Last year, rumors circulated on social media about a hilarious event that introduced M*A*S*H star Alan Alda to his now-wife. And it didn’t take long for the classic TV icon to confirm that the story is true.
Alda’s Wikipedia page shared the tale, and it sounds just like the sort of antics that Hawkeye would have caused at the 4077th.
As it reads, Alda met his future bride in 1956. At the time, he was a student at Fordham and Arlene was attending Hunter College.
While at a dinner party, “a rum cake accidentally fell onto the kitchen floor.” And as the other guests scoffed at the mishap, Alda and Arlene “did not hesitate to eat it.”
“The couple married a year later,” the page continues. “And the two eighty-somethings are still together, and still very much in love.
The two have been married for 65 years.
After stumbling upon the adorable bit of information, a fan took to Twitter and posted the story. And when it went viral, Alan Alda himself shared the original Tweet and admitted that the words were indeed true.
“We did eat the rum cake off the floor and were inseparable after that,” he wrote before adding more backstory. “But I was captivated by her even earlier in the meal when I heard her at the end of the table laughing at my jokes. She had me at Ha.”
M*A*S*H Actor Alan Alda Shared the Story of Meeting his Wife Long Before it Went Viral
But interestingly, long before the story made its rounds on social media, the actor had already shared how he and Arlene met with the Today Show.
During a 2015 interview, he told the tale and hilariously admitted, “that’s how you know. When two people eat a cake off the floor, that’s it for life.”
Alan Alda also ventured to guess that today’s hopeful daters could learn a thing or two from him and his wife, and judging by the M*A*S*H star’s long-lived love story, we’d guess he’s right.
“All this matchmaking on the Internet, and they ask them questions — just toss a cake on the floor and see who goes for it,” he shared.
That same year, Also also spoke with the New York Times about his swoon-worthy marriage. And he hypothesized that a sense of humor is a seriously underrated virtue in relationships.
“I have a very highfalutin notion about laughter,” he said. “I think when you laugh you make yourself momentarily vulnerable. Your defenses are not up. And if you can stay in a playful mood, where you are susceptible to laughter, your chances of being antagonistic with each other are lower.”
