A super family! Ben McKenzie and Morena Baccarin’s family has grown since their days starring on the TV series Gotham.
The couple first met in 2006 when Baccarin had a three-episode stint on McKenzie’s hit teen show The O.C. They reunited on screen in 2015 when Baccarin joined the cast of Gotham, on which the Junebug actor starred. Just as their respective characters, James Gordon and Leslie Thompkins, began dating on screen, the actors sparked a real-life romance.
The two began dating in 2015 following Baccarin’s divorce from ex-husband Austin Chick, with whom she welcomed her son Julius in October 2013. In September 2015, Us Weekly confirmed that the Homeland actress was pregnant with her and McKenzie’s first child together.
After making their red carpet debut two months later, the pair welcomed their daughter in March 2016. “Morena and Ben are so happy to welcome baby girl Frances Laiz Setta Schenkkan on March 2,” a rep for the actors told Us. “All are happy and healthy and appreciate the well-wishes.”
Eight months after becoming parents, McKenzie popped the question, and the two tied the knot during a ceremony at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in New York in June 2017. Their family continued to grow in 2020, as the Deadpool actress announced that she was pregnant with the couple’s second child. They welcomed son Arthur in March 2021.
McKenzie previously told Us in September 2017 that he had “no idea” what becoming a father would be like, going on to call his role as a parent “wonderful and constantly challenging and fantastic.”
Baccarin, for her part, exclusively told Us how she and her husband enjoy the occasional alone time they get as parents. “Dinner, movie. Just having a cocktail at the end of the night when the kids have gone to bed, and having a chance to reconnect with each other,” the Endgame actress shared in May 2019.
She continued: “I think that’s more of a female thing, maybe than a male thing, but just stealing moments throughout the day. Even when there are no words spoken, we just kind of look at each other sometimes. You know you are, like, in it together.”
In May 2023, McKenzie revealed that he had let their then-7-year-old daughter watch a few episodes of The O.C. after the actor got jealous that their kids had seen more of Baccarin’s work. However, the decision was one he joked was a “bad idea.”
As he explained on an episode of his former costars Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clarke’s “Welcome to the O.C., Bitches” rewatch podcast, “[Frances] of course loves it. Like, absolutely loves it. I had to cut it off after two episodes because I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I forgot about the smoking.’ I remembered the drinking. And there’s cocaine.”
Noting that his little girl “really wants to continue watching” the series, McKenzie added, “It’s adorable and really weird to watch it with your daughter.”
Scroll below to see McKenzie and Baccarin’s sweetest family photos over the years:
