Will Ferrell is an actor who looks and acts like a dad. Even before he had kids, he gave off strong dad energy. Funny, a little silly, kind, and loving. Is that Ferrell himself or Buddy the Elf from Elf, which is his most well-known role? His wife and three sons are the only ones who can say for sure. Here is all the information you need about Ferrell’s family.
In 1995, Will Ferrell met his wife in an acting class.
In 1995, Ferrell was just starting out in his career. That was the year he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, which made him a big star very quickly. But perhaps more importantly for Ferrell’s personal life, he met his future wife, Swedish-born actor and producer, Viveca Paulin, in an acting class they were both taking that same year.
Before they got married, they worked on a movie together.
Paulin and Ferrell were together for a long time before they got married in 2000. Before they got married, though, they worked together on the 1998 movie Night at the Roxbury, which was based on a recurring sketch that Ferrell made with fellow SNL alum Chris Kattan. Making a movie as a couple is a real test, and these two passed with flying colors since they went on to have three sons and are still together.
In 2004, Magnus, Ferrell’s oldest son, was born.
In 2004, when Paulin gave birth to their son Magnus, Ferrell became a father for the first time. The name Magnus means “great one,” which might sound like a lot of pressure, but Ferrell said in 2006 that the name was more about his heritage than anything else.
My wife was born in Sweden and we loved the idea of a Scandinavian name,
he said at the time.
I’ve gotten a lot of flack: ‘What kind of ego do you have to have to name your child the great one?’ That is not it at all.
Magnus, now 18, is a musician.
Magnus is making a name for himself as a musician now that he is 18 years old. He shows his work to people who follow him on Instagram. It turns out that Ella Rae Whalberg, Mark Whalberg’s daughter, is one of those people. In 2017, Wahlberg told Ellen DeGeneres that he thought Magnus was a nice boy until he learned that he was talking to his oldest child. They are each other’s followers on Instagram. Even though he wasn’t sure how he felt about it, he said he was okay with it.
Ferrell’s second son, Mattias, was born in 2006.
When their second son was born in 2006, Ferrell and Paulin gave him another Swedish name. In a 2007 interview with Jay Leno, the actor from Spirited said that Mattias meant “one who eats fire.” By the way, it doesn’t. The name Mattias means “God’s gift.” A name that works well for Matthew.
Mattias is a big fan of his dad’s comedy.
Ferrell once told Amy Poehler that all of his sons have “a little glimmer in their eye,” which was a reference to their shared sense of humor. Mattias is not embarrassed to say that he likes his dad’s sketches on Saturday Night Live. In 2018, Ferrell told Parade that Mattias had been watching his movies since he was in sixth grade. He also said, “it’s fun when they discover” his comedy. In turn, he and Paulin are big fans of their son, and when he was 8 years old, they helped coach his soccer team. They seem to like each other.
Ferrell’s youngest child, Axel, was born in 2010.
When Axel was born in 2010, Paulin and Ferrell became the parents of three boys. Life got more interesting. More chaos, too. In fact, Ferrell once said that taking care of his three sons was like running a prison.
As a parent of three boys, it’s a lot of chaos, and all parenting rules go completely out the window,
Ferrell said during a 2020 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
You go from all the things you read about like conflict resolution, ‘I’m sorry that your feelings are hurt,’… within five minutes it’s like, ‘Get upstairs now and brush your teeth. Shut up, I don’t care, why? Because I said so.’ … It’s like running a small correctional facility. I want to get high powered water cannons installed so I can just hose them down.
So is the life of parents with too many kids. Will Ferrell loves every second of it.
