Since the comedian and the Newsroom alum first started dating in 2021, they’ve had a whirlwind several years together, including getting married, having two children—son Malcolm, 3, and daughter Méi, 2 months—and Olivia battling breast cancer. And through it all, their bond has only grown stronger.
"We found ourselves in a pretty wild and a pretty joyful situation," John exclusively told E! News correspondent Will Marfuggi at GQ's Men of the Year party Nov. 14. "So we've had a really eventful, amazing couple years with a lot of you know, dealing with Olivia's cancer and a lot of tight and scary moments sometimes."
"But we were talking the other day that, like in the past couple years, we've laughed so much through everything," he continued. "So I don't mean to sound corny or overly saccharine, but it's just been really...we've been so tight and had a lot of fun, despite everything." (For more with John, tune into E! News Monday, Nov. 18 at 11 p.m.)
The 42-year-old also recalled the moment that he and Olivia found out that he was going to be honored as one of GQ's Men of the Year for 2024.
"She was so psyched," he shared. "We were both thrilled. Yeah, she's always in my corner, and she was so excited. We were in a driveway together, making sure our son didn't run into a parking lot when I got the news. It was very cool."
Chelsea Lauren/for InStyle
The couple hasn't been shy about detailing the unusual early stages of their relationship, with Olivia recently saying that their status as a couple "wasn’t anything close to ‘dating'" when she first got pregnant.
"I barely knew him," she told GQ. "It wasn’t necessarily ‘We’re going to be married and live together’ or any of that, but it was ‘I will be involved in some way.’"
Olivia, 44, and John officially became a couple six months into her pregnancy while they were living on opposite coasts—she was in LA, he was in New York—which came as the Everybody's In LA star was still finding his footing after a months-long stay in rehab for addiction.
"It was like watching a man in a tsunami,” the actress explained. “I was watching someone newly sober, at the edge of a cliff, and I didn’t know him well enough to help him."
"In my head, I’m thinking, 'I don’t know really what’s happening with this guy. It feels pretty shaky,'” she continued. “But then I would see him at the Troubadour and be like, ‘Man, he’s on fire. He’s just that phenomenal.'"
Keep reading for more about John and Olivia's romance.