How Did Leighton Meester and Adam Brody Meet? All About Their Romance — and Why Brody Was 'Smitten' From the Start!

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody’s love story took time to unfold.

The pair met for the first time during their stints on the widely popular teen shows, The O.C. and Gossip Girl. Josh Schwartz, who produced both TV shows, introduced the two at a deli in Los Angeles, and they later worked together in the 2011 film The Oranges. Despite multiple run-ins over the years, Meester and Brody didn't start dating until February 2013.

After less than a year of dating, Meester and Brody tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in February 2014. They’ve since welcomed two children together, daughter Arlo and a son. While the couple have made a handful of public appearances together, they largely keep their relationship and family out of the spotlight.

During an interview with E! News in November 2023, Meester said that despite their high-profile careers, she and Brody have a “normal relationship with all the good and the hard.”

"We're super, super lucky, and I think we recognize how lucky we are with one another,” she told the outlet. “We give each other a lot of respect and time and attention and focus. Like, really put our time and energy into a relationship."

Here’s everything to know about how Leighton Meester and Adam Brody met.

How did Leighton Meester and Adam Brody meet?

Before working together on the The Oranges, Meester and Brody met through a mutual work friend at a deli in Los Angeles. During an appearance on a March 2021 episode of Anna Faris' Unqualified podcast, Brody opened up about his first encounter with the Gossip Girl star.

"I was on The O.C., and that was coming to an end and Gossip Girl was starting. Josh Schwartz produced both shows," he said. "The first time we met, that whole cast was eating at Canter's [in Los Angeles] and I lived at Canter's for, like, my entire 20s. I was leaving and he introduced all of us and then [I] bumped into her, like, two or three times over the next couple of years."

The couple reconnected in 2011 when they filmed The Oranges together, but didn’t begin dating until a few years later.

"I was seeing someone at the time," Brody told Faris. "So we met kind of through mutual work friends off and on. We didn't get together until about a year after that movie, when I was single."

When did Leighton Meester and Adam Brody get married?

Meester and Brody got engaged in November 2013, less than a year after they started dating. The pair got married in February 2014 in a top-secret wedding in Northern California.

"She's very happy. She has a lovely ring. She likes [it] a lot," a source told PEOPLE at the time, adding that the "under-wraps wedding" was "super intimate" and "super recently — a couple weeks ago."

During an appearance on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show in March 2023, Brody said he and Meester knew early on in their relationship that they wanted to marry each other.

"My wife and I actually got married very fast after we started dating," he said. "That's how sort of easy a decision it was for me and us."

The Nobody Wants This actor added, "I was never scared of the idea of marriage or kids. It always seemed, you know, like a route I would go eventually. I was excited ... when it came together, when I met the right person."

How long have Leighton Meester and Adam Brody been together?

After years of brief run-ins, Meester and Brody began dating in February 2013. Though the pair’s love story took some time to develop, Brody revealed during a 2023 episode of Podcrushed that he was “smitten instantly” with Meester.

"She's so nice. She's so good. And yet, and this is to her credit, she remained elusive to me for so long, you know, and aloof," he said. "I couldn't get a total read because even though she professes 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 added, “She says, 'Oh, it's because I knew if we did, it would be a thing,' you know, or like it's too powerful."

In June 2013, the couple made their public debut at the premiere of Brody’s film Some Girl(s).

How many kids do Leighton Meester and Adam Brody have?

Meester and Brody are parents to two children. They welcomed their first child together, daughter Arlo Day, in August 2015. Five years later, the pair expanded their family with the arrival of their son, whose name is yet to be revealed, in October 2020.

While the couple keep their family life private, Meester opened up to PEOPLE in August 2023 about the “intimate” nature of being a parent.

"It's all just so intimate and private. It's something that I could never put into words, really,” she said. “It's such an emotional journey to have children, and it certainly has made me reflect on my own upbringing and childhood.”

Meester added, "Having children, I want to give them all that we never had when we were growing up, but also to be candid and open about how grateful we should be for everything that we have."

Who did Leighton Meester and Adam Brody date before meeting?

Both Meester and Brody dated their costars before starting a relationship in 2013. Meester was linked to her Gossip Girl costar Sebastian Stan from 2008 to 2010. The actress famously played Blair Waldorf, while Stan made regular appearances as Carter Baizen.

On The O.C., Brody and Rachel Bilson portrayed the popular TV couple Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts. After meeting during the first season, the actors dated for three years in real life before calling it quits in 2006. Brody was also in a relationship with writer, director and producer Lorene Scafaria from 2009 to 2011.