Playing it cool. Ali Wentworth put her husband, George Stephanopolous, on blast for downplaying his initial interest in her.
The couple — who have been married for more than 20 years — appeared on The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, May 13, where they recounted their first date.
“I think I did ask her to dinner and she downgraded it to lunch,” Stephanopolous, 59, recalled. “I think we both knew within, if not that lunch, within a couple days.”
Wentworth, 55, stepped in to call out the ABC News anchor for acting as if the event was a low-key affair for him.
“I’m just curious why my husband downplayed our first date,” the comedian said. “George, if you recall, I was very reluctant to go on a date with you. You were like a pitbull with a chew toy when it came to me.”
She also admitted that Stephanopolous wasn’t her typical type and revealed that she didn’t expect their relationship to go beyond a first date.
“I did not think I was going to end up with George Stephanopoulos. I thought, you know, Hugh Grant — someone like that,” Wentworth said. “I had my hair up in a scrunchie, I read The New York Times so that at least I knew what was going on.”
The pair got engaged two months after their first date and they wed in New York City in November 2001. They are the parents of daughters Elliott, 17, and Harper, 14.
Wentworth shared in her 2018 memoir, Go Ask Ali, that she and Stephanopolous are still crazy about each other after all these years.
“The lowest moment for me is when the time arrives for the fateful question: ‘How often do you and your husband have sex?’” the Nightcap star wrote in her memoir. “I have lost friends with this question.”
She joked, “The women gasp and scream like I’ve confessed that I shot my dog. One of them always slams her fist down on the table; a woman’s wine glass once smashed in her hand. I’m sorry! We’re hot for each other. Jesus!”
However, the twosome have been a little less hot and heavy amid the coronavirus pandemic. In April, Wentworth and the former White House communications director shared that they had both tested positive for COVID-19. Although they have since recovered, Wentworth explained on The Howard Stern Show that the pandemic has put a damper on their sex life.
“I think there’s something about the pandemic that has made everybody shut down a little bit physically,” she said. “I don’t think anybody feels sexy … it’s not a sexy time.”
