- Jimmy Fallon and Nancy Juvonen met on the set of Saturday Night Live and later worked together on Fever Pitch, a comedy that starred Fallon opposite Juvonen’s production company partner, Drew Barrymore.
- Fallon proposed to Juvonen in August of 2007, and they married four months later on a beach in the Caribbean.
- Juvonen knew she was falling for Fallon when she saw how he was with kids. They now have two adorable daughters who are taking over late-night TV together.
“When you feel heard, you feel loved.” It’s as simple as that, y’all. And we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
Nancy Juvonen, the wife of late-night host Jimmy Fallon, said those very words in one of the episodes of The Tonight Show: "At Home Edition," which Fallon and Juvonen are producing from their home in response to the coronavirus pandemic. She was using the phrase to conclude an elaborate story about the most romantic gesture Fallon had displayed toward her. We get into it in detail below, and spoiler: There’s a VW bus involved.
Since meeting in 2005 on the set of Saturday Night Live, it seems Juvonen and Fallon were destined to be together. Their relationship, though, really began climbing the mercury when they began working together on Fever Pitch. All it took was for Juvonen to arrive on set in a pink sweater and some white pants for Fallon to fall head over sneak-ahs.
The two married in December of 2007 on a private stretch of Caribbean beach owned by British magnate Richard Branson, and they now share two daughters: 6-year-old Winnie and 5-year-old Franny. Though Juvonen is a relatively private person, she has offered nuggets of personal information—and adorable footage of their girls—since operating the camera for "At Home Edition."
If you’re not watching the quarantined edition of The Tonight Show on YouTube, catch up now. Winnie and Franny are the comedy relief you deserve in uncertain times like these. Below, get to know a little more about their mom.
Nancy Juvonen owns a production company with Drew Barrymore.
An American film producer, she and partner Drew Barrymore own the production company Flower Films. Some of their films include the campus comedy Never Been Kissed, the nostalgic gem Donnie Darko, the Hawaiian rom-com 50 First Dates, and, of course, the sporty Farrelly brothers film that would star Juvonen’s future husband, Fever Pitch.
Before the Hollywood big time, Juvonen revealed via an #AsktheFallons Q&A that she was a flight attendant, a housecleaner, and even worked on a dude ranch at one point.
She met Fallon on the set of Saturday Night Live in 2005.
During one of Barrymore’s hosting gigs, the actress was rehearsing lines with Fallon. When Juvonen showed up, Fallon all but bent over backward to make her feel super welcome. “I kind of crept in quietly, and all of a sudden Jimmy goes, ‘Hey, Nancy! You’re Nancy? Hi, it’s so nice to meet you, welcome!’” she said in a recent video. “And I felt just so embraced and cool, like, ‘Thank you! Thank you for welcoming me in. This is so nice, it’s so intimidating [here].’”
She continued, “So I had that thought from years before, going in. But then on the set [of Fever Pitch], we were on location and that really creates this camp feel for everybody. And he was just so friendly and fun and welcoming and he loved music.”
Juvonen really started crushing on Fallon when she saw him around kids.
When co-producer Bradley Thomas brought his children to the set of Fever Pitch one day, Fallon “really played” with them. “So I think that’s when my heart just sort of melted even more," she said in the aforementioned video.
Fallon’s ease with kids is now on display with the "At Home Edition" of his Tonight Show, where his two little ones conspire to steal all the scenes. The childlike play all over Fallon’s face is a dead giveaway that he secretly love what’s happening.
Fallon really started crushing on Juvonen when she wore white pants.
On a gray day in Boston while filming Fever Pitch, Juvonen showed up looking, well, we’ll let Fallon tell the story. “You came to set … [in] white pants, a pink sweater and a green backpack … blonde hair and your white teeth,” he said. “You just stood out in this gray [background], almost like a painting. You stood out like a neon … and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Yeah, you just stuck out. And you were just so fun — we had so much fun on that [set], didn’t we?”
She says that Fallon is definitely a romantic.
During the Q&A below, Juvonen answered a question about whether or not Fallon is a romantic. She answered by saying yes and explaining that he once made the extravagant gesture of gifting her a VW bus stocked with a Case Logic zip-tote full of her favorite cassettes, from Harry Neilson, The Cure, and Prince to The Muppets, Bob Marley, and Genesis. “When you feel heard, you feel loved,” she said in the clip, as she reminisced over the gift.
She thought Fallon was having a stroke when he proposed in August 2007.
According to Martha Stewart Weddings, Fallon had planned on proposing to Juvonen in New York City, when she scored reservations to Per Se, an upscale restaurant where reservations are hard to come by. Not wanting to pop the question somewhere that didn’t ensure more permanence, he held off. “I didn’t want to propose in Per Se because what if one year it moves locations and years later I’m going to have kids and go, ‘Your mom and I got [engaged here]. I know it’s a laser tag place but at one point it was a very fancy restaurant,’” Fallon said.
So he waited three months, then got down on one knee at the end of the dock at her parents’ picturesque summer home on New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee. And then he began bawling. “My face was like I was smelling burnt toast,” he said, adding that Juvonen thought he was having a stroke. She obviously still said yes.
They tied the knot on a beach in December 2007.
In a scenic beachfront Caribbean wedding ceremony, the pair said their “I do’s.” Per The Knot, it actually took place on Richard Branson’s private Necker Island on December 29. To celebrate their 10-year milestone, Fallon took to Twitter to share a snap of the pair kissing in front of a sunset. “Honey, remember when the wedding photographer made us pose for a romantic sunset kiss? That was 10 years ago! Happy Anniversary!” he wrote.
They have two of the cutest daughters.
Six-year-old Winnie and 5-year-old Franny have become the newest and cutest late-night hosts to ever grace a screen. Both blondies were born via surrogate, a birth journey both Juvonen and Fallon have spoken about publicly.
Before Fallon’s "At Home Edition," the girls were kept pretty much off-screen. After the supplemental late-night series, however, they’ve become late-night comedy heroes, giving the self-isolated online masses all they can handle with their heckling, cowbell, and hand-washing skills.
On a recent episode that featured the girls helping their dad with his “Thank You Notes” segments, no one could keep their game faces on. Fallon, whose known for falling to pieces into a fit of giggles during comical scenes, was in full-on fits of laughter. But we were surprise that not even mom behind the camera could keep her humor contained. Watch the clip below to see Franny especially become a star.
For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter.
DeAnna Janes is a freelance writer and editor for a number of sites, including Harper’s BAZAAR, Tasting Table, Fast Company and Brit + Co, and is a passionate supporter of animal causes, copy savant, movie dork and reckless connoisseur of all holidays. A native Texan living in NYC since 2005, Janes has a degree in journalism from Texas A&M and got her start in media at US Weekly before moving on to O Magazine, and eventually becoming the entertainment editor of the once-loved, now-shuttered DailyCandy. She’s based on the Upper West Side.
