After Thought: Kumail Nanjiani Proposed to His Wife Three Years After Their Marriage

- On a recent episode of âThe Jennifer Hudson Show,â the Pakistani American actor revealed that he popped the question on a beach during a trip to Montauk, New York.

An orchestrated proposal is often considered to be an essential step toward marriage. But nowadays, many couples consider it âobsolete or superfluous,â as The New York Times notes, adding that âsome could do without the engagement ring as well.â But what about those who choose to propose after being married? Kumail Nanjiani has some pointers.Â
The Pakistani American actor recently revealed on âThe Jennifer Hudson Showâ that he popped the question to his wife Emily V. Gordon, three years after their marriage. He began planning after his wife revealed that she wished he had proposed to her before tying the knot.
A few years later when the couple was in Montauk, New York, Nanjiani booked âa really small hotel room on the beach,â he told the audience. At midnight, while the two were playing video games, Nanjiani asked his wife to go outside to the beach with him. He then popped the question to his wife. âThe best way to do a surprise proposal is to do it three years after youâre married,â he told the audience.Â
The couple recently celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary in Chicago, where they first met. According to a 2017 New Yorker profile, the couple first met at one of Nanjianiâs standup gigs in Chicago, where he was âlovingly heckledâ by Gordon at the bar. Rather than get offended at the gesture, the two became friends after running into each other again two nights later. âThey began seeing each other on and off,â Bustle noted, adding that âit didnât fully turn romantic right away.â Gordon had just been married and divorced, and Nanjiani âhadnât built up the courage yet to reject his parentsâ plan of an arranged marriage to a Pakistani Muslim woman.
They told Cosmopolitan that they first got married in secret at a Chicago courthouse, then held a massive Pakistani ceremony with Nanjianiâs family that lasted for three days. âYears later, after moving to New York and not telling anyone they met that they were married, they held a reception for friends to announce they were lying the whole time,â according to Bustle.
In 2017, the couple wrote their 2017 independent film âThe Big Sickâ about their own relationship, with Nanjiani playing a character based on himself. The film went on to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Nanjiani has lent his voice to Benjamin Renner’s recently released animated film âMigration,â about the Mallard family of ducks convincing their overprotective father Mack (Nanjiani) to go on the vacation of a lifetime as they migrate from New England, through New York City, and ultimately down to the Bahamas.
Hey thank you! Means a lot coming from you. https://t.co/Ao5PROi2Ho
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 30, 2023
It's seriously one of those movies that every single parent existing now on this planet should take their children to see. Like the government should enforce it as mandatory viewing and the classic Nintendo video game "Duck Hunt" should be banned and made illegal to play
— JohannLuna (@oneJohannLuna) December 30, 2023