How Long Have Ellen Pompeo and Her Husband Chris Ivery Been Married?

While Meredith Grey openly talks about her male suitors and casual flings on Grey’s Anatomy, the same can’t really be said for the actress who plays her.

For the past several years, Ellen Pompeo has been happily married to her husband, Chris Ivery. Though the actress keeps many details surrounding her and her real-life McDreamy’s relationship under wraps, there are a few things we’ve learned so far about their adorable romance — including the sweet way they met and how long they’ve been living in marital bliss.

Pompeo and Ivery met in an unexpected way

Nowadays, it feels like everyone has adorable queries of how they met their significant other. But unlike most people, Pompeo doesn’t have an epic backstory of how she and her husband first crossed paths.

Rather than bumping into each other at a Hollywood event or onset of her hit medical drama, Pompeo met Ivery while she was doing her grocery shopping.

Yep, you read that right! The pair crossed paths for the first time inside a Los Angeles food market back in 2003. After discovering they both hailed from Boston, the two became friends and six months later, they started dating.

“We were six degrees our whole lives, so I feel like we were sort of meant to be,” Pompeo explained to People in 2006. “We’ll get married eventually, secretly.”

The pair married secretly in 2007

After dating for four years, Pompeo and Ivery decided to make their love official by getting married but kept with their preference of having a small, quiet affair.

In 2007, the pair jetted off to New York City and tied the knot inside of City Hall. After their courthouse wedding, the couple enjoyed a brief vacation before flying back out to California to start their lives as husband and wife.

“We flew out on a red-eye Thursday night. Friday morning, we woke up, went to City Hall, had the wedding really quick, and then we went to Lupa for lunch after,” the actress explained on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2017.

Following their secret wedding, Pompeo and Ivery continued to lead a private lifestyle, only making rare appearances out on the town together and very seldomly giving glimpses into their life as a married couple.

Pompeo gushed about her husband every now and again

Since she is a private person, hearing Pompeo speak openly about her husband and their family doesn’t happen all of the time.

But there have been instances when she’s opened up about married life with Ivery.

Back in 2016, Pompeo shared what her and Ivery’s romance is like on a daily basis, telling People that they like to hang out a lot at home together.

“We go out to dinner sometimes, but date nights really kind of happen inside at home,” she said. “And actually, we both go to bed pretty early, so we do a lot of lunch dates, too.”

Three years before that, the Grey’s Anatomy star gushed over how Ivery never feels threatened, even though her jobs consists of her filming some pretty steamy scenes with male co-stars.

“My husband is a fantastic guy, and very, very secure,” she told Queen Latifah in 2013. “I think that’s probably why I’m so into him — because he’s got so much swag. He’s just so secure that nothing shakes him.”

While it feels like celebrity romances are ending every day, Pompeo and Ivery have been able to keep the spark alive in their relationship. The actress even shared the secret behind her long-lasting marriage with Us Weekly in 2018.

“Just don’t try to change people,” she advised. “They are who they are, and they were fine when you married them, so don’t expect them to change.”