STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Scarlett Johansson is looking back on her very first date with husband Colin Jost that sent her running home before the clock even hit 10 p.m.
During a conversation with Jenna Bush Hager on “Today,” the actress opened up about how before meeting the Staten Island native, traditional dating wasn’t really part of her life.
“My first date with Colin — you know, honestly, nobody ever asked me out really before,” she said. When Bush Hager said she didn’t believe that, Johansson doubled down: “I’m telling you, people say that but it’s true.”
She added that she had been a “serial monogamist,” and though she doesn’t know why, she “just didn’t get asked.” That is, until Jost asked her on a proper dinner date.
“We went to an Italian restaurant in the East Village. It was a lovely date,” Johansson said. “We had dinner at 8 p.m. or whatever. And then afterward he was like, I’m meeting friends, let’s go grab a drink.”
But instead of heading to a second location, Johansson bailed.
“I hadn’t dated basically ever and so I was just like, ‘I got to go now. I need to leave,’” she said, laughing. She rushed home to relieve her babysitter, who seemed shocked to see her back so early. “It was like 9:36 and she was like, ‘Why are you home?’”
Johansson admitted she didn’t have a good answer. “I was like, I went on this date and it was — but, you know, I felt so flustered,” she said. Later, Jost told her he thought that was the end of it because she was “acting so weird.” Looking back, she said simply, “I panicked. I don’t know.”
The Hollywood power couple met in 2010 while Johansson was filming a sketch Jost wrote for “SNL.” They have been romantically linked since 2017 but tied the knot in October 2020 in a small ceremony in Palisades, New York, surrounded by loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They share a son, Cosmo, 4, while Johansson is also mom to Rose, 11, with ex-husband Romain Dauriac.
Johansson — who has previously credited the success of her marriage to moving “around the world in the same way” as Jost — remains one of Hollywood’s busiest stars while Jost balances life at home with his two-decade career at “SNL.”
Jost returned this year to the “Weekend Update” desk of Season 51 of “Saturday Night Live” alongside Michael Che for their 11th season together, the longest-running duo in the show’s history. It also marks Jost’s 20th year with “SNL,” having joined as a writer in 2005.
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