway, I'll tell you everything about me." He explained further, "We're homebodies. We don't go to a lot of things that perhaps we could, and don't seek out promotion in that way. I'm not s--tting on anyone who monetizes that aspect of their life because I get it. But we've found this great balance so far that really works for us. We're also not very active on social media."
When asked about the fact that both he and Meester played beloved characters on CW teen dramas he responded, "It's not bizarre. To be perfectly honest, it was a little embarrassing. I guess love knows no bounds?"
October 2019
Meester commemorated her husband's return to Single Parents with a photo of him leaning against a trailer on set. "My boyfriend’s back. Tonight on #SingleParents on @abcnetwork at 9:30/8:30c," she captioned the Instagram post.
View this post on InstagramMy boyfriend’s back. Tonight on #SingleParents on @abcnetwork at 9:30/8:30c
A post shared by Leighton Meester (@itsmeleighton) on
March 2020
On March 28, Brody's ex and former O.C. co-star Rachel Bilson referenced his marriage to Meester. InStyle posted a throwback photo of the former couple with the caption, "#rachelbilson and #adambrody's breakup basically ruined high school for all of us." Bilson hilariously commented, "IM SORRY! He fared really well!"
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The exes also reunited in August 2019, when Brody and Bilson unexpectedly met at the airport. "Ran into my ol buddy from jfk to lax #californiaherewecome?," Bilson captioned her Instagram photo of the pair. She's later dated SNL alumnus Bill Hader.
April 2020
Us Weeklyreported that Meester and Brody are expecting their second child on April 1. The report came a day after she was spotted by the Daily Mail with a baby bump on a walk in Los Angeles. However, the couple didn't publicly confirm that they were expanding their family.
September 2020
That is, until Brody made an appearance on a Twitch show called The Fun Time Boys Game Night Spectacular,per The Sun. When a fellow participant remarked, "Adam, you have a new baby," he casually confirmed the news. "I have a new—yeah, since last I played I have a new kid," Brody said, revealing the baby's gender. "I have a boy and he's a dream, he's a dream boy."