Molly McNearney, wife of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, has shared details about the early stages of their relationship, recalling the moment she knew Kimmel, her then-boss, was interested in her romantically. Speaking on the "Armchair Expert" podcast, McNearney, a writer for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" at the time, described a moment when Kimmel cooked her five favorite foods.
"Talk about a long play," McNearney quipped on the podcast. She noted that Kimmel prepared her favorite dishes – pizza and gnocchi, crab claws, BLT, and chocolate chip cookies – six months after she had listed them during a work meeting. The culinary gesture, she admitted, made her both "very excited and very nervous" because Kimmel was her boss.
"I go to Jimmy’s house, he asks me to come over after work … and he opens up the door and it smells delicious and he’s like, ‘I made some things,’ and it was pizza and gnocchi, crab claws, chocolate chop cookies and BLT,” she recalled.
When podcast host Dax Shepard asked if she immediately registered Kimmel's intentions, McNearney confirmed, "Yes! It made me very excited and very nervous. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, no. This is a bad idea.’ He was my boss."
Kimmel commented that he didn't have the same thought at the time, to which McNearney responded that "the person in power usually doesn’t, but I was very nervous about it. I thought it was a terrible idea. … I was very skittish.” She explained her apprehension stemmed from the statistical unlikelihood of such a relationship working out and the significant impact it could have on her career, especially as she had "worked really really hard."
The couple admitted to "some sneaking" in the initial months of their romance before going public. McNearney expressed her nervousness about how the relationship might change the work dynamic, particularly as she was in a room with mostly men and valued the existing positive environment.
McNearney met Kimmel a couple of weeks into her tenure at the show. She recalled an introduction where Kimmel appeared not to look up from his desk. When informed by the executive producer that McNearney was a triathlete, Kimmel's reaction was, "How stupid." At that point, McNearney stated she did not view him romantically and found him "intimidating."
Years later, after getting to know him, she grew to "really love" him, describing him as a "great guy."
Kimmel and McNearney, who married in 2013, have two children together. Kimmel also has two older children from his previous marriage.