Inside Riz Ahmed's adorable love story

Actor spills beans on his author wife, Fatima Faheem Mirza, and how they met randomly at a coffee shop

Venom antagonist Riz Ahmed, earlier this week, revealed that he recently got married. The actor, at 38, confessed he hadn’t been married for “very long” on broadcaster Louis Theroux’s podcast Grounded, reported Evening Standard. He has now given more details on his private life during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

According to The Independent, the Reluctant Fundamentalist star met wife Fatima Faheem Mirza 'quite randomly.’ Ahmed revealed, "She's an amazing novelist. We met so randomly while I was preparing for this role, for Sound Of Metal when I was in New York. We both sat down at the same table in the cafe where we had turned up to write. We were both jostling over the same laptop plug points, like a very modern way of meeting. And we struck up a friendship and reconnected down the line.”

He continued, “But it's weirdly like one of the many things about preparing for this role that was so special… it just brought a lot of goodness into my life.”

In Sound of Metal, due to be released later this month, Ahmed plays a drummer who loses his hearing. "Obviously, I met Fatima for the first time and met so many people in the deaf community that have become friends. There's just something about this whole period around this film that was kind of life-changing."

Just the couple's friends and family got to witness the small ceremony digitally, which Ahmed described as "weird.” He went on, "It's weird because no one is really sure exactly when they're on camera. So you actually get a couple of seconds of people's unadulterated, unvarnished reactions. So it's kind of cool in a way because you see a very intimate reaction."

Mirza’s debut novel A Place For Us became a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 2018. It was the first book published by Sarah Jessica Parker’s publishing imprint SJP for Hogarth. The story follows an Indian-Muslim family awaiting their eldest daughter’s wedding, a match made through love rather than tradition.

Ahmed first mentioned his wife in passing on the Grounded podcast on Monday, January 11. Theroux had asked Ahmed if he was married, adding that he didn't know the actor wasn't single. Ahmed replied, "I think it's the first time I've mentioned it in an interview so congratulations on that incredibly exciting scoop. I don't really feel it's generally that relevant so I don't delve into my personal life or dating history."

The star emphasised that the wedding was "socially-distanced" with very few guests. "Obviously, kept it super intimate and socially-distanced. There was just like, hardly anyone there really. We did it in a backyard, which is nice in lots of ways. I think the nicest thing about it was you didn't have 500 aunties hanging around you, pinching your cheeks," he chuckled.

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