A Deep Dive on Will Ferrell and His Wife Viveca Paulin's Adorable Relationship
Will Ferrell may have had many an on-screen love interest throughout his career as an actor, but IRL he's been head over heels for his wife of 20+ years, Viveca Paulin. And these two have not only built a rock solid foundation that's lasted literal decades, but they've also supported each other through multiple (!) career changes. It's giving textbook definition of "soulmates."
Ahead, learn more about Will and his wife Viveca, from her iconic career moves, to how she and Will met, and how she majorly inspired one of Will's most hilarious films.
Will Ferrell's wife Viveca works in the art world
Viveca earned her bachelor's degree in art history at Pomona College before she worked as an auctioneer at Butterfield & Butterfield—a now-defunct auction house—and then at Los Angeles Modern Auctions. TL;DR: I would trust her with my life if I ever needed to buy art...even though my budget is approximately $20 and a half-empty can of Diet Coke.
Oh, and Viveca also happens to be an avid art collector. "Being around the auction houses made the transition to collecting an easy one, particularly with prints," she told ArtNews back in 2014. The outlet dished that she and Will own art by Ed Ruscha, Richard Diebenkorns, Frederick Hammersely, Karl Benjamin, *and* John McLaughlin. Casual!
She's also acted in a number of projects
In addition to working in the art industry, Viveca is also a professional actor and has amassed a number of acting creds under her belt. Case in point? Her roles in 1997’s Money Talks and 1998’s A Night at the Roxbury—the latter of which was a project that co-starred Will, in which she played a "Porsche Girl" (iconic!). Here's the couple at the movie's premiere looking very much in love 🥺:
In 2015, Viveca also made an appearance as Annika Bjornberg in the TV series Younger alongside Lizzie McGuire Hilary Duff. And more recently, Will's wife voiced a character that she probs didn't have a hard time identifying with: an auctioneer in the 2018 animated movie Ralph Breaks the Internet.
...and acting is how Viveca and Will met
Yep, turns out the pair first began seeing each other in 1995 while attending the same acting class in Los Angeles, according to PopSugar. Even so, they only dated for a short time after meeting before deciding they were better off as friends, according to Elle. Viveca even helped her then-friend Will by getting him typing gig at an auction house at the time.
Eventually, Will joined the cast of a show you may or may not have heard of called Saturday Night Live and had to relocate from Los Angeles to New York as a result. He and his future wife obvi stayed in touch—even though the celeb was in another relationship at the time 👀. "Viv and I would talk as friends for two hours, and it would feel like five minutes, and then my girlfriend would call and after 15 minutes I'd be like, 'God, it's really late here on the East Coast. I should get some sleep,'" Will recalled in that same Elle profile. "For me, Viv was the one that got away."
At some point, Will traveled back to the West Coast during a hiatus on the show, and Viveca invited him over for a beer. "She drank her beer in two sips—just pounded it," the comedian recalled. "She was like, 'Do you want another one?' I was like, [incredulous] Yeah, okay. She quickly drank that one, too. And she said, 'I think I still like you.' I was stunned. I didn't play it cool at all. I went, 'I just told my uncle that I'm going to marry you one day!'"
"Then we didn't know what to do with ourselves. So she drove me home, and I went in for the kiss, and she gave me the cheek. I was like, What does this all mean? We started over—after a five-year friendship, we literally started courting each other," he added.
And the rest is history!
Their proposal story is as funny as you'd guess
The longtime couple got married in 2000, but the story of their proposal is truly one for the books. "It started serious but ended up comedic," the actor dished to People back in 2006. "I took her to this beach where we had had one of our first dates. She wanted none of it. She was, like, 'The beach is creepy at night.' I was, like, 'Shut up, this is supposed to be really romantic.'"
But her comments made Will nervous and threw off his concentration. "I was trying to think of what I was going to say and it just turned into, 'So I, uh, really like you and, uh, anyway…' Then I went down to a knee—at least I think I did—and proposed," the celeb added. "So it was kind of funny, but not on purpose." Honestly? He gets an A+ in my book for spontaneity and humor.
Viveca introduced Will to Eurovision (important)
And Eurovision was, of course, the inspo behind Will's *chef's kiss* 2020 masterpiece Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Yep, apparently it was during a 1998 trip to Sweden—where Viveca was born—that the auctioneer and her cousin introduced Will to the competition.
"We were visiting her family in Sweden and her cousin had asked us for dinner," Will recalled during an interview with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. "It was in the month of May, and my wife asked, 'Should we sit down and watch Eurovision?' I said: 'What is that?' and she said, 'You don't know what Eurovision is?' It was the night of the final, and I just sat there in front of the TV transfixed as to what was going on."
They share three kids together
Specifically, three sons named Magnus, Mattias, and Axel, whom they welcomed in 2004, 2007, and 2010, respectively. Back in 2017, Will and Amy Poehler were co-stars in the movie The House (a film about a couple gearing up to say goodbye to their college-bound daughter) and opened up to People about their own experiences raising children. "There is usually a high volume in the house," Will hilariously mused about what his household is like with three sons. "Whether they’re having a great time or whether they’re losing their minds, they are always yelling."
Over the years, Viveca and Will have kept their kids away from the spotlight, but they've all come together for a number of really cool premieres and outings, like...
In 2015 when Will received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
The 2017 premiere of Daddy's Home 2:
And my personal fave, the 2023 European premiere of Barbie:
They're very charitable
Over the years, the couple has made contributions to Cancer for College and the University of Southern California's Swim With Mike Foundation scholarship campaign—a nonprofit that supports student-athletes who have survived a catastrophic injury or illness. Oh, and in 2018 Will and Viveca even gave a full scholarship through the Viveca Paulin and Will Ferrell Scholarship Fund, which aids female soccer players at USC. The cause was especially close to Viveca's heart, as she previously played soccer at Pomona College. (Will and Viveca's three sons also play the sport.)
And that's pretty much everything we know about Viveca and her 'ship with Will, but stay tuned for more installments of their 🥺 love story.
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