'He Definitely Wasn't Boyfriend Material': Carey Mulligan Vividly Recalls Meeting Her Husband

It was love at first sight — for people other than Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford.

Mulligan, who has been married to the Mumford & Sons singer for over a decade, revealed on this week’s episode of the “Smartless” podcast that she didn’t even consider him an option when they first met — which astoundingly occurred at summer camp.

“We were friends when we were kids, so we went to camp together,” the actor said. “We met when he was 10 and I was 12 … We didn’t [hook up] but I wrote in my diary that he was the nicest, the kindest person I’d ever met, and I gave him 9 1/2 out of 10.”

“But I also wrote in my diary that he definitely wasn’t boyfriend material,” she added. “I mean, not that I’d ever had a boyfriend at that time, but I decided that he was not it.”

Mulligan said she and Mumford became pen pals “for a couple of years” but lost touch before the world got a little smaller.

“Then the internet happened and we — God, the internet happened — and we started [reconnecting],” she said. “We were both on Facebook for like six months … so we touched base there briefly. Then we met again when I was like 24.”

Mulligan said it was “weird” that she and Mumford were both hired independently “not long after,” reuniting as adults to work on the Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013).

The podcast’s hosts — fellow actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett — were surprised that the couple first met as children. For Arnett, the synchronicity of these countless run-ins was just too much to fathom.

When he asked if they ever felt like they were “destined” to be together, Mulligan jokingly recalled thinking: “We probably should get married, yeah.” The couple did just that in 2012 and now reportedly share three children together.

Listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.