Fitting for an actress who has done her share of acclaimed turns in period pieces, Carey Mulligan's relationship with her husband, Marcus Mumford, began in an old-timey fashion. Mulligan, who received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman, and Mumford of the popular folk pop band Mumford & Sons, were each other's adolescent pen pals, per an interview in The Guardian.
Mumford, 34, was born in California but, like Mulligan, grew up in the United Kingdom. They married in 2012, and now have two children together. Though the pair has been quite private about their relationship in the press, they've also had their share of humorous and sweet moments in the limelight.
Recently, Mulligan hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time, where an eager Mumford showed up, joking that he left their kids with "The sons" of Mumford & Sons.
In a 2020 interview with USA Today, Mumford shared a rare update on his family during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We've spent a lot of time together, and that's been a great privilege. Despite it obviously being a really difficult time for so many people, I think many of us will also look back at this as a time when we got to connect with our families more than we might have otherwise, which can be a blessing," he said. "So we're counting it as one."
Though the pair prefer to make their public focus about their work, here's what we know about the couple, how they met, and Marcus Mumford's career.
Mumford and Mulligan got to know each other as childhood pen pals.
Several outlets, including Elle and Bustle, report that the two stars attended church camp in their adolescence and corresponded via mail. In her interview with The Guardian, Mulligan was hesitant to talk about their pen pal relationship—and Mumford in general–though she didn't deny that they had written to each other when they were young. Mumford's father is a vicar, a type of official within the Church of England.
"I don't want people to be interested in that," Mulligan told the writer. "And your interest in it will inspire other people's interest in it, and more of my life I don't want people to know about will become exposed."
Though they obviously operate in different artistic spaces, but Mumford and Mulligan have worked together once before, albeit in a roundabout way. Mulligan appeared in the Coen Brothers's folk music drama Inside Llewyn Davis, while Mumford played on the film's soundtrack. Llewyn Davis was inspired by New York's 1960s music scene, specifically the work of Dave Van Ronk.
They married in 2012 and have two young kids.
After they began (at least publicly) dating in 2011, they wed in an April 2012 ceremony in the English county of Somerset. In attendance were Sienna Miller and Jake Gyllenhaal, as well as close friends and family.
Though the pair haven't commented much on the wedding publicly, it is believed that Adele performed there, and that Mulligan asked her close friend Colin Firth to give a speech.
The couple currently have two children, Evelyn, 5, and Wilfred, 3, who they live with both in London and on a farm they own in Devon, part of South West England.
In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Mumford said that the band's 2018 record Delta was inspired in part by being present for the birth of Evelyn and Wilfred.
"Birth and death are like the f***king wild to me,” he said. “We think we’re so in control of our lives, especially in this part of the world. But there’s an element of which you’re just not—these natural things are going to happen whether you like it or not.”
Though both Mulligan and Mumford keep a low profile on social media, Marcus did post on Instagram to show support for his wife's star turn in Promising Young Woman.
As a founding member of Mumford & Sons, Marcus is among the most successful folk artists of the last decade.
In 2009, Mumford & Sons released their debut album, Sigh No More, which went multi-platinum in the U.S. and U.K. It featured early breakthrough singles like "Little Lion Man" and "The Cave." With four core members–Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall, and Ted Dwane–the band achieved a powerful folk pop sound that was buoyed by rollicking banjos, fiddles, and horns.
The group released arguably its most popular song in 2012 with "I Will Wait," a poignant record inspired by the band's intense touring schedule. It peaked at No. 12 on both the U.K. Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100. That same year, the band performed for President Barack Obama at a White House state dinner.
Mumford's output slowed somewhat towards the back half of the 2010s with the release of 2015's Wilder Mind and Delta, the latter was their only record not to go platinum in the United States. They remain a hugely popular live act, and were in the midst of a large-scale headlining tour in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted it.
According to Billboard, Mumford & Sons was the 37th most successful musical act of the 2010s. Despite their tremendous commercial success, the critical response to their music has been decidedly mixed.
More recently, Mumford served as composer and wrote the main theme for the hit show Ted Lasso. He and the series lead, Jason Sudeikis, are close friends, but Mumford told USA Today that he almost missed the opportunity to work on the show.
"[Jason] loves leaving a long message, that one. But he left me a very long message on my U.S. phone, which I don't keep on when I'm in the U.K. So I actually missed it and it had been in my phone for a couple of months, and he thought I was just ghosting him," Mumford said. "So when I finally picked it up, I called him and was like, 'So sorry, man, but I'd love to talk more about your TV show.'"
In 2018, Mumford went viral for an ill-timed yawn at the royal wedding.
Mulligan and Mumford attended Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding in Windsor, when the musician inadvertently was caught on camera yawning during the ceremony. Mulligan talked about the moment during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! sharing that the couple spent two hours waiting at the church for the event to begin.
"We were convinced there were so many absurdly famous people that we were not going to be on camera at all," Mulligan recalled." And then, of course, it finishes and we were allowed to turn our phones back on and we had like 15,000 messages that said 'Marcus, you yawned on TV!'"
Speaking to The Guardian, Mumford shared his perspective. "I got more messages about that than any album we’ve ever put out,” he said.
Evidently, they lead a low-key, bucolic life.
In a 2015 interview with Vogue, the couple's friend Siena Miller spoke about what she thinks is the most remarkable quality of Mulligan and Mumford's relationship.
"Marcus can headline Glastonbury and Carey can be nominated for however many Oscars, and then they come back to their farm, and they’re in big woolly jumpers and funny hats, raising piglets," she said. "It’s an amazing balance they’ve managed to strike."
Grant Rindner is a culture and music journalist in New York. He has written for Billboard, Complex, and i-D, among other outlets.
