Getty Will Ferrell and Viveca Paul in 2014.
Comedian and actor Will Ferrell, who co-stars in The House with Amy Poehler, is married to actress Vivica Paulin. The couple have been married for 17 years, and have three children.
The 49-year-old Ferrell is best known for his tenure on Saturday Night Live, as well as his successful movie career. He’s starred in the Anchorman movies, the beloved holiday classic Elf and the raunchy comedy Old School. Other hits include The Other Guys, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. He’s also voiced characters in the animated movies Megamind and The LEGO Movie and co-founded Funny Or Die.
Farrell’s wife is Paulin, a 48-year-old actress and artist born in Askim, Sweden. She does not have a public Instagram or Twitter page.
Here’s what you need to know about Paulin’s life and career.
1. Paulin Is an Art Auctioneer & Earned a Degree in Art History
GettyWill Ferrell and Vivica Paulin in 2016.
Paulin isn’t just interested in the art of acting. She’s also a big fan of art history and paintings. Although born in Sweden, she moved to California to earned a B.A. in art history from Pomona College in Claremont. She graduated in 1991.
After graduation, she got a job at the now-defunct auction house Butterfield & Butterfield. She also worked for Los Angeles Modern Auctions. Recently though, she developed an interest in collection pieces herself.
“Being around the auction houses made the transition to collecting an easy one, particularly with prints,” Paulin told Art News in 2014.
In 2013, she founded the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Contemporary Friends, which helped LACMA acquire 29 works in its first four years. She’s also a trustee at the museum.
“I am drawn to artists that think differently than I do,” Paulin told Art News.
2. Ferrell Met Paulin During Acting Class in 1995, But Was Dating Another Woman When ‘SNL’ Hired Him
GettyWill Ferrell and Viveca Paulin in 2015.
In a 2012 Elle interview, Ferrell described the couple’s love story. They met in 1995, while both attending acting classes in Los Angeles. At the time, she was already working as an auctioneer and he was a member of The Groundlings.
The couple dated briefly before Ferrell was called to New York to join Saturday Night Live. After arriving in New York, Ferrell started another relationship, but continued to talk with Paulin over the phone for two hours a night. He was convinced that Paulin was going to be the “one that got away” for him.
While on an SNL break, Paulin invited him over for a beer. He explained to Elle:
She drank her beer in two sips— just pounded it. 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!'” He laughs. “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?
The two started fresh at that point and got married in 2000.
3. Ferrell Says What He Loves Most About Paulin Is That She Loves His Sense of Humor
GettyWill Ferrell and Viveca Paulin with their sons, Magnus and Mattias, in 2015.
Ferrell has a unique, weird and wacky sense of humor. In his 2012 Elle interview, Ferrell said that what he loves most about his wife is that she gets it.
“What I love most about Viv is very simple. She totally got my sense of humor,” Ferrell said. “I sent her flowers every day for a week with a card like, ‘You’re the fifth-prettiest woman in the office.’ She loved it. We had a shorthand with each other.”
In a 2008 Parade Interview, Ferrell said Paulin is “funny in her own way.”
“I do think she lost her sense of humor when I proposed to her,” he joked in the Parade interview. “I took her to an undisclosed location, blindfolded her, put her in the trunk of a car and said, ‘Do you want to marry me?’ She goes, ‘No.’ But then I pursued her doggedly for seven years and then she finally said ‘yes’—maybe because I wrote her over 10,000 letters while I was in prison.”
In 2006, Ferrell explained to People Magazine how the proposal really went down:
It started serious but ended up comedic. 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.” 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. So it was kind of funny, but not on purpose.
4. She Gave Birth to Their Third Son Hours After Appearing on Conan O’Brien’s Last ‘Tonight Show’ Episode
Paulin and Ferrell have three sons – Magnus, 13; Mattias, 10; and Axel, 7. Axel was born just hours after a very-pregnant Paulin appeared on Conan O’Brien’s last Tonight Show episode in January 2010. Ferrell and Paulin performed a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” to send off O’Brien.
“All the Ferrells are well,” Ferrell’s rep told People Magazine after Axel was born in Los Angeles.
All three of Ferrell’s sons appeared in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues in the Sea World scene.
5. The Ferrell Family Has a Home in Los Angeles Once Owned by Ellen DeGeneres
GettyWill Ferrell and Viveca Paulin at a White House state dinner in 2016.
Farrell has an estimated net worth of $100 million, Celebrity Net Worth estimates. In 2006, he bought a Los Angeles home from Ellen DeGeneres and finally moved in a year later, Variety reported.
The Los Angeles home was listed for $9.9 million and the lot covers 4,769 square feet. It has four bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms.
Whenever the Ferrells want to spend time in New York, they can use Ferrell’s New York City loft. Architectural Digest reported in 2013 that the loft is located in a converted Victorian-era printing factory and covers 2,800 square feet. The couple hired interior designer Shawn Henderson to liven up the loft.
“We love history and anything with a good story and good bones… It was exciting to think the floors were once covered in ink,” Paulin told Architectural Digest.
Paulin has acted in a handful of projects herself. In 1998, she had a role in A Night at the Roxbury and even played an auctioneer in Chris Tucker’s 1997 movie Money Talks. In 2015, she appeared in an episode of Hilary Duff’s Younger on TVLand.
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Viveca Paulin, Will Ferrell’s Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know