Leighton Meester opened up about how her and husband Adam Brody have sustained a healthy and happy marriage.
“I don’t think there’s any kind of secret. I think it’s individual,” Meester, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly at Amazon Freevee and Prime Video’s Winter Wonderland Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 13. “In our case, I think we get along. We like each other a lot.”
The actress, who shares daughter Arlo, 8, and a son, 3, with Brody, 43, noted that prioritizing her kids is important as well. “[We’re excited about] just kind of slowing down and spending time with them,” she told Us when asked about her and Brody’s holiday plans. “My daughter loves baking, so we’re probably going to bake. She’s getting big enough to really know how to do it. Doing that and probably staying home and being cozy and watching Christmas movies.”
This holiday season is extra special for Meester thanks to the release of her new rom-com, EXmas, which also stars Robbie Amell. “I’m going to show [my daughter] EXmas because I think she’s big enough,” Meester told Us.“There’s some adult elements, but she can handle it.”
Since finding love on set, Meester and Brody have made rare comments about their marriage and parenthood. The pair got to know each other while working on the 2011 movie The Oranges, which was years after they were introduced through producer Josh Schwartz.
“That whole [Gossip Girl] cast was eating at Canter’s [Deli in Los Angeles], and I lived at Canter’s for, like, my entire 20s. And I was leaving, and [Josh] introduced all of us,” Brody recalled during a March 2021 appearance on Anna Faris‘ “Unqualified” podcast.
Brody, who rose to stardom as Seth Cohen on Schwartz’s teen drama The O.C., didn’t know what to think when he crossed paths with his now-wife in the early 2000s.
“I had no idea whether she was a good person or not. And, in fact, kind of assumed she probably wasn’t for, like, the first handful of years that I didn’t know her, just because, I don’t know, [her character on] Gossip Girl,” he added, referring to Meester’s portrayal of Blair Waldorf on The CW series.
Once Meester and Brody reconnected in 2011, it still took about a year before their bond turned romantic. In 2013, Us broke the news that the duo were officially dating. They tied the knot one year later.
“My wife and I actually got married very fast after we started dating. That’s how sort of easy a decision it was for me and us,” Brody said on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show during a March interview. “I was never scared of the idea of marriage or kids. It always seemed like a route I would go [down] eventually, and I was excited to when it came together [and] when I met the right person.”
The actor later gushed about how he knew he was interested in Meester instantly despite Meester needing a few “years” to see him in the same light.
“She remained elusive to me for so long, you know, and aloof,” he explained on an April episode of Stitcher Studios’ “Popcrushed” podcast. “I couldn’t get a total read because even though she professe[d] to have been interested in me and all those things — not only did she not pursue that, I mean, she was perfectly willing to let that never happen.”
Brody joked: “She was perfectly willing to let that message in the bottle return to sea at several points. [Leighton] says, ‘Oh, it’s because I knew if we did [date] it would be a thing.’ Or, like, ‘It’s too powerful.’”
With reporting by Hannah Kahn
