Conan O'Brien and His (Stunning) Wife Recount Their Cringey First Date

I’ll be honest: this post is mostly an excuse to spend time gushing about just how completely stunning Liza Powell — Conan O’Brien’s wife — actually is. I’ve listened to her podcast a few times—she has a now defunct podcast about the significant others of important historical figures — but I’d never seen her speak in person until now. She’s as brilliant as you’d expect from Conan O’Brien’s wife, but also funny and affectionately merciless about her husband, who apparently can’t make breakfast without overusing spatulas and leaving every cabinet in the kitchen hanging open. For years, I figured Conan was the Type A personality in his marriage. Turns out, I was wrong.

They dive into their first date, which Powell essentially orchestrated from start to finish. They met for an afternoon movie, and she vetoed High Fidelity in favor of an Almodóvar film featuring a tiny man emerging from an enormous vagina — they’re clearly referring to Talk to Her, though honestly, only in Los Angeles would a 2002 movie somehow be an option versus the 2000 release of High Fidelity. Then came a “crappy” Mexican restaurant, where Conan shoved chips into his mouth with reckless abandon, followed by a night out with one of Liza’s friends, an outing that featured Conan doing an excruciatingly cringey bit in the cab.

So it’s true: Conan is always doing a bit. Not just for the camera. Not just with his celebrity guestes. He’s genuinely always on, as both he and Liza confirm in the clip below.

Here’s my takeaway: Conan may be hugely popular, wealthy, and hilarious, but she’s still settling. And based on his sheepishness throughout the interview, he knows it too.