Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson has opened up about the surprisingly awkward beginnings of her romance with now-husband Colin Jost, revealing that their first encounter left him convinced it was a complete failure.
The Unforgettable First Date
During a recent appearance on the Today with Jenna & Friends show on December 1, the 41-year-old actor and director recounted the story. Johansson explained that their first date happened in 2017 after Jost, a writer and comedian, asked her to dinner—a gesture she found unusually traditional for her life. "My first date with Colin, honestly, nobody ever really asked me out before," she admitted. "I was a serial monogamist and I just never got the traditional, 'Hey, would you like to have dinner sometime?'"
An Abrupt and Awkward Ending
The evening began at a charming Italian restaurant in New York's East Village, which Johansson described as "a lovely date." However, things took a turn when Jost suggested extending the night to meet friends for a drink. Feeling inexperienced and flustered by the dating process, Johansson decided to cut the evening short. "I hadn't dated basically ever, and so I was like, 'I have to go now. I need to leave,'" she recalled. She returned home so early that even her babysitter was surprised.
This abrupt exit sent a clear, albeit unintended, message. Johansson shared that Jost later confessed her behavior made him think their romance was over before it even started. "Later on he was like, 'I totally thought that was it. You were acting so weird,'" she said with amusement, adding, "I panicked. I don't know."
From Awkward Start to Lasting Love
Despite the rocky start, the couple began dating later that same year, 2017. Their relationship blossomed, leading to marriage in 2020. Today, they are parents to a son named Cosmo. Johansson is also a mother to a daughter, Rose, from her previous marriage to Romain Dauriac.
Interestingly, their paths first crossed much earlier, in 2006, when Johansson hosted Saturday Night Live, where Jost was a writer. It would take over a decade for that professional connection to spark into a personal one, proving that sometimes love stories have the most unexpected and awkward beginnings.
