Will Ferrell Turns 57: All About His Long Marriage to Viveca Paulin Ahead of Their 24th Anniversary

Will Ferrell turns 57 on July 16 — and he has more than just his birthday to celebrate. 

While it remains to be seen if the Anchorman star’s campaign to add the title of Sexiest Man Alive to his résumé will succeed — “Vote for comedians,” he beseeched PEOPLE last month — Ferrell has plenty going career-wise. Following the success of last year’s Barbie, in 2024 he has appeared in The Boys and as a voice in Despicable Me 4. Among his many recent projects as a producer are May December, Quiz Lady, Succession and the documentary Will & Harper.

But Ferrell’s real success is off-camera, considering his long marriage to wife Viveca Paulin. The couple, who met in 1991 and tied the knot in 2000 on Aug. 12, share three sons together: Magnus, 20, Mattias, 17, and Axel, 14.

“It’ll be 24 years in August that we will have been married,” Ferrell told Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler on the July 9 episode of their podcast, MeSsy. “We were just friends, we dated, but then we were just friends for five years and then kind of we circled back to each other,” he added, saying his early romance with Paulin "was kind of like too much too fast at too young.”

Paulin, 55, is a Sweden-born, Boston-raised art collector and auctioneer. After dating and then reverting to just friends, Ferrell told Elle in 2012, his future wife “was the one that got away."

When visiting California on a break from filming Saturday Night Live, he recalled, "We started over — after a five-year friendship, we literally started courting each other."

That involved a shared comedic sensibility, he said at the time. "She totally got my sense of humor. I sent her flowers every day for a week with a card, like, 'You're the fifth-prettiest woman in the office.' She loved it. We had a shorthand with each other."

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These days the couple are active philanthropists, donating to Cancer for College (which provides scholarships to cancer survivors) and the University of Southern California's Swim with Mike Foundation scholarship campaign (which supports student-athletes who have experienced catastrophic injury or illness), and giving scholarships through their Viveca Paulin and Will Ferrell Scholarship Fund, which supports female soccer players at USC. 

They are also loving parents to their three kids. “Talk to your children, at least once a week," Ferrell jokingly told PEOPLE in 2008 when asked for fatherly advice. "If you've got time, do it two or three times a week, but otherwise, I find the times where I let weeks and weeks go by without talking to my children, that adds up." 

Plans for Ferrell’s 57th birthday remain a mystery. Might Snoop Dogg repay him and Step Brothers costar John C. Reilly for wheeling out a giant cake in public? Happy birthday to America’s favorite funny man!