- James Corden is the former host of ‘The Late Late Show’
- He has been married to his wife, Julia Corden, since 2012
- James and Julia share three kids
James Corden is officially done with The Late Late Show and its uber-popular segment, “Carpool Karaoke”, after first taking over for Craig Ferguson in 2015. James made it clear during his announcement in 2022 that he chose to depart the show so he could spend time with his family and his wife, Julia Corden, née Carey. And during a Jan. 2023 visit on The Drew Barrymore Show, he recalled one of the specific moments that made him realize he might need to take a break from his career to spend more time with his family.
“I’ll never work in a better environment than the one I work in now. Nothing about leaving the show was to do with not enjoying it. I love it, but the truth is it became a very easy decision because I always knew it was an adventure and I never ever considered it to be the final destination,” he explained to host Drew Barrymore. The doting dad then recalled a heartbreaking conversation during which he had to tell his son he had to work on a weekend. “His face just kind of dropped,” he admitted. “I got in the car and I called my wife Jules and I said, ‘I’ve realized, best-case scenario we have six more summers where Max is like, even remotely wants to be around us and I cannot waste another one.'”
James has been married to his supportive wife Julia since 2012. Read on to learn about Julia and her relationship with the Tony Award-winning star here.
How Did James Corden & Julia Carey Meet?
It was love at first sight for James, who first laid eyes on his future wife in 2009. James’s friend, actor Dominic Cooper, invited him to attend a Save The Children event, and Julia was working for the humanitarian organization at the time. When Dominic introduced James to his mutual friend, Julia, the comedian took his shot. “I said, ‘Hi, Jules. You might be the most beautiful woman in the world,’” James recalled on The Jess Cagle Interview podcast. “She said, ‘Well, thank you very much. That sounds like something you say a lot.’ And I said, ‘I’ve never said it before in my life.’ That was it. That was it, really. I was in. And by an absolute miracle, so was she.” James and Julia then spent the rest of the night falling in love.
“We sat, and we very jokingly kind of planned the rest of our lives together, an hour and a half after we met,” he recalled further. “As a joke! We were just talking. And we were both talking about how much we felt like we were now past the notion of going out every night — that we had hit the age where the prospect of a quiet night in was glorious.” James said he remembered pitching an ideal date night to Julia. “I remember saying to her, ‘Well, what about on Friday we could do nothing together? You could come over, and we could just do nothing. And then maybe we could do nothing on the Saturday, and we could do nothing on the Sunday. And if our evenings are enough of nothing, then maybe this would be come something.’”
Although it’s not clear if they followed through with that exact plan, that first meeting turned into the start of a lifetime romance.
Married Life
It didn’t take long for James to realize that Julia was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. They first began dating in 2009, and by the end of 2010, they were engaged. Though the exact when and where is unknown, Daily Mail reported that James popped the question while the couple celebrated Christmas in the Maldives. “Thanks so much for your kind messages,” James tweeted once word got out. “I feel very lucky indeed.” The couple reportedly set a date in 2012 shortly after they were engaged, and they stuck to it. James and Julia tied the knot in September 2012.
Kids And Family
James and Julia welcomed their son Max in March 2011 — more than a year before their nuptials. Since then, the couple has grown their family: They welcomed daughters Carey in Oct. 2014, and Charlotte in Dec. 2017.
James has always been a fairly blunt guy, and he has called raising three kids a “nightmare” not once, but twice. The first time came during a 2020 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show as he spoke about teaching his kids while they were learning remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic. “It adds 25 layers of stress. It’s a nightmare,” he smiled. “It’s hard to know who’s being homeschooled — whether it’s me or my son. … I find myself going, ‘Wow, I did not know that.'”
James also added that he sometimes steps in. “I find myself — and this is deeply irresponsible — I find myself going, ‘You know what, Max? Honestly, you’re not gonna need any of this in life.’ … ‘We’ve always got a calculator. You don’t need to know this. Do you know what? It’s recess. Daddy needs a drink.’”
He also had a similar attitude when explaining what it’s like to take all three of his kids out during a 2018 interview with PEOPLE. “It’s just a nightmare. I got back from Liverpool on Sunday, and we thought, ‘Let’s take the kids out. Let’s go for lunch.’ I mean, it’s a joke,” he said. “We actually went to a place at the end of our road for lunch, and we looked like we were fleeing the country. We had that much stuff. It’s absurd.” Perhaps things are easier now that his kids are a bit older.
Julia Carey Is A Supportive Wife
Julia Carey worked for Save the Children before she met James, which is how they met. Her IMDb listing has Julia appearing as her “self” in numerous listings, as well. Despite her husband’s popularity, Julia has been able to maintain a very private personal life, so there is not much known about who she is as a person.
However, it is known that she is an extremely supportive wife, and James even credited her for his 2012 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for One Man, Two Guvnors win in 2012. “[She] gave birth to our son five days before we started rehearsals. And, she’s my baby mama, and I can’t wait to marry her. Seriously, I would not be holding this if it wasn’t for her. She made me say ‘us’ instead of ‘I,’ and ‘we’ instead of ‘me.’ And I love her. Thank you very much.”