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On It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, romance usually ends in disastrous, unhinged moments. But in real life, the actors have some really sweet love stories, proving that your perfectly chaotic companion is out there somewhere. What is debatably one of the best comedy shows ever made is celebrating its 20th anniversary, with the 17th season gearing up to start on July 19. Fans of the show remember how taken aback they were to find out members of the cast were together in real life, and two decades since the first episode was released in September 2005, they're still going strong. Here's how it all started.
Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson: From Paddy’s Pub to Parenthood
Rob McElhenney (Mac) and Kaitlin Olson (Dee) have been married since 2008 and are parents to two sons, Axel Lee, 14, and Leo Grey, 13. They met on set, and according to Kaitlin, she was confused by her attraction at first. “I thought he looked like a 14-year-old boy, and I was very confused when I started falling in love with him,” she told Cracked at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.
As for Rob, he knew she was special when he saw her on a 2002 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm before he even moved to LA. "I thought she was so funny and so beautiful and so out of my league. Well, it’s eighteen years later, and tonight I get to hold her hand, watch her on another episode of Curb, and be reminded of all of those things again. What a lucky person I am," he wrote on a March 2020 Instagram post.
She auditioned for the role, but Rob actually didn't want to cast her and had to be talked into hiring her. “I left the room and Rob was like, ‘How did she leave out the funniest line that was in there?’ and he didn't want to cast me,'" she told Buzzfeed in 2015.
Once they were castmates, Kaitlin made the first move when she was drinking during a game night at Charlie Day and Elizabeth Elli's house, getting between his legs and onto his lap. While he was confused at first, by season 2, they were a couple, but they kept it a secret. "Literally, the stupidest thing you can do in the entertainment industry is start dating your co-star on a television series that’s expected to continue,” McElhenney told Buzzfeed in 2015. “Potentially, we could’ve ruined the dynamic of the TV series, but we jumped in anyway. I guess because I started to fall in love with her.”
Glenn Howerton was also concerned, and straight up called him an idiot when he told him they were dating when Rob had a "f***ing cat pooper-scooper" in his hand. "You're compromising the show and everybody's job. If that goes south, you're f---ed, and your whole show is f---ed, and you f---ed everybody. So I laughed, and he was like, 'No, I'm serious. We both tried to stop it, but it was inevitable. We're in love,'" he recalled to Variety. "I was like, 'You idiot! You've got to be f---ing kidding me. You know this is the stupidest possible thing you could be doing, right?'"
They got married in 2008. As for when Rob knew she was the one? She stayed over at his house in 2006, and he wet the bed. “She thought it was the funniest thing, and I was like, ‘I’m marrying this chick,’” he said on the "It's Always Sunny Podcast." “That’s what sealed the deal of us deciding to get married. And since then, we’ve lived in wedded bliss.”
Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis: From Stalker Jokes to Soulmates
Charlie and Mary Elizabeth (aka “The Waitress”) have been together since before Sunny started and got married in 2006. On the show, Charlie’s obsessed with her, and she can’t stand him. According to Charlie, he and a friend had an arm wrestling competition over who could approach her when they saw her at a bar. “[He was] one of my skinniest, weakest friends. And I was able to beat him in an arm-wrestling competition. We arm-wrestled, and I won, and I met my wife," he told Sean Evans on Hot Ones in 2016.
Mary described it in 2018 as "a one-night stand that’s still happening this many years later.” They got married in 2006 and welcomed their son Russell Wallace on December 15, 2011.
Glenn Howerton and Jill Latiano: A Perfect Match
Glenn, who plays the eternally sociopathic Dennis, is married to actress and activist Jill Latiano, who guest-starred on Sunny in Season 5's "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System." She played Caylee, the woman Dennis thought was his “perfect match," and they also honored her dad in 2016 when he passed away.
They started dating in 2007 and tied the knot in 2009, and have two children: Miles, 14, and Isley, 11.