Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost have ruled 2020 awards season red carpets from the Golden Globes to the Oscars. But how did their relationship begin? Thank Saturday Night Live, for which
Jost is a head writer and host of "Weekend Update." Below, relive their entire romantic history, from comedic meet-cute to A-list PDA.
2006/2010
Jost and Johansson have conflicting stories about when they first met. Jost recalled meeting Johansson when she hosted SNL in January 2006. “The first time she hosted was the first year I was a writer on the show,” he toldEntertainment Tonight. “So, we’ve kind of known each other since then…she’s the best.” (Per People, Johansson split with Josh Hartnett in November of that year.)
Jost recounted his first meeting with Johansson in his memoir, A Very Punchable Face and described his first impression of her as "beautiful, smart, sweet and intimidatingly sophisticated." He went on to write, per E! News, "She has just turned 20 and I was 23, but in terms of status and maturing she was here [holds hand above head] and I was here [ holds hand one inch off ground]. She claims that she remembers thinking I was 'cute,' but I know what I looked like and that's not the word I would have used. ('Shaggy' would have been generous. 'Slovenly,' more accurate)."
He also praised Johansson for having "a grace and a smile that I've still never seen in any other human." Jost even jokingly wrote about the dialogue he penned for his future wife-to-be in a My Sweet Sixteen sketch. "The only line I remember from the sketch is when Scarlett's bratty character says, 'This party is literally worse than the Holocaust.' That was my Shakespearean sonnet for the woman I would one day fall in love with," Jost recalled, per E!.
Johansson's first impression of her future husband came in 2010 from that 16 and Pregnant-themed sketch during her hosting gig. "It was some dumb parody that he had written, and he was in there partly directing this segment we had to do," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "That’s my first memory of him. He seemed very confident at the time. I don’t know if he felt that way, but in that environment, if you’re not confident as a writer, your stuff just never gets produced."
Between the two hosting gigs, Johansson married Ryan Reynolds. The pair divorced in December 2010 after more than two years of marriage.
March 2017
A few days before Johansson's fifth hosting gig, she filed for divorce from French journalist Romain Dauriac, with whom she shares a 5-year-old daughter, Rose. Peoplereported that the pair had been separated since the summer after about three years of marriage.
Jost was also single after dating Rashida Jones in 2013. But, according to an E! News source at the time, Johansson was not in a place to date anyone new. "Scarlett just got separated from Romain and is still dealing with the fact that now she's had two failed serious relationships," the source said. "She's not trying to rush into anything and is just chilling."
May 2017
About two months later, Johansson made an appearance during the SNL finale to play Ivanka Trump. Multiple sources confirmed to Page Six that Johansson and Jost were getting cozy at the show's afterparty. One witness said, "Scarlett and Colin were making out at the bar at the SNL season finale party at 30 Rock. They would make out a bit, then go back to talking. They were at the bar in front of everyone ... they made out at least twice ... Then they went back to talking and hanging with other people."
A second source told E! Newsthat the pair had been"hooking up" before the season finale party. "Saturday night wasn't the first time," the insider continued. "It's been going on for a bit." The source described the relationship as "fun and casual," explaining, "They like each other, but it's not exclusive—at least not at this point."
June 2017
Usreported the new couple got cozy during dinner at The East Pole on NYC's Upper East Side. A few weeks later, Page Sixcaptured photos of Johansson holding hands and grabbing dinner in NYC with Kevin Yorn, whom the outlet identified as her attorney.
July 2017
The following month, Johansson was back to spending time with Jost. An Ussource spotted Jost and Johansson spending Fourth of July weekend in Montauk, New York alongside his brother Casey and sister-in-law Lisa.
A source gave an update to E! on Johansson and Jost's blossoming relationship."They are still getting to know each other, but she is really into him and it's getting more on the exclusive level," the insider said, adding, "Scarlett says he is different than many of the men she has been with. She is pretty picky who she goes out with even if it's just dating. They share many similarities together."
September 2017
At the start of fall, Johansson finalized her divorce from Dauriac. Things with Jost seemed to become exclusive. On the Emmys red carpet, Jost confirmed their relationship to ET. "She’s wonderful," he said when asked about Johansson. "She’s working, so otherwise, she’d be here." He continued, "She’s pretty cool … it’s hard to have a lot of complaints, she’s pretty awesome. I’m very happy. I feel very lucky."
October 2017
Us Weeklycaught Jost and Johansson on a dinner date in Long Island. “They were holding hands as they sat across the table from each other when the server approached them,” an onlooker told the outlet. “They sat at a bar table close to the window and were smiling and talking to each other.”
November 2017
Things got serious, People reported, when Johansson and Jost met each other's families. “They’re very much in love. It’s serious," a friend of Jost's told the outlet. "They’re both very respectful of each other’s careers and very supportive. They’re super cute together.”
A second source explained, “She would go dates with Colin and be very excited after. It took awhile for them to be exclusive, but they are now. Scarlett is very happy with Colin.”
The couple went public with their romance on November 30, attending a gala at the American Museum of Natural History.
December 2017
Johansson returned to SNL to reprise her role of Ivanka Trump. During the show's closing credits, Johansson and Jost were spotted with their arms around each other. The episode ended with the entire cast skating on the Rockefeller Center ice rink. Jost's "Weekend Update"co-host Michael Che posted a video of the couple on the ice to his Instagram Story captioned, "murrrrr xmas!!," per People.
April 2018
The following April, the couple made their relationship red carpet official at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere. Johansson shared a kiss with Jost while wearing a silver strapless gown by Erdem. An Usonlooker said on the carpet, “Their eyes lit up when they looked at each other.”
May 2018
Afew weeks later, Jost referred to Johansson as his "girlfriend" during a segment on SNL's "Weekend Update." "Colin," cast member Leslie Jones began, pretending that the pair had once dated. "He was so cute and sweet and kind, but it would never work because he’s gay," she joked. "I’m not gay, I told you I have a girlfriend," Jost replied, smiling.
Johansson and Jost sealed the deal even further by attending the Met Gala together. Johansson wore a romantic gown by Marchesa and posed with Jost on the high-profile red carpet.
July 2018
While Jost was celebrating his 36th birthday alongside Johansson, his "Weekend Update" co-host Michael Che pulled a prank on the performer. Che shared a text exchange on Instagram, showing Jost wearing a balloon hat while posing next to Johansson. "I sent a party clown to Colin[‘]s very intimate birthday dinner," Che wrote.
September 2018
That fall, Che and Jost hosted the 70th Emmys. Ahead of the telecast, they stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about the gig. Naturally, things shifted to how Jost has “changed” since dating Johansson. “I feel like, you’ve changed, you don’t invite me places," Che jokingly told Jost during the appearance. “And when you do, you ditch me.” When Jost responded that Che never invites him either, Che responded, "Well, yeah, because if you're with like Scarlett Johansson, I don't want to tell you to come to this dive bar with me and watch a Yankee game."
Johansson was by Jost's side for the awards show, walking the red carpet in a white Balmain gown.
February 2019
Nearly two years after the pair was first linked, sources opened up to Us Weeklyabout Jost and Johansson's relationship. “Colin is still head over heels for Scarlett,” a source close to him told the outlet. “He thinks she is incredible, kind, beautiful. He is beyond doting to her and loves showing her off when they’re out.”
The source added, “Scarlett loves Colin too, and they are in it for the long haul. They have talked about marriage and are fully committed to each other. Colin gets a starry-eyed look in his eyes when he talks about her.”
According to the insider, “Colin is also close to Scarlett’s daughter, and they have a lot of date nights in together as a family.” A second source told Us that the couple officially lived together.
April 2019
Jost was on hand to support Johansson at the premiere of Avengers: Endgame, her final appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ahead of 2020's Black Widow. Johansson stunned in custom Atelier Versace while Jost wore a dark gray suit.
May 2019
As one chapter closed for Johansson, another one began. Her publicist confirmed to the Associated Presson May 19 that the pair was engaged. A source told People at the time, “Scarlett likes Colin’s sarcasm and wit. They share a love for acerbic humor and outrage at social issues gone bad. They have much in common.”
July 2019
Outside of Johansson's rep, the newly-engaged couple kept quiet about their engagement. That is, until July, when Jost did a benefit show in the Hamptons. Per Page Six, he opened up about getting married during his set.“I’m getting married, and it’s such a crazy thing,” he told the audience. “I was so scared of marriage for so long because every time I talked to someone who just got married, or was about to get married, is like, ‘Oh my God, you got to do it … What could go wrong?’ Then you talk to someone who’s been married for five years, and they’re like, ‘Don’t rush into it … you have your whole life ahead of you. Don’t have kids. They’re the worst.’ ”
That same month, Johansson showed off her 11-carat, pear-shaped diamond during a Comic-Con panel for Black Widow. Per People, the rock rings up at around $450,000.
October 2019
More than six months after getting engaged, Johansson began to open up about details of their future wedding for the first time. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show she said Jost proposed in a "James Bond" kind of way. "He killed it," she told the host adding,"He's very charming and very thoughtful and romantic. But yeah, I was surprised. Even if you kind of imagine what that moment's gonna be like, it's still beautiful moment." She resisted saying more about the "personal" moment but explained, "I think, more than anything, when someone tells you they want to spend their life with you, that's a lovely, special thing."
That same month, Johansson appeared on the cover of ELLE's Women in Hollywood issue. When asked about playing a woman going through a divorce in Marriage Story while falling in love in real life, she said,"I'm certainly, obviously, very happy and fulfilled in my personal life, but I'm also a sum of many parts, and able to access different parts of my story and how I got here. It's all valuable."
The couple has yet to provide details about their upcoming nuptials. However, when asked by Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show whether Che would plan Jost's bachelor party, Johansson had some thoughts. "I don't think that's a good idea," she replied. "I feel like if he throws it, it's going to be, like, by the Port Authority. And it's gonna be very local. I don't think that's a good idea." Johansson later also said, "Michael's not throwing it. He's not. Michael, I know where you work, Michael."
December 2019
Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live for the sixth time and referenced their romance during her opening monologue. She joked, “The show is bad, what are they gonna do, fire my fiancé? Oh no, what will we do without his paycheck?” At the end of her opening remarks Johansson sweetly said, “I just want to say that this place means so much to me. I have so many friends here and I met the love of my life here. Merry Christmas," before sharing a kiss with her fiancé.
January 2020
Johansson garnered awards attention for her roles in both Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit. Jost was by her side for the Golden Globes red carpet, where she wore a red Vera Wang gown. They even showed some PDA at the awards after party.
A week later, he attended the SAG Awards alongside Johansson, who wore teal Armani Prive. They once again ruled the red carpet.
February 2020
Ahead of the 2020 Oscars, for which Johansson has nominations in both the Best Actress (Marriage Story) and Supporting Actress (Jojo Rabbit) categories, her Marriage Story co-star Adam Driver hosted SNL. In his monologue, he joked about the fact that since he'd kissed Johansson he had inadvertently kissed Jost.
Their Oscars night red carpet appearance did not disappoint. She stunned in a golden Oscar de la Renta gown, while he wore a dark tux for the evening.
April 2020
Johnasson gave an update on her relationship with Jost in an interview with Parade. While she had no wedding updates to provide, she praised her husband-to-be. “What you see is what you get with him,” she told the outlet. “He’s very optimistic, easygoing, funny, nice, and those are the qualities that really drew me to him.” Johansson also reflected on what it was like to go from friends to something more with Jost. “It’s so funny to have a long-term shared experience with someone and then the relationship changes,” she recalled.
One area where the couple will always disagree: baseball. Johansson spoke about her allegiance to the New York Yankees, while Jost roots for the Mets. “It’s a sore subject,” she admitted. “He just told me that he’d rather see the [Boston] Red Sox win than the Yankees win. Like, what?! I said I was just going to ignore that.”
July 2020
July 14 brought the release of Jost's debut memoir, A Very Punchable Face. He spoke in-depth about the project during a profile for the New York Times. As for why the 38-year-old chose this moment in his life to pen a memoir, Jost said his fiancé influenced his decision. “I’m about to get married. I now almost have a stepdaughter who I love and is a big part of my life now. I’m starting to do more and more outside of the show. It felt like the right time to look back,” Jost explained.
He also confirmed that he's quarantining in Montauk, New York with Johansson. While Saturday Night Live taped at-home episodes, Jost appeared in one "Weekend Update" segment with an acoustic guitar displayed in the background. “Scarlett had that guitar forever and it was in the quarantine,” Jost said when asked about the instrument, which inspired a lot of social media chatter. “She was like, ‘Maybe I should learn to how to play,’ and just left it on the couch. It was so perfectly framed there and then everyone pointed it out and I was like, how can I be so dumb? I had no awareness of it at all.”
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As for divulging more details about his three-year romance, Jost said he prefers to keep things between himself and Johansson. “I’m a private person,” he told the Times. “I like preserving that part of my life as its own space. I like talking about anything, essentially, but that’s just one part of life that I like keeping for us.”
E! News reported excerpts from Jost's book that reference Johansson. In one section, he talks about his excitement to welcome kids of his own with his bride-to-be. "I've met someone I love and who I feel more comfortable with than I ever have before," Jost writes, per the outlet. "I feel more confident committing to what I'm working on and standing by whatever I create, regardless of whether people like it or not."
The author says his attitudes about becoming a parent are in stark contrast to how he used to feel about having kids. Jost wrote, "I've even woken up on a Sunday after a show and thought, 'I would love to be raising a baby right now!' Which is a far cry from when I used to wake up on a Sunday and think, 'Can I make it to the bathroom, or should I just puke on this plant?'"
USA Todaynoted Jost's shoutout to Johansson in the acknowledgements of his book, thanking her for being his "first reader and for always protecting me from my worst instincts." During an interview with the outlet, he confirmed that Johansson was "incredibly supportive throughout [the writing process] and encouraging," adding that she's "very honest with me always."
Jost also expanded on his initial impression of Johansson, which he details in the book. When asked if he felt "instantly taken with her" by USA Today, Jost said, "Yes, I was. Although, it’s like being taken with the moon. You don’t expect you’re ever gonna get there. But I guess a few astronauts have, so it does happen."