Inside Will Ferrell And Wife Viveca Paulin's Long-Lasting Marriage

Will Ferrell is one of best comedy actors around, so it's no surprise his marriage with Viveca Paulin is full of laughter. "I think we were drawn to each other initially through our shared sense of humor, and that has remained the foundation of our relationship. I think, ultimately, that's our bond, making each other laugh," Ferrell told People in November 2024. "She totally got my sense of humor," he previously told Elle in 2012. "I sent her flowers every day for a week with a card like, 'You're the fifth-prettiest woman in the office.' She loved it," Ferrell said.

A shared sense of humor is often a bedrock to — or even requirement for — successful relationships, and Ferrell's comedic chops have no doubt contributed to his marriage of over two decades. However, Paulin isn't afraid to make him work for the laughs. "Every now and then I'll get her to laugh, and she'll be like, 'Okay, okay. You still got it,'" the "Elf" star said in the People interview. And still got it he does, having starred in hits like 2023's "Barbie" and 2024's "Despicable Me 4" in recent years.

Will Ferrell and Viveca Paulin first met in 1991 in an acting class. While they started dating shortly after, they didn't get serious until a few years later. "We were just friends, we dated, but then we were just friends for five years and then kind of we circled back to each other," Ferrell said on a July 2024 episode of "MeSsy," a podcast hosted by Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler. "At first we were both like, 'Wait a minute, I really like this person,' but it was kind of like too much too fast at too young."

They married in 2000, but not after an unintentionally humorous proposal. "I took her to this beach where we had had one of our first dates. She wanted none of it. She was like, 'The beach is creepy at night.' I was like, 'Shut up, this is supposed to be really romantic,'" he told People in 2006 during a reader Q&A. "So it was kind of funny, but not on purpose." Since the funny proposal and 2000 wedding, the couple has had three sons together, Magnus, Mattias, and Axel. They've inherited dad's ability to make others laugh, as Ferrell told Parade in 2018, "It's fun to see them make their friends laugh. Very similar to me, they're good kids at school and yet they like to try to be funny."