A decade later, and the details are still trickling out. Grey’s Anatomy actress Ellen Pompeo caught up with Ryan Seacrest and Kelly Ripa on Thursday, November 9, ahead of her 10th wedding anniversary—so naturally, the conversation turned to the guest’s secret nuptials from 2007.
“We got married here in City Hall,” Pompeo recalled on the NYC set. “And Mayor Bloomberg was [the officiant]… Yeah it was very cool.”
As recalled, the actress quietly married Chris Ivery, and yes—it was a super secretive affair. “They took us on the subway underneath a tunnel… There are tunnels underneath City Hall!” Pompeo continued. “And then you come up, and you’re in the mayor’s office. There’s a bookshelf and then, you just walk in and you’re in his office.”
The pair opted to keep the ceremony between themselves. Much of it had to do with Pompeo skyrocketing to fame as the newish star of Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy. “It was 10 years ago, so it would’ve been season four of the show,” she shared. “So at that point, I was really dying for privacy. So we flew out on a redeye Thursday night. Friday morning, we woke up, went to City Hall, had the wedding really quick, and then we went to a waffle lunch after.”
The beauty in that was intimacy. “We had the whole weekend and no-one knew,” she expressed. “So we had that to ourselves and we went to a Knicks game, of course.”
The star has been celebrating a series of big milestones lately, including another event on Thursday night: her smash ABC medical drama just marked its 300th episode, a milestone as it’s currently on its 14th season.
Watch her sit-down with Kelly and Ryan above.
