Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney worked together six years later Jimmy Kimmel Live! before their workplace chemistry led to real-life romance.
As a writer and executive producer of the series, McNearney developed a friendship with Kimmel while the two dated other people. Eventually, they both became single, and after the late-night host prepared a meal of McNearney’s favorite foods, the couple made their relationship official. They got engaged on a safari in Africa and married in 2013 in Ojai, California.
Since then, McNearney and Kimmel have welcomed two children together and collaborated to support several philanthropic causes, including Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Here’s everything we know about Jimmy Kimmel’s wife, Molly McNearney.
She is an executive producer and co-screenwriter Jimmy Kimmel Live!
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McNearney and Kimmel aren’t just partners at home, they’re co-workers. She is the executive producer and co-writer of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! and also worked at the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Oscars. McNearney is an executive producer of the 95th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Kimmel in March 2023.
She occasionally appears on Kimmel’s show and has sometimes been mentioned by Kimmel during segments. The Oscars host told Matt James that McNearney had guessed who the final three contestants would be on James’ season Bachelorand her choices were pretty close.
“I don’t think there’s a thought process, she just kind of looks at them. Sometimes she chooses before the show starts and she just looks at the picture and decides, and she kind of goes for it,” Kimmel said on air, adding that McNearney thought Rachael Kirkconnell would be James’ “bride”.
During a podcast appearance BrainlessKimmel admitted that work often intrudes into his family life with McNearney.
“Sometimes I’ll dream a joke or think about something in the middle of the night and then, because I can’t hold it in, I’ll wait until she stirs and then I’ll tell her what I’ve been thinking [up],” he told the hosts. “Deep down in my head, I’m thinking, ‘This is her job, so it’s okay for me to do it.’ That’s how I rationalize it.”
She and Kimmel began dating in 2010
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The producer worked for Kimmel for six years before the two began a romantic relationship.
“When I first met him, he was insulting me,” McNearney recalled of their first meeting during an interview with Glamour. “The executive producer brought me into his office and said, ‘This is Molly; she’s my new assistant.’ Jimmy barely looked up from his desk until my EP said, ‘She’s competing in a triathlon,’ and then Jimmy looked at me and said, ‘That’s really stupid! What a waste of time.’ ”
Kimmel and McNearney were strictly platonic at first as they were both dating other people at the time (Kimmel was linked to Sarah Silverman until 2009). Over the years, their office friendship blossomed into something more, and Kimmel eventually won McNearney over by cooking for her.
“All the writers would hang out after the show, and we’d just hang out more and more. We really liked each other as friends, and then it kind of turned around. He cooked for me, and that was it. That sealed the deal,” he said. is McNearney Glamour.
She got engaged to Kimmel in South Africa
After about three years of dating, Kimmel asked McNearney to marry him while the couple was on vacation in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
“After Jimmy and Sarah [Silverman] broke up, Molly and Jimmy found themselves single and they worked it out,” a source told PEOPLE at the time. “They’re really happy together.”
Prior to their engagement, the couple was slow to share news of their relationship with their work colleagues.
“I was very, very nervous because I love our writers so much and we work so closely. I was also the only writer in the room at the time and I didn’t want to change the dynamic,” McNearney said. Glamour. “We like to make fun of Jimmy here, myself included. When you have a friendship with your co-workers, part of it is making fun of the boss a little bit, and now that I think about it, that’s the guy I’m dating, I didn’t want it to stop.”
She married Kimmel in 2013
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McNearney and Kimmel were married on July 13, 2013 in Ojai, California. Among the guests were stars like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Emily Blunt and Jennifer Aniston. The couple asked guests to make a charitable contribution in lieu of gifts.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds honeymooned in Portofino, Italy.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, McNearney opened up about their relationship and jokingly called Kimmel “the best woman you could ever ask for.”
“When we started dating, I would go between my apartment and his,” McNearney continued. “I have my stuff in my house and I love my space. One time he was in the bathroom for a really long time and I just realized something was going on in there.”
The executive producer added: “A few days later, he gave me this big box with two things each in my makeup and Dopp kit, because he saw me lugging things back and forth, and he wanted me to be comfortable. He was in the bathroom for an hour and a half with my bag going through everything: every lotion, shaver, deodorant, shampoo, make-up.”
She has two children with Kimmel
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The couple has two children: daughter Jane and son William “Billy” John. The night host also has two children from his first marriage, Katie and Kevin.
After the birth of her first child, Jane, McNearney joked about her family experience on Twitter. “Kids, don’t do drugs. Until you have a baby. Then ALL of them,” the new mom wrote.
The couple’s son, Billy, was born with a congenital heart defect and had to undergo three heart surgeries after birth. Kimmel was very candid about the experience on his show and praised McNearney during a 2017 episode for being “so strong and poised and positive and loving during the worst nightmare a new mother could have.”
In 2018, Kimmel posted a Mother’s Day tribute to McNearney on Instagram with a photo of their children.
“Happy #Mother’sDay to all moms, especially my wife Molly – you’re even more beautiful with weird little people clinging around you,” he wrote.
She is open about her son’s health challenges
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McNearney is also very open about her son Billy’s health issues. During an appearance on the Anna Faris podcast Unqualified, the mother of two children opened up about her experience. “Kids are so resilient – he had open heart surgery on Monday and we were home on Friday,” she said.
When Kimmel returned to work after Billy’s surgery, McNearney was unprepared for her husband’s emotional monologue about their son.
“So here I am, in my living room nursing Billy with my mom next to me, and we’re looking at her,” McNearney recalled in an interview with The The Hollywood Reporter. “I sobbed through the whole thing. I couldn’t believe the strength it took to tell that story a week after it happened. He didn’t have to.”
She added: “Our family has great health care; he didn’t have any of that. He did it for other people we met in that hospital. He came home that night and I just hugged him and wouldn’t let him go.”
She doesn’t like Kimmel’s “hoarder” tendencies
McNearney isn’t a fan of all the “stuff” Kimmel accumulates, so she did a segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live! called “Win Jimmy’s Shit”.
“You know marriage is not easy,” Kimmel told the audience. “One of the biggest constant conflicts I have with my wife is about things. She doesn’t like mine. She likes hers.”
The first time she hosted the segment, McNearney gave away a pair of running shoes styled after the American flag, along with a set of golf clubs owned by her husband’s manager. Another time, she pawned a pair of hot pink Crocs (a gift from Post Malone) and Kimmel’s clarinet.
“The man doesn’t know how to clean up or get rid of things. He’s borderline a hoarder,” she shared on an episode of her husband’s podcast, Strike Group Fivewhich he hosts with four other late-night talk show hosts.
She and Kimmel have charitable interests in common
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The couple is known for their charitable giving. In 2020, the couple announced that they would be matching donations of up to $25,000 to the charity St. Joseph’s Center based in Los Angeles.
Let’s make sure every child gets presents this year, Kimmel wrote on Instagram at the time.
Kimmel also endorses Alex’s Lemonade Stand. In 2015, he explained to PEOPLE why he got involved with the cancer research charity. “I’ve had a lot of relatives die of cancer,” he said, “but it’s really more about the possibility of that happening, and looking at being a parent and seeing these people who chose to do it instead of being devastated [the loss of their daughter to cancer] – which of course they were – they were going to do something to help others in memory of their daughter.”
She accompanied Kimmel to numerous award ceremonies
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McNearney has been Kimmel’s plus one at awards shows and red carpet events for more than a decade.
In January 2024, the couple attended the 75th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. McNearney commanded attention in a body-hugging red dress, while Kimmel looked handsome in a black tuxedo.
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