Emily in… Love! Everything We Know About Lily Collins’ Husband Charlie McDowell

It's a match made in nepo baby heaven.

When you’re the star of a show that takes place in the most romantic city in the world, it’s only natural that fans might wonder about your love life. But for Emily in Paris star Lily Collins, l’amour is a subject she’s way too grounded about to shout it from the rooftops.

“No relationship is greater than the one I have with myself,” the 32-year-old Emmy nominee wrote in her 2017 memoir/self-help book, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me. “Can't look to someone else to be my everything or rely on them to make me feel whole.” However, while professing her complete contentment with singledom, she also added optimistically, “There is someone out there who will show me what real, honest love is. They will respect and accept me for me and won't make me feel less than. In order to find that person and truly let them in, first I must believe in myself and know my own value…I deserve happiness. I deserve to be loved just as I love others. I deserve everything.”

In September 2020, Collins got the "everything" she deserved when boyfriend Charlie McDowell popped the question during a road trip through the American Southwest. A year later, they returned to the Southwest to wed in the teeny-tiny town of Dunton Hot Springs, Colorado. Keep reading for a look at their romantic relationship, as well as who Collins has dated in the past.

Who is Lily Collins’ husband?

McDowell is a director and screenwriter best known for his 2014 indie thriller, The One I Love, which starred Elisabeth Moss, Mark Duplass and McDowell’s real-life stepfather, Ted Danson. (More on their connection in a sec!) Collins and McDowell started dating on the down-low sometime in 2019. She hinted at their romance in August of that year when she wrote on a since-deleted Instagram, “Always got your back,” alongside a pic that showed her resting her head on his back while keeping his face hidden. (Fun fact: The snap was shot in Paris, where Collins was busy filming the first season of her Netflix hit, Emily in Paris!)

Both Collins and the 38-year-old McDowell have showbiz parents. Her dad is British singer Phil Collins, while her mom is American actress Jill Tavelman; they split when Collins was just five years old.

As for McDowell, his dad is A Clockwork Orange actor Malcolm McDowell, while mom is Oscar-winning actress Mary Steenburgen. Five years after they divorced in 1990, Steenburgen tied the knot with Danson and they’re still together today.

Related: Lily Collins' Net Worth Revealed

How did Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell meet?

According to The Daily Mail, they met (as so many director-actor twosomes do) on the set of an upcoming movie he directed and she starred in called Gilded Rage. “I knew the second I met him that I wanted to be his wife one day,” Collins told UK’s Mirror about meeting her future fiancé.

Related: Lily Collins and Darren Star on Why Emily In Paris Isn't Sex and the City

How did Charlie McDowell propose to Lily Collins?

According to Collins’ Instagram, McDowell popped the question amid the beauty of the mountains and the desert while the two were on a road trip to New Mexico. “I’ve been waiting my lifetime for you and I can’t wait to spend our lifetime together,” she captioned several of their engagement photos, calling the moment “the purest joy I’ve ever felt.”

Although Collins says she knew she’d be McDowell’s wife someday, the big proposal still came as a big shock. "I was very surprised as to when and where it would happen,” she admitted last year on Live With Kelly and Ryan soon after McDowell asked her to marry him.

McDowell splashed out a reported $100,000 on the ring, a square diamond set in a yellow-gold band that was custom-made for the couple by Hollywood-fave jeweler Irene Neuwirth. No wonder Collins called it her “favorite new accessory!”

Related: Emily In Paris Star Ashley Park's Net Worth

When did Lily Collins and Charlie McDowell get married?

Collins and McDowell said "I do" on Sept. 4, 2021. As Collins wrote on Instagram right before their big day, “I’ve never wanted to be someone’s someone more than I do yours, and now I get to be your wife. On September 4th, 2021 we officially became each other’s forever. I love you beyond @charliemcdowell.” She later revealed on IG that they continued their adverturing ways by honeymooning in Scandinavia.

Related: Lily Collins on Working With Zac Efron

Did Lily Collins date Zac Efron?

Yep! While some fans believe they met on the set of their 2019 Ted Bundy biopic Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Collins and Zac Efron actually dated as far back as October 2013, when they were caught on camera holding hands at Disneyland. By the time Extremely Wicked went into production in 2017-2018, they were no longer dating, but Efron gushed about Collins’ performance in the film.

Related: Meet the Men from Emily in Paris

Did Lily Collins date Taylor Lautner?

Yes, although you may not have known it, because they kept it relatively quiet—despite being photographed together pretty often. As The Daily Mail described it in 2011, Collins and the now-29-year-old Taylor Lautner “split despite never having confirmed their relationship in the first place.” They’d apparently grew very close on the set of their 2011 movie Abduction and, according to Us Weekly, Lautner broke up with Collins just a week before the film’s red-carpet premiere.

Did Lily Collins date Chris Evans?

For a split second, it seems! Captain America and Emily from Paris got together in February 2015 after meeting at that year’s Vanity Fair Oscars party. They were spotted having dinner together in L.A. the next month, but by April, it seems things had already fizzled out; when Chris Evans was asked about Collins at the Avengers: Age of Ultron premiere, he said, "Oh, come on. We're not…we're not, uh…we're not gonna give the answers to those questions."

Who else has Lily Collins dated?

Collins played the field aplenty before McDowell came calling. She on-off dated British actor Jamie Campbell Bower, whom she met in 2012 on the set of the movie The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (she has a thing for dating people she worked with, it seems!)

She also dated Aussie actor Thomas Cocquerel in 2014.

In 2016, she even briefly dated JoBro hunk Nick Jonas, just months before he got together with future wife Priyanka Chopra.

Next, get to know Alfie from Emily In Paris' Lucien Laviscount.