Adam Brody is still kicking himself over his marriage proposal to Leighton Meester more than a decade after he popped the question.
The “O.C.” alum, 46, opened up about the 2013 engagement during Monday’s episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, where he appeared alongside his “Nobody Wants This” co-stars. Brody and Meester, the “Gossip Girl” star, had been dating for less than a year when he decided to propose.
“I’ll spare the details,” he said on the podcast. “However, rest assured, it was not as romantic as it should have been.”
“The only thing romantic about it was the speed,” Brody explained, noting how quickly the relationship had progressed toward marriage. “I proposed pretty quickly into our relationship. We got married fast, but other than that, it was very pedestrian.”
Shepard, 51, pressed for specifics and jokingly asked whether the proposal happened at a Taco Bell. Brody played coy about the actual details, declining to confirm or deny the setting.
The actor offered advice to anyone considering a proposal, emphasizing the long-term significance of the moment. “At the time, you’re like, whatever, but you’re going to tell that story the rest of your life,” he continued. “So my advice: Do it, not even just for the moment, but for the story that you’re going to tell forever.”
Brody admitted his lingering disappointment with how he handled the proposal. He does “kick” himself “a little,” he said, adding that Meester “deserved a little more.”
The couple first met on the set of the 2011 Julian Farino-directed film “The Oranges” and began dating in 2013. They got engaged that November and secretly married in February 2014, making their first public appearance as husband and wife at the Tony Awards that June.
Their family grew with the arrival of daughter Arlo in 2015 and a son, whose name has not been publicly revealed, in 2020.
Despite the pedestrian proposal, the couple has frequently spoken warmly about each other in public. Brody gave Meester a heartfelt shout-out when he won a 2025 Critics Choice Award for his role in “Nobody Wants This.”
“Thank you for sharing this life with me and this journey with me,” he told her during his acceptance speech. “Thank you for our family. I love you with all my heart.”
Meester has also shared insights into their enduring marriage. Speaking to People in January, she identified the foundation of their lasting bond.
“It’s so funny, because the other night somebody asked me that, and I was like, ‘I wish I had the answer,’ [but] I think just liking each other, and getting along is a big part of it,” she said.
The podcast appearance offered a rare unguarded moment from Brody about the early days of his relationship with Meester, whose “Good Girls Go Bad” musical career briefly paralleled her acting rise. While he declined to reveal exactly where or how the proposal unfolded, his regret over its lack of romance has clearly stayed with him through more than ten years of marriage.
Brody and Meester have built a reputation as one of Hollywood’s more private couples, rarely discussing their personal lives in detail despite both having starred in iconic teen dramas that defined 2000s television culture.
Brody currently stars in “Nobody Wants This,” which streams on Netflix.