Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup reveal they had a hush-hush surprise wedding

Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, who met on the set of Netflix’s Gypsy in 2016, tied the knot in a surprise courthouse wedding in New York last June.

The couple, both 55, revealed their marriage on Instagram, with Watts posting a photo of them on the steps of the courthouse with the caption “Hitched.”

But why did the actors decide to have a low-key and quick ceremony, instead of a lavish and planned one? According to Watts, they were simply “very keen” on getting married and didn’t want to wait. “It just happened that way,” she said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “We knew we wanted to do it, it was something we were very keen on doing and quickly. It’s an efficient way to do it.”

Watts added that the wedding was “really lovely” and “very special,” as they ran into all kinds of people at the courthouse, some dressed up and some in a hurry. She also said that they celebrated with their friends, including Mark Ruffalo and his wife Sunrise Coigney, and even attended a birthday party in their wedding attire.

The British-Australian actress and the American star, who currently appears in The Morning Show, sparked engagement rumors in April last year, when Watts was seen wearing a marquise-cut diamond ring with a diamond-encrusted band. The pair made their red carpet debut as a couple in February 2022 at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, after keeping their relationship mostly private for years.

Watts was previously in a long-term relationship with Liev Schreiber, with whom she shares two sons, Alexander, 15, and Kai, 14. Crudup has a son, William, 19, with his ex-girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker, whom he left for Claire Danes in 2003.