Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis's Relationship Timeline — From Co-Stars to Soulmates
Mary once referred to her marriage to Charlie as a "one-night stand that's still happening."
Published March 6 2025, 2:59 p.m. ET
Constantly in the public eye, celebrity couples often struggle to reach their happily ever after. Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, however, are one of those rare Hollywood love stories that just works. No big scandals. No messy breakups. Just two people who met, clicked, and have been deeply in love with each other ever since. Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis’s relationship timeline has spanned multiple decades while surviving the chaos of the entertainment industry.
How did this relationship start? How did they manage to turn a chance meeting into a lifelong partnership? Let’s take a look at the key moments in Charlie and Mary’s beautiful love story.
Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis’s relationship timeline started with an arm-wrestling match.
Picture this: It’s 2001. Charlie and a friend are at a bar in New York City when they both spot Mary. They’re both interested — so how do they settle it? With an arm-wrestling match, obviously. Charlie won (which, if you’ve seen It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, is kind of surprising), and he went on to win Mary’s heart, too.
That could’ve been just another funny night out, but it turned into something much bigger. They hit it off instantly, bonding over their love of comedy and performing. As fate would have it, they’d soon be working together on-screen.
Before they were married, they played … siblings?
In 2004, Charlie and Mary worked together for the first time on Reno 911! — but not as love interests. Nope. They played incestuous siblings. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Most agreed it was likely an interesting experience for a real-life couple. Furthermore, it proved how well they worked together on-screen.
A year later, they teamed up again on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, with Mary taking on the role of the waitress — the woman Charlie Kelly (played by Charlie) is hopelessly obsessed with. The real-life irony? Charlie’s character spent years getting rejected by Mary’s character.
Looking back on it, Mary once said that their real-life relationship made their on-screen chemistry even better. And, honestly, it’s hard to argue with that.
They dated for five years before getting married.
After five years of dating, Charlie and Mary made it official on March 4, 2006, tying the knot in New Orleans. It was the perfect spot for a couple who don’t take themselves too seriously.
Since then, they’ve continued to support each other’s careers while keeping their relationship low-key. No Hollywood drama, no tabloid scandals — just two people who genuinely enjoy being together.
Parenthood added a new layer to their love story
In 2011, Charlie and Mary became parents when their son, Russell Wallace Day, was born.
Fast-forward to 2023, Charlie and Mary celebrated 17 years of marriage. Mary marked the occasion with an Instagram post, joking that Charlie was a "prize" she "snatched up" with the "claw" of her heart.
In 2025, Mary took to Instagram again to celebrate 19 years of marriage. She penned in her post, "Life is pretty incredible, and can truthfully be so hard. I’m grateful for such a wonderful partner."
So, what’s their secret? Maybe it’s their shared sense of humor. Maybe it’s the fact that they were friends first. Or maybe, just maybe, it all goes back to that fateful arm-wrestling match in a New York bar. Whatever it is, Charlie and Mary’s relationship is proof that, sometimes, love doesn’t need a grand Hollywood script.