Mandy Patinkin swung for a homer during his first date with his wife, Kathryn Grody.
“I mean, this is a guy, on our very first date, who told me he was going to marry me,” Grody told Page Six in a recent exclusive interview. “And I thought he was nuts because I didn’t believe in marriage.”
Grody, 78, added that after dating for two months, Patinkin, 72, wanted them to move in together.
“I remember saying, ‘You know, [Mandy], I’m really enjoying this part in love before we start hurting each other,” she continued, “and he looked at me and was five, six years younger than me and he said, ‘What do you mean? I love you! I’m never going to hurt you.’”
The stage actress remembered thinking, “Oh my God, he knows nothing!”
The couple married in 1980 and share two sons, Isaac and Gideon.
During the pandemic, they began to develop a significant social media following due to Gideon posting videos of his parents.
“I started putting videos of my parents on social media to draw some attention to supporting refugees and the International Rescue Committee, an organization we love,” Gideon explained. “And I just thought they were entertaining to me, so I thought I’d share them with others on their very limited social media, and to our great surprise, that took off.”
During the 2020 election, Gideon brought on his filmmaker friend Ewen Wright, and they all worked on videos, “to try to keep [President Donald] Trump from being reelected.”
The quartet “spent two months around the clock making social media for the election and had such a great time in that process,” Gideon said. “We all wanted to keep working together.”
So Wright and Gideon brainstormed and came up with the idea for “Seasoned,” in which the couple play characters loosely based on themselves.
The first episode premiered at the Tribeca Festival last week.
Wright said that the show’s “secret sauce” was “Mandy and Kathryn…and so it was just like, if they’re down, we’re down, and we were all off to the races.”
Gideon agreed, calling “the real life dynamic is at the heart of it. We create this pancaking of reality and fiction and reality and the fiction that is the heart of the show.”
Included is the couple’s now trademark annoyance with each other.
When Page Six asked them how long they’ve gone without irking one another, Patinkin jokingly replied, “A good fourteen minutes,” and even showed us that when he sincerely says, “I adore you,” to his wife, Grody always giggles.
Patinkin, who appeared in “Evita” and “Sunday in the Park with George” on Broadway and has delighted audiences with his roles in “A Princess Bride” and “Homeland,” is grateful for his varied and long career and thrilled with this new chapter.
“I’m beyond blessed,” he said, explaining that all he wanted to do was “make a living” and support a family.
“I can’t get over what I’ve been blessed with in terms of this person,” he shared, pointing to Grody. “This son, another son, two grandchildren, and a career that was beyond my wildest imagination. And this thing right now.”
Patinkin looks at the show as something his grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be able to watch and “get to know the essence of us.”
“And you don’t get that from a Hallmark card.”
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