Lily Collins knew from the second she met Charlie McDowell that he was something special.
“We both are in the industry and we have parents that are in the similar industry as well, but we met randomly actually,” the 32-year-old told Ellen DeGeneres, referring to her famous parents, Phil Collins and Jill Tavelman. (McDowell’s mom is actress Mary Steenburgen.) “We were kind of surprised we hadn’t met. We have been in the same rooms a bunch of times but never met — it’s one of those cheesy but love at first sight things.”
The two got married in September 2021 after making their relationship Instagram official in 2019. “It was a place called Dunton Hot Springs in Colorado. We had never actually been there until about the day before we got married, which was really fun planning a wedding before visiting a location, but it was stunning and we love nature,” the Emily in Paris star quipped.
The two — who frequently post their travels on social media — are always on the go, but the Mirror Mirror alum admitted that McDowell “did not know I was very outdoorsy.”
“I don’t think I knew I was quite as outdoorsy as I became, but I grew up in the English countryside, so I’ve always loved being outdoors,” she shared. “We really like embracing new adventures.”
So much so, the pair ventured to Europe for their honeymoon, which was off the beaten path. “This is on our honeymoon in Norway — we went all around Scandinavia on a foodie adventure tour,” she said, describing a photo DeGeneres showed to the audience. “If anyone knows me knows I am not a fan of the cold, but I embraced it. We got in the water, which is freezing — beyond freezing.”
The newlyweds also stayed in a treehouse, but it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
“Every treehouse is done by a single architect, and we stayed in the one you just saw and it has a literal tree that goes in the middle of it. There is this netting that you can lay on your back and stare at the stars,” she shared. “It’s so beautiful, so romantic. It’s also odd because there is obviously no piping that goes up to the treehouse, so it’s very close corners and when you go to the bathroom, you have to do anything you’re going to do in a paper bag, which then gets incinerated, which gets buried and made into a tree. It’s eco-friendly. It was intimate, I will tell you that much.”
Sounds like Collins and McDowell aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty!
