Adam Brody Was “Instantly Smitten” With Wife Leighton Meester

Adam Brody & Leighton Meester Relationship Timeline

2011 — Adam Brody And Leighton Meester Meet Ahead Of Filming The Oranges

Leighton and Adam officially met in 2011 (four years after The O.C.'s final season and Gossip Girl's first season) while filming The Oranges. The film follows two families who have to deal with the fallout of the Wallings' patriarch having an affair with the Ostroffs' daughter.

"I was on The O.C., and that was coming to an end, and Gossip Girl was starting. Josh Schwartz produced both shows," Adam said during an episode of Anna Faris' Unqualified podcast. "The first time we met, that whole cast was eating at Canter's [in Los Angeles], and I lived at Canter's for, like, my entire 20s. I was leaving, and he introduced all of us and then [I] bumped into her, like, two or three times over the next couple of years.

"Then we did this movie together, The Oranges," he continued. "We didn't get together until about a year after that movie, when I was single."

He later told Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley that he was "smitten instantly" with Leighton. Sweet!

June 26, 2013 — Adam Brody And Leighton Meester Make Their Official Debut As A Couple

After they were spotted getting dinner in February, and they wrapped on their movie Life Partners in the spring, Adam Brody and Leighton Meester made their official event debut in June at the premiere of Adam Brody's movie Some Girl(s).

November 20, 2013 — Adam Brody And Leighton Meester Get Engaged

Adam and Leighton must have known they wanted to spend their lives together pretty early on in their relationship because the couple got engaged before Thanksgiving!

February 2014 — Adam Brody And Leighton Meester Secretly Get Married

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody got married in February 2014, a year after they started dating. "It was a very small and intimate wedding with close family and friends," according to an E! Newssource. "It was beautiful."

Adam later went on to tell The Jess Cagle Show, that they "actually got married very fast after we started dating."

"That's how sort of easy a decision it was for me and us," he says. "I was never scared of the idea of marriage or kids. It always seemed, you know, like a route I would go eventually. I was excited ... when it came together, when I met the right person."

June 8, 2014 — Leighton Meester And Adam Brody Make Their Red Carpet Debut

The two stars made their red carpet debut at 2014 Tony Awards, during Leighton's run in Of Mice and Men on Broadway. Leighton wore a gorgeous white Antonio Berrardi gown with Old Hollywood waves, while Adam dressed in a black suit.

August 4, 2015 — Leighton Meester Gives Birth To Her First Child With Adam Brody

This celeb couple ended the summer of 2015 on a high note — by welcoming their first child! Arlo Day was born on August 4, 2015. Leighton told Refinery29 in 2017, "I am very proud of that area of my life," while reiterating she doesn't talk about the then-toddler.

March 2017 — Leighton Meester Reveals Early Crush On Adam Brody

“When his show came out, I think I was just like ‘I don’t want to watch that show, it’s a teenage show,' even though I was sixteen but all my friends watched it,” she said on Access Hollywood. “I think maybe I thought he was cute. I remember he was a screensaver of one of my best friends when we were like seventeen. I saw it from afar. Her [screensaver] kind of changed every week, but I was like, 'Who is that?'” She also says her and Adam were “meant to be.” Swoon!

May 8, 2019 — Adam Brody Appears On Leighton Meester's Single Parents

Adam Brody and Leighton Meester might keep their relationship private, but when they go public, they go public. Case in point: Adam's appearance on Leighton's ABC sitcom Single Parents! Leighton played Angie for two seasons while Adam appeared as Angie's deadbeat boyfriend Derek.

"He’s my best friend," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "I wanna work with him on everything, and I think he’s the best in everything."

August 20, 2019 — Adam Brody Dishes On His Private Relationship With Leighton Meester

In an interview with GQ ahead of his movie Ready or Not, Adam explained why he keeps his relationship with Leighton so under cover. "She's more inherently private than I am," he says. "I don't seek publicity, but if I'm sitting next to you on the subway, I'll tell you everything about me. 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 sh—ing 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."

And at the premiere for Ready or Not, Adam and Leighton made a rare carpet appearance with Leighton wearing a gorgeous champagne satin dress with purple flowers. "Me and my hero," she said on Instagram.

September 2020 — Adam Brody And Leighton Meester Have Their Second Child

Adam confirmed Leighton had given birth to their second child in September 2020. "I have a new kid," he said during Hold the Phone TV's The Fun Time Boys Game Night Spectacular (via People). "I have a boy, and he's a dream. He's a dream boy."

"It's been pretty magical," he said in October 2020. "To be more or less quarantined during [this] time — the last trimester of pregnancy and the fourth trimester, if you will — has its benefits. You've gotten to be in a cocoon. The world outside is scary for the moment and also thrilling and hopeful."

"I get the joy and the pleasure of watching him become a father," Leighton told Access Hollywoodin March 2022. "He's everything that I imagined he would be as a father when we [first] decided to have kids. It is really amazing he has become that and [is] becoming every day more so."

November 7, 2022 — Adam Brody And Leighton Meester Attend The Fleishman Is In Trouble Premiere

Adam and Leighton proved they rule the red carpet at the premiere of Fleishman Is In Trouble. Leighton wore a deep brown velvet dress while Adam chose a dark green suit.

August 15, 2023 — Leighton Meester Feels "Lucky" In Her Position As A Mom

Leighton told Brit + Co how her flexible career gives her time to be with her children. “When I was still nursing or my babies were still young, I had plenty of space and time to do that. And I know most women who are mothers don't have that opportunity at all,” she says. She also explained how she feels like her current career is "one of the luckiest positions that a mom could be [in].”

September 24, 2024 — Adam Brody Admits He And Leighton Meester Don't Watch Their Shows

Ahead of his new Netflix rom-com Nobody Wants This, Adam Brody told InStyle that he and Leighton don't watch Gossip Girl and The O.C. "Who knows, when our kids are older, if they want to, then maybe we'll take that trip with them."

"We certainly talk about it," he continues. "Not the characters — I mean, occasionally — but more about the experiences...We do have a lot in common. In some ways, almost nobody could understand it more than her and vice versa. And a lot of people involved were the same people, so there's just a lot of overlap."

In 2019, he admitted it was "a little embarrassing" to date as a teen star. "I guess love knows no bounds?"