Why Steve Carell thought his wife hated him when they first met
Hollywood actor Steve Carell thought his now wife Nancy hated him when they first met.
The comedians met in the early 90s at The Second City, a comedy club in Chicago where Steve was a teacher.
Steve was “immediately attracted” to Nancy and that she ticked all the boxes but didn’t know how to go about asking her out.
“She kind of checked all the boxes in my head, but I thought she hated me because she was very quiet around me,” he previously told The Guardian.
“I thought she for sure knew that I was full of it, and I later found out that she was just as nervous as I was and trying to act cool.”
The pair would spend a lot of time together, during improv and at the bar Nancy was a bartender at which was just across the road from the comedy club.
There was constant flirting mixed with nervousness and timid feelings as each of them were unsure of what to do.
Eventually, Steve bit the bullet and asked Nancy out almost indirectly to which she indirectly said yes.
"The conversation would go something like, 'Hey, you know, if I were ever to ask a woman out, it would be someone like you. Exactly like you,'" he said on Ellen.
"And she'd say, 'If a guy like you were ever to ask a woman like me out, I would definitely do that.'"
"Other people at the bar must have been like, 'Just do it! Put us all out of our misery.' And finally, we did. It was great."
The loved up couple eventually wed in 1995 and Steve felt a sense of calm as she walked down the aisle.
“I'll never forget standing at the altar and I saw her coming down the aisle – immediately a sense of calm came over me,” he said.
“There was an ethereal sense of how right it all was and more than anything it was very empowering knowing that person was going to be my partner and have my back. It just made me feel strong, and I'll never forget it.”
They eventually had two children, Elisabeth, now 21, and John, 18.
The pair also appeared together in several projects including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Angie Tribeca and The Office, in which Nancy played the love interest to Steve's character Michael Scott.
Image: Getty