Coming just behind NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” the CBS procedural “NCIS” ranks as the second longest-running current American TV drama as it approaches two decades on the airwaves. And some of its cast members’ real-life relationships have lasted even longer!
Mark Harmon and his wife have been married since the 1980s, for example, and “NCIS” viewers even got to see them share the screen in the show’s 18th season. Actor David McCallum, meanwhile, has been a married man for two decades longer: He and his wife got hitched in the 1960s! And it turns out that many “NCIS” stars have significant others with significant credentials. One actor fell in love with an award-winning chef, another is married to a high-powered architect, and another is hitched to the filmmaker son of actress Sophia Loren!
Here’s what you need to know about the love lives of popular “NCIS” stars.
Sean Murray's wife, Carrie, helps women entrepreneurs network
Sean Murray, the actor “NCIS” fans know as Timothy McGee, is married to Carrie Murray, the founder of Business Relationship Alliance, “a network of powerful women devoted to advancing female-owned businesses by providing the community, collaboration, mentorship, empowerment and support needed to flourish as an entrepreneur,” according to her bio on the organization’s website.
Carrie earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from San Francisco State University, focusing on domestic violence, and she worked as a court advocate before earning a masters’ degree from Antioch University, focusing on social justice. After becoming a teacher, an administrator, and a principal at a Los Angeles public charter school, Carrie founded her own school, Prestique Academy of Innovation and Technology, in 2011. And after she noticed that fellow “mompreneurs” experienced many of the same struggles, Carrie started weekly networking meetings that evolved into Business Relationship Alliance.
As noted by People, Sean and Carrie have two children, River and Caitlyn. And the couple showed off their home, decked out in Halloween decor, in a 2020 Apartment Therapy feature. “I married Thackery Binx — of course I decorate for Halloween!” Carrie quipped, referencing Sean’s role in the Disney film “Hocus Pocus.”
David McCallum has been married to Katherine Carpenter for more than 50 years
David McCallum — who plays Donald “Ducky” Mallard on “NCIS” and starred as Illya Kuryakin on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” — married Katherine Carpenter, a former model, in 1967. The two have a son and daughter, according to The Scotsman. They also had eight grandchildren by 2015, when McCallum spoke with the Los Angeles Times. “We have six boys in New York and two girls here,” he said at the time, joking, “I keep the boys and the girls on different coasts so I can keep them straight.”
The actor was previously married to the late British actress Jill Ireland, with whom he welcomed two sons and a daughter, The Scotsman reported. Ireland even joined McCallum on screen in “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” playing three characters in the spy drama.
Ireland married McCallum’s “The Great Escape” co-star Charles Bronson, but McCallum bears no ill will. “I never hated him, Charlie was always a good friend,” he told Daily Record in 2016. “I find that when problems come along, worrying about them and getting anxious and negative is quite unnecessary. You can solve them, usually amicably. That’s what happened.”
Brian Dietzen and wife Kelly are parents of two
Brian Dietzen, who has played Jimmy Palmer on “NCIS” since 2004, is married to Kelly, a midwife. They wed in the early 2000s, and they have a son and a daughter, according to his 2011 interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch. To the paper, Dietzen raved about his marital bliss as he remarked on his peers’ ambivalence about marrying in their 30s. “A lot of my friends are in that place,” he shared. “I’m one of the few who’s married, but I can tell them: It’s awesome.”
The actor waxed romantic over Kelly in an April 2021 Instagram caption as he shared a photo of the two of them enjoying the great outdoors in California. “First hiatus hike was in Big Bear with the best person I know,” he wrote, captioning a photo of the couple embracing. “Here’s to many, many more. Love you Kel.”
Dietzen often gives fans glimpses into his family life via Twitter, too. “#GRAMMYs fun fact: When Cardi B performs ‘WAP,’ it’s even more entertaining to watch your teenage kids squirm,” he tweeted in March 2021. “Loving it. #DadWin.”
Mark Harmon's wife, Pam Dawber, joined him on NCIS in Season 18
Mark Harmon, who plays Leroy Jethro Gibbs on “NCIS,” married “Mork & Mindy” star Pam Dawber in 1987, as the Associated Press reported at the time, and they’ve been together ever since. “We were both in our thirties when we got married, so hopefully the stupid stuff we did earlier,” Harmon told People in 2019. “That’s probably the closest I have to what the key is.”
Dawber, who also starred on the 1980s sitcom “My Sister Sam,” stepped out of the spotlight after tying the knot with Harmon. “I don’t think two people can work all the time in show business and stay married,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2016. “I did everything you can do in this business, and then I had children and it’s like, ‘I’m not going to chase this fame thing.'”
Harmon and Dawber have two children together, sons Sean and Ty, the former of whom has played young Gibbs on “NCIS.” The CBS drama really is a family business, as Dawber guest-starred in Season 18 as investigative journalist Marcie Warren. But despite the chemistry the two no doubt have, Dawber assured Entertainment Weekly ahead of time that her scenes with her husband were “not going to be romantic.”
Michael Weatherly has two kids with wife Bojana Jankovic
Michael Weatherly, who starred as Anthony DiNozzo on “NCIS” from 2003 to 2016, married Bojana Jankovic in 2009. Jankovic is a physician specializing in integrative and internal medicine, according to her website. Before starting her own practice, she was a primary care physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Group and a co-founder of the therapeutics startup WellStart Health. The couple welcomed daughter Olivia in 2012 and son Liam the following year, according to ABC News.
Before starting a family with Jankovic, Weatherly was previously engaged to his “Dark Angel” costar Jessica Alba. “It just didn’t work out,” the actress and entrepreneur said of their split in a 2005 Cosmopolitan interview. “I was so young, 18, when I started dating him. I was a virgin. I knew I wanted to be in love with the first person I slept with. … I wanted to be really careful that he was going to be in love with me and wasn’t just going to leave me. It’s really, really, really difficult to have the same occupation as the person you’re with — especially when you’re both actors.”
Luckily, things seem to have worked out for both Alba and Weatherly.
Rocky Carroll is married to architect Gabrielle Bullock
Rocky Carroll, who joined “NCIS” as Leon Vance midway through Season 5, is married to Gabrielle Bullock, as the Los Angeles Times noted in a 2018 piece about her. By that point, the couple had been married for 22 years. Together, they have a daughter named Elissa.
Bullock is an architect and the head of global diversity in Los Angeles for the architecture and design firm Perkins+Will. “I’m an architect, so I lead projects 50% of my time,” she told the Times. “The other 50% of the time I’m the firm’s director of global diversity. I lead the strategy, monitor it, lead the diversity council that we have and try to build a more inclusive culture for the firm.” The New York City native is a graduate of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and the Rhode Island School of Design. By the time she graduated RISD in 1984, she was the school’s second female African-American graduate, the newspaper reported.
Bullock is also the vice president of the Southern California chapter of the International Interior Design Association, according to the organization’s website. Still, if you Google her name, “you get Rocky Carroll,” she told the Times with a laugh.
Wilmer Valderrama kicked off the 2020s by popping the question to Amanda Pacheco
On New Year’s Day 2020, Wilmer Valderrama — the actor who plays Nick Torres on “NCIS” — proposed to his now-fiancée Amanda Pacheco in San Diego, California. “It’s just us now,” he wrote in the caption of an Instagram post showing a photo of him on bended knee, brandishing an engagement ring.
Valderrama riffed on that caption in a hashtag the following month when he and Pacheco, a model, announced the birth of their daughter, Nakano Oceana. “Life is an ever evolving journey, and for all those times when our path needs a light… often angels are sent to show us the way and that we can be more,” he wrote on Instagram in a February 2021 post. “Straight out of heaven we welcome our first daughter… #ItsJustUs3Now.”
Notably, the actor had previously dated singer Demi Lovato from 2010 to 2016, according to People, and the pop star sent her congratulations on his engagement in a 2020 Harper’s Bazaar cover story. “I’m really happy for him and I wish him nothing but the best,” Lovato told the magazine.
Maria Bello got engaged to Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn
Maria Bello, who played Jack Sloane for a few seasons before her exit from “NCIS” in 2021, got engaged to Dominique Crenn, the only female chef in America who has three Michelin stars, in 2019, according to a 2020 Haute Living feature.
Crenn gave the magazine her and Bello’s origin story, saying the actress reached out via Instagram DM to ask for a reservation at Crenn’s restaurant. “I fdidn’t really know who Maria was, but I’m French, so I don’t know really follow American actresses,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Who is Maria Bello?'”
Nevertheless, Crenn granted a reservation to Bello — who has a son with ex-boyfriend Dan McDermott, per Us Weekly — and the duo stayed friends for a year before they took their relationship to the next level. When Bello finally told Crenn she was in love with her, the chef disclosed to her future fiancée that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. “She was like, ‘I’m really fun around sick people,'” Crenn recalled to Haute Living, adding, “And I’m telling you, she kept her word. It’s one of the most beautiful love stories. I couldn’t even write this for [a] movie; it’s so much better.”
Lauren Holly was once married to a famous actor
Lauren Holly, who starred as Jenny Shepard on “NCIS” between 2005 and 2008, has been married and divorced three times, as the Daily Mail reported in 2016. At the time of that report, the actress was raising her three sons — Alexander, George, and Henry, whom she adopted with third husband Francis Greco — alongside partner Jerome Ruffin.
Holly was married to comic actor Jim Carrey, her “Dumb and Dumber” costar, from 1996 to 1997, according to Today. And the actress opened up about that relationship in a 2016 episode of “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” “The good part? It was just sort of exciting. And it was a great sort of ride that I went on,” she recalled. “But when it ended, it was really hard for me. Because, first of all, I was incredibly sad. And I felt like everybody knew. I felt like they felt sorry for me or something, you know?”
Of course, Holly was able to pick up the pieces and move on with her life.
Diona Reasonover is married to writer Patricia Villetto
The actress behind “NCIS” character Kasie Hines, Diona Reasonover is married to actress and writer Patricia Villetto, as she revealed to the New York Post in 2018, after she was promoted to series regular on the show. “I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that I’d be in the opening credits, so I freaked out so much. [Patricia and I] were both like, ‘What?!'” she told the paper. “Now she won’t let me talk during ‘NCIS.’ I try to tell her funny stories, like, ‘Oh, you know what’s funny about this scene?’ And she’s like, ‘Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush. Don’t talk to me; I’m watching my show.'”
Villetto’s Second City bio reveals she graduated from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland — where she studied “acting, playwriting and art of Irish bulls**ting” — while her Instagram bio touts that she’s also a “writer, director, actor, improviser, comic, waitress and Dolly Parton lover.” According to her IMDb profile, Villetto has written for projects like “Swamp Talk with Shrek & Donkey,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “So Shook,” “Mega Man: Fully Charged,” “Ben 10,” and “Tigtone.”
Joe Spano and wife Joan Zerrien have two kids
Joe Spano, who has played T.C. Fornell in more than 50 episodes of “NCIS” so far, is married to Joan Zerrien. According to At This Stage, Spano and Zerrien met at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, California: He was a founding member of the theater, and she was a box office manager.
The couple has two daughters: Liana and Meili, whom they adopted from China. In fact, Spano became director of the Southern California chapter of the organization Families with Children from China, At This Stage noted.
Spano told the site about his and Zerrien’s decision to adopt from China. “We were in a place in our lives, well off, living in a great house and we said to ourselves what is this for? We should have kids and take advantage of our great school district,” he explained. He continued, “We saw a television program that outlined the plight of Chinese little girls so we investigated it. We decided it wasn’t about passing them off as our own. We wanted more the opportunity to parent.”
Sasha Alexander is married to Edoardo Ponti, son of Sophia Loren
Sasha Alexander, who portrayed Caitlin Todd across dozens episodes of the CBS procedural between 2003 and 2012, tied the knot with Edoardo Ponti in 2007, according to People. Ponti’s mother is Oscar-winning Italian actress Sophia Loren, star of films like “Two Women” and “Marriage Italian Style.”
Alexander and Ponti met at film school at USC but didn’t start dating until her “NCIS” days, as the actress told TV Guide in 2012. “He was always lovely — he had a smile that gave me enormous comfort, even though I didn’t know him.” He went up to her at a restaurant years later, and they finally started a relationship. “Eight years later, I’d worked an all-nighter on ‘NCIS,'” she recalled, “and I was sitting in a restaurant eating breakfast with a hat on, and he walked up to my table and said, ‘Sasha, do you remember me?'” The couple now has two children, per People. They welcomed daughter Lucia Sofia in 2006 and son Leonardo Fortunato in 2011.
Ponti is also in showbiz: He’s a filmmaker who wrote and directed the 2020 film “The Life Ahead,” which stars his famous mother. Loren also appeared in his films “Between Strangers” and “Voce Umana,” or “Human Voice,” while Alexander starred in his film “Coming & Going.”
Source: Read Full Article
