Jack Black can thank his wife Tanya Haden for kickstarting their relationship.
When Black, 54, appeared on the Monday, August 5 episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast to promote his upcoming movie Borderlands, the actor spoke to how he and Haden — a musician and daughter of the late jazz musician Charlie Haden — started dating years after they originally met during high school in Santa Monica, California.
“I just was always in awe of them,” Black said, while discussing Haden and her sisters, whom he said performed music together dating back to their days as classmates. “And we would cross paths, and I had a girlfriend, and she had a boyfriend and it was just a little talking here and there. And then that day came when neither of us had a significant other.”
“I had always been so kind of intimidated and never really wanted to really approach — she made the first move is the point,” he added, noting that their romantic relationship began when they both found themselves at a surprise birthday party for a mutual friend.
“She came up to me and said, ‘Hey, do you ever wanna go get dinner? I should give you my number,’ ” he recalled to Shepard. “And I was like, oh my God. Heaven opened up above my head, because it was like, this is the thing that I would always want to happen.”
Jack Black and Tanya Haden on Jan. 7, 2024.
Michael Buckner/Golden Globes 2024/Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images
Black and Haden married in March 2006, scarcely a year after they began dating, as the School of Rock star recalled on the podcast. “We started getting very serious, and the relationship hit the ground running,” Black told host Shepard. “It’s like we were making up for lost time.”
The couple share two sons: Samuel, 18, and Thomas, 16. While speaking to how they got married so quickly, Black recalled that he and Haden initially agreed they wanted children, but not necessarily marriage — until his brother talked him into proposing.
Tanya Haden and Jack Black on June 4, 2015. Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
“We didn’t get married because it was like, [we] don’t really believe in the contract and that whole thing. Why is it necessary? And then as soon as she had a baby in her belly, my brother was like, ‘What the hell are you — you marry her!’ ” Black recalled. “I was like, you’re right, dude. I got on bended knee and she laughed and said yes.”
While Black did not recall ever having feelings for his wife while they were in high school, he attributed part of his relationship’s success to having known her for so long prior to dating. “We didn’t date or really even talk, but I remember her and her sister[s],” he said elsewhere during the podcast. “She’s a triplet. And just loving the whole family. I just thought they had a real vibe.”
