Yeardley Smith Is Married! 'The Simpsons' Star Says 'Something Bigger Than Us' Brought Her to Husband

The Simpsons actress Yeardley Smith is newly married — and she and her husband have quite the love story.

Smith, 58, married former police detective Dan Grice on June 11. A representative for Smith, who voices Lisa Simpson on the iconic animated FOX comedy, confirmed the wedding details — which were first shared by The Hollywood Reporter — to PEOPLE on Wednesday.

The newlyweds met back in 2014 when Smith traveled to Springfield, Oregon, to attend a Simpsons-themed mural unveiling the town put together in honor of the show's 25th anniversary. Smith originally did not want to attend the event, in part because she was concerned with security and had experienced stalking in the past.

Smith "asked about security" before agreeing to do the event "because my vision of it would be me on an apple box with the first person in the front row literally an arm's length away," she told THR. After Smith agreed to fly to Oregon, she said she was told that Springfield Police Department would assign a plain-clothed detective to her for the event.

"That was Dan," said Smith.

Grice also didn't initially have high hopes for the event, suspecting the detail "just knew it probably wouldn't be any fun."

But when his superior asked for volunteers, said Grice, "I looked around the room at the other detectives, including my brother. It was summertime and I thought, let these guys have time with the families since they all have children. I'm single and I don't have any children, I thought I can do this."

Grice originally recognized Smith from her appearances in the 1980s films The Legend of Billie Jean and Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive — though he didn't realize she was the voice of Lisa Simpson.

A friend of Grice's in law enforcement brought him to meet Smith at the airport gate and he accompanied her to and from the event the next day, which Smith called "the best day."

Before Smith flew back to Los Angeles following the event, Grice wanted to show her a picture from a trip he had recently taken to Singapore but couldn't find it, so Smith gave him her phone number to text the photo to her later.

The couple exchanged texts but kept their expectations low — Smith because she's previously divorced, Grice because of his professional goals.

Eventually Grice took up Smith on a visit to Los Angeles and as the relationship developed, she began commuting to Oregon to visit him.

The couple — who also now co-host a podcast called Small Town Dicks with Dan's brother, Dave — got engaged in August 2018 and planned to marry in March 2021 but pushed the ceremony back twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I get a giggly feeling when I think about it because Dan didn't want to go to this event and I didn't want to go to this event, but something bigger than us was like, 'No, no, listen, you two are going to meet and it's going to work out. You just have to have faith,'" Smith told THR. "We've seen it in movies and you always wonder, wouldn't it be great if life was like that? Sometimes it is."