‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’: Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson Reveal the Story Behind Falling in Love on Set

Actor Kaitlin Olson reveals how she and Rob McElhenney fell in love with each other while filming and starring in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The hilarious Olson, who plays the foul-mouthed bartender Deeandra Reynolds fell in love and married showrunner McElhenney, who plays Mac, the karate-obsessed bouncer of Paddy’s Pub.

The two fell in love while shooting It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and they’ve been making magic on and off screen ever since. Here’s their love story.

How Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney first met

Olson was a guest on The Always Sunny Podcast on Jan. 23, where she revealed how she fell for Mcelhenney. She admitted on the podcast that she didn’t really “think twice” about him during her audition for Dee in 2005. It wasn’t until she started working with him that she began developing feelings for him.

“He was just so good at his job,” Olson said. She explained that it was McElhenney’s ability to be “kind” and “level-headed” while running the show that she found “very attractive.”

During the audition, McElhenney recognized Olson from her appearance on Curb Your Enthusiasm which aired three years prior in 2002. He thought she was “so funny and so beautiful and so out of my league.”

However, after leaving a line out of the audition, Olson nearly lost the career-defining role of Sweet Dee and possibly would have never fallen in love with McElhenney. Luckily, the other people in the room convinced him to give her the part.

Olson pursued McElhenney like a ‘jungle cat.’

Throughout It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 1, Kaitlin Olson tried to keep it professional with Rob mcElhenney, but she realized she was in love. She admitted she had to “work on” McElhenney to get him to like her back. “She pursued me like a jungle cat,” he teased. McElhenney said that throughout the filming of season 1, they would hang out at their co-star Charlie Day’s house, where Kaitlin would flirt with him.

Olson admitted feeling “confused” about why McElhenney wasn’t reciprocating her advances. He had put a stop to her flirting simply because the fact he was her co-star and boss. “I recognized the power dynamic, and I said, ‘This is inappropriate,'” the actor said.

McElhenney thought it was “irresponsible” and “wildly inappropriate” to have a romantic relationship with Olson. He said he would “rebuff” her advances despite finding her attractive too. “We definitely made out after a Fox party one time, and there was no ‘no’ being thrown around,” Olson revealed. While McElhenney was finally reciprocating her feelings, Olson had to address the elephant in the room — her boyfriend.

Kaitlin Olson and Rob McElhenney became a couple at Charlie Day’s wedding

Kaitlin Olson said she was professional while working together on the show, but the alcohol and events broke down their barriers.

“You’d make me nervous, so I’d drink ’cause then I felt a little better, then I would act like a fool. Then I’d wake up and beat myself up about it for a very long time. Then the whole thing would happen again. Then I stopped. I got the message, and I stopped,” Olson said to her husband of 15 years.

“And then Charlie’s wedding happened,” she added. Charlie Day, who plays Charlie Kelly on the show, married Mary Elizabeth Ellis, aka “The Waitress,” in March 2006 in New Orleans. That’s when things really went down between McElhenney and Olson.

“At a certain point, you can only be respectful of the situation for so long. You have a woman this beautiful, this talented, this kind,” McElhenney admitted on the podcast.

Around season 2, the pair started dating and managed to keep their relationship under wraps for a few months before revealing their romance with the rest of their cast members.

McElhenney proposed to Olson at co-star Danny DeVito’s beach house in Malibu, California, with a vintage 1920s ring, and the pair married on Sept. 27, 2008. The comedic couple has two sons — Axel Lee, born in September 2010, and Leo Grey, born in April 2012.

Despite the ups and downs in their marriage, their friendship and respect for each other continue to bring them together.