Milo Ventimiglia Discussed The Gilmore Girls Connection In His Marriage

Since getting married last year, Milo Ventimiglia and his wife, Jarah Mariano, have continued to keep their romance out of the spotlight. However, he made a rare comment about their relationship during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Jan. 25. Host Kimmel wanted to know about the unexpected Gilmore Girls connection Mariano brought into Ventimiglia’s life, and Ventimiglia finally addressed it.

What’s In A Name?

For devoted Gilmore Girls fans, Mariano’s last name is a familiar one. It’s shared by Jess, the character Ventimiglia played for multiple seasons of the beloved drama during its original 2000-2007 run, plus its sequel series, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. It’s “a very easy connection to make,” according to Ventimiglia, but it turns out that some fans caught on to the coincidence before he did.

“I think once people started to, like, know her name in connection to my name and my name in connection to her name, then I’m like, ‘Oh, man, that’s right … that used to be my name,’” Ventimiglia told Kimmel.

Fan Approval

It’s a tie-in that many fans really appreciate, and numerous tweets discussed it after his marriage was reported in late October. “Not milo ventimiglia aka jess mariano actor in gilmore girls is married with a Mariano woman omgggod she has the same last name as jess its called DESTINY,” one wrote in November.

Other fans wondered about the odds of such a coincidence, dubbing it “funny” and “wild.” Someone even called it “the cutest thing” they’d heard that particular day. Meanwhile, another person wrote, “milo ventimiglia marrying a woman with the last name mariano, how real of him.”

Married Life

Ventimiglia has a history of keeping his relationships quiet, and true to form, he and Mariano never publicly confirmed their relationship prior to getting married. The couple tied the knot sometime in 2023, marrying in a private ceremony attended by family and close friends, as Us Weekly reported on Oct. 30. Ventimiglia didn’t share much more about their love story while appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, but he did accept Kimmel’s congratulations on their nuptials and let him know he’s “very happy” with his new wife. He called Mariano a “wonderful woman.”

Kimmel noted that Ventimiglia’s marriage has been hard on many of his fans, and he chose a selection of tweets from those who are grappling with the fact that the actor married someone other than them. For those stans, Ventimiglia offered hope. After one asked, “What’s the point anymore?,” he said, “The point is, there’s a lot of Milo Ventimiglias out there.”

As for this Milo Ventimiglia, he’ll continue to enjoy married life with Mariano, and his next film, Land of Bad, comes out on Feb. 16.