Tim Daly and Téa Leoni are bringing their real-life romance back to television screens. The couple, who met on the set of Madam Secretary in 2014 and finally tied the knot in July 2025, have signed on to star together in a new NBC comedy pilot titled Newlyweds. This marks their first joint acting project since the political drama ended its six-season run in 2019.
The project comes at a perfect time for the pair, who after more than a decade together and a quiet wedding ceremony in New York, are ready to play another couple navigating married life. But this time, the script mirrors their personal story in a way that feels almost too perfect to ignore.
From Madam Secretary Co-Stars to Real-Life Spouses
The love story between Téa Leoni, 59, and Tim Daly, 69, began on a soundstage. When Madam Secretary premiered in September 2014, Leoni starred as Elizabeth McCord, the Secretary of State, while Daly played her husband, Henry McCord, a ethics professor and former priest. Their on-screen marriage was a anchor of the CBS drama, but behind the cameras, something real was developing.
Daly recently opened up about that first meeting during a December 2025 interview with LifeMinute. When asked when he realized he was in love with Leoni, he did not hesitate.
“God, about four minutes after I met her at the office of ‘Madam Secretary,’” Daly said.
The timing was significant. Leoni had finalized her divorce from actor David Duchovny in August 2014 after 17 years of marriage. They share two children, daughter West, 26, and son Kyd, 23. Daly had split from his wife of 26 years, actress Amy Van Nostrand, in 2010. He has two children, son Sam, 41, and daughter Emelyn, 36.
Their relationship became public gradually. Leoni attended Daly’s performance of Red at the Dorset Theatre in Vermont over the Fourth of July weekend in 2014. By December of that year, PEOPLE confirmed the two were quietly dating. They made their official red carpet debut in April 2015 at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., joined by journalist Bob Schieffer and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Daly joked to Bloomberg TV at the time, “We’re gonna be a hot table,” referring to their high-profile dinner companions.
Their Madam Secretary co-star Geoffrey Arend later told PEOPLE that the cast was surprised when they learned about the off-screen relationship.
“I heard a rumor about it, and everyone was like, ‘No, no way!’ And I’m like, ‘Maybe.’ Nobody really knew. You don’t want to go to your boss and be like, ‘Hey, so who are you dating?’ So now I think we’re all really protective. Tim’s the best — they’re really good together.”
Series creator Barbara Hall also shared her thoughts with Entertainment Weekly in 2019, saying, “They are the most perfect couple, and it really is a wonderful thing to have been part of. I don’t know if I take credit for it, though!”
The July 2025 Wedding: A Private New York Ceremony
After keeping fans guessing for over a decade, Téa Leoni and Tim Daly made it official. The couple married on July 12, 2025, in an intimate ceremony in New York City. A representative for Leoni confirmed to PEOPLE that the wedding was a small, private affair with only immediate family present.
The nuptials came more than ten years after they first met, and Daly later revealed that the proposal story had a funny twist. In his December 2025 interview, he shared that he had actually asked Leoni to marry him about nine years ago.
“Well, I actually asked Téa to marry me, I think, about nine years ago, and she said, ‘Yes, let’s just wait a minute.’ Then nine years later, she asked me, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I already asked!’ So anyway, we got it done,” Daly said with a smile. “I like being married to Téa.”
Leoni’s daughter, West, seemed to hint at the special day on her Instagram Stories, posting photos from a fancy event that appeared to be the wedding reception.
The couple’s connection runs deeper than just the set of Madam Secretary. They both attended the same boarding school, The Putney School in Vermont, although Daly attended a decade before Leoni. In a charming twist, Daly recalled that Leoni once told him she saw his film Diner while at the school and told her roommate she would marry him someday. “She gets what she wants,” Daly joked.
What is ‘Newlyweds’ About? NBC Pilot Details
Now, just months after their wedding, the newlyweds are set to play another couple starting their life together. According to NBC, the pilot Newlyweds is described as “a later-in-life love story about a free-spirited woman and a buttoned-up professor who marry impetuously after a whirlwind courtship.”
The show was ordered to pilot by NBC in January 2026, and Daly’s casting was confirmed in late February 2026. This project is particularly special as it brings them back to NBC, the network where Daly became a star in the 1990s with the hit sitcom Wings.
In the pilot, Daly will play Tony, a recently divorced man. The character accidentally runs into Jeanie, played by Leoni, at a parking valet stand. He is so taken with her beauty and spirit that they end up having dinner together anyway. But soon, Tony learns that life with Jeanie is not all he expected. Instead of living without her, he decides to change his ways.
The creative team behind the project is impressive. Pam Fryman, who directed most of the episodes of How I Met Your Mother and recently worked on NBC’s Night Court revival, will direct the pilot. Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis is an executive producer and co-creator alongside writer and executive producer Gail Lerner. Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, Scott Schwartz, and Lionsgate Television are also executive producing. The project comes from Universal Television.
Newlyweds is currently in contention for NBC’s 2026-2027 TV season, competing with two other comedies for a spot on the schedule.
Their Enduring On-Screen Chemistry
When Madam Secretary was on the air, viewers could sense something special between Leoni and Daly. The chemistry was undeniable, and Daly recently addressed that openly.
“Every time people said we had great chemistry, I was like, ‘Yeah, no s–t!’” Daly told LifeMinute.
He also recalled how they tried to keep their relationship quiet during the first season of Madam Secretary.
“It was funny because our first season, we were supposedly trying to keep it quiet, be on the down low,” Daly recounted. “But the teamsters were picking us up at each other’s house all the time and we were looking at each other with goo goo eyes.”
In a 2024 appearance on the “Really Famous with Kara Mayer Robinson” podcast, Daly gushed about Leoni, calling her “a miracle.”
“I never thought that I would experience something like that at my age and I’d sort of come to terms with maybe being alone or maybe being in some kind of casual thing that wasn’t really too demanding and then we met and it all changed,” he said. “It’s the deepest, most fun, most truly intimate relationship I’ve ever had.”
“It’s a profound relief to be able to be your entire self and know that someone is not going to blame you or try to change you,” gushed Daly.
Their relationship has also been marked by shared activism. Leoni is a board member for UNICEF, following in the footsteps of her paternal grandmother, Helenka Pantaleoni, who co-founded the U.S. committee for UNICEF in 1947. Daly is the president of The Creative Coalition, a nonprofit organization that advocates for social change through the arts.
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A Project Years in the Making
For fans who watched Elizabeth and Henry McCord navigate politics and family life on Madam Secretary, seeing Tim Daly and Téa Leoni reunite on screen is a treat. The fact that they are now playing characters navigating a new marriage, while being newlyweds themselves, adds a layer of authenticity that is rare in television.
Daly recently reflected on the importance of being able to share everything with his partner, including the difficult parts of life.
“I’ve recently started to try to have some gratitude for the things that have been really challenging and painful because I wouldn’t be here without all that stuff,” Daly confessed. “And so being able to share all of that with my partner is a relief. It just creates an atmosphere of real trust.”
With a stellar creative team, a premise that mirrors their real life, and the undeniable chemistry that has captivated audiences for a decade, Newlyweds is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated pilots of the upcoming television season. If picked up, it will bring the beloved couple back into living rooms across the country, this time as husband and wife in real life and on the screen.
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