Leighton Meester Reveals the Secret to “Normal” Marriage with Adam Brody

You know you love Leighton Meester and Adam Brody's relationship—and there's no need to gossip about the secret to their nine-year marriage. 

Allow the Gossip Girl alum to tell you herself.

Admitting the pair have a "normal relationship with all the good and the hard," Leighton exclusively told E! News' Courtney Lopez for the Nov. 21 episode, "We just make it work."

"We're super, super lucky, and I think we recognize how lucky we are with one another," she continued. "We give each other a lot of respect and time and attention and focus. Like, really put our time and energy into a relationship."

And Leighton—who shares 8-year-old daughter Arlo and a 3-year-old son with the O.C. alum—added that, of course, it helps when you genuinely enjoy each other's company. (Catch more of her interview on E! News Nov. 21 at 11 p.m.)

But while she has a low-key romance with Adam, the same can't exactly be said for the characters she plays onscreen. Take her new movie EXmas, in which her character Ali secretly attends her ex Graham's (Robbie Amell) family Christmas because she simply missed his parents.

"This is the heightened reality of wish fulfillment of like, 'My ex, but we do get along, but it just didn't work out, but they love my family and family loves them,'" Leighton shared with E!. "No—real life, you're like, 'That's a stalker. That's not good.'"

Understandably, Leighton would not want to have her former flame decking the halls with her fam IRL.  

"I don't even want to like think about that," she quipped. "That would be terrible."

And would Adam even allow it?

"I wouldn't allow it," she joked. "All his exes, I'm like, they seem like pretty good people. And my family, he can have ‘em. I don't think that that would be the case." 

EXmas is now streaming on Amazon Freevee.

For a look back at Leighton and Adam's merry and bright romance, scroll on.

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody flaunted some sweet PDA while heading to a Mexican restaurant in 2013.

As romance rumors continued to swirl, the pair declined to publicly comment on the status of their relationship. But you know what they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.

After keeping under the radar for months, the twosome resurfaced in New York City together.

They may have never confirmed their relationship, but Brody put a diamond on his lady's finger. Nearly a month after the engagement news broke, the pair were photographed stealing a smooch in South Africa.

The notoriously private couple got married in a super-secretive ceremony in 2014.

Meester supported her handsome beau at the premiere of his movie Shazam in 2019. No doubt their daughter, Arlo, loves that her dad is a superhero!

Brody previously shared that becoming a father with Meester is "the best in every way."

In their spare time, this couple enjoys giving back to their community, although they aren't ones to actively publicize their good deeds.

After working on 2011's The Oranges, the two once again reunited on the set of Meester's show Single Parents in 2019. In his guest role, Brody played Meester's ex. 

While the couple never announced they were expecting baby No. 2, Brody confirmed in September 2020 that his wife gave birth to their second child.