Jimmy Kimmel’s Wife reveals moment she realised he wanted more than friendship

Jimmy Kimmel’s former employee-turned wife Molly McNearney has recalled the elaborate home-cooked dinner which made her realise he wanted their relationship to become more than professional.

The late night chat show host’s partner, 48, who used to be co-head writer and executive producer of his Jimmy Kimmel Live! show discussed the beginnings of their relationship alongside Jimmy, 58, on Monday’s (24.08.26) episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.

Molly had already worked on the ABC late-night show for about eight years when their friendship became romantic, with the couple initially keeping the relationship secret from colleagues before marrying in 2013.

Dax asked Molly whether she immediately understood the gesture to mean Jimmy was sexually interested in her.

She replied: “Yes! It made me very excited and very nervous. I remember thinking, ‘Oh, no. This is a bad idea’. He was my boss.”

When Jimmy said he “didn’t have that thought at the time”, Molly replied: “The person in power usually doesn’t, but I was very nervous about it. I thought it was a terrible idea. I was very skittish.”

She said her concern centred on what could happen to the career she had spent years building if the relationship failed.

Molly said: “I just kept thinking statistically this is not going to work out and your life isn’t going to change but mine does. And that’s what freaked me out. Because I had worked really really hard.”

The pair consequently spent the first months of their relationship keeping it away from their colleagues.

Molly said: “The first few months, we were very very quiet. I was very nervous about it changing the work dynamic and I was in a room of mostly men and we had a great thing going on… and I didn’t want it to change.”

Their relationship eventually became public and the couple married in 2013.

Molly has continued working alongside Jimmy and is now an executive producer as well as co-head writer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the ABC show Jimmy has fronted for more than 23 years.

The couple also revisited their first meeting on Armchair Expert, with Molly recalling being introduced to Jimmy a few weeks after joining the program.

She said: “I met him a couple weeks into working at the show. I went into the office with the executive producer at the time. I don’t think Jimmy even looked up from his desk (when I was introduced to him.)”