Joaquin Phoenix Sparks Marriage Rumors After Referring to Rooney Mara as His 'Wife'

Mar. 15, 2025

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix.Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

Joaquin Phoenixjust referred to longtime loveRooney Maraas his “wife.”

While discussinghis 2020 Oscars acceptance speechduring a rare podcast appearance, Phoenix, 49, sparked marriage rumors after seemingly referring to Mara, 39, as his “wife” publicly for the first time.

During the Sept. 29 episode ofTalk Easy with Sam Fragoso, Phoenix revealed that he ultimately found the inspiration for the speech while he “was talking with my mom and my wife.”

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix in 2018.Todd Williamson/January Images/Shutterstock

In his conversation with Fragoso, Phoenix did not further clarify whether he and Mara are legally married.

Reps for Phoenix and Mara did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The actors, who met in 2012 on the set ofHer,have been publicly datingsince 2017 and got engaged in 2019.

The pair are also parents to a son,River— whom theywelcomedin 2020 and named after Phoenix’s late brother — andcurrently expecting a second child.

Both Mara and Phoenix are often private about their relationship and home life, but the latter did previously reveal that he thought his now-partner — who played his ex-wife in the sci-fi film —didn’t like him at first.

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara.Dave J Hogan/Getty

He later learned that she was just shy, he toldVanity Fairin 2019. “She’s the only girl I ever looked up on the internet," he said of Mara at the time. “We were just friends, e-mail friends. I’d never done that. Never looked up a girl online.”

After the couple went public with their relationship at Cannes Film Festival in May 2017, a source told PEOPLE that the actors “seem totally natural and easy.”

Later that year, Phoenix revealed that the couple hadbegun living togetherduring an interview withT Magazine.

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Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara in 2019.Rich Polk/Getty

Mara and Phoenix spoke publicly about their son was during an exclusive November 2020 op-ed for PEOPLE about the migrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, writing that “as new parents, it’s unbearable to imagine what it would feel like to have our child taken away from us for a day, let alone years.”

They have since shared bits of their parenting experience several other times, with Phoenixsaying he hopes his son is a vegan, though he would “support him” regardless,and Mara about getting advice from other working moms as she brought Riveron theWomen Talkingset with her.

TheCarolstar revealed her pregnancy with the couple’s second child earlier this year on the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival.

source: people.com