Jimmy Kimmel's wife Molly McNearney reveals awkward detail about their relationship

Jimmy Kimmel's wife had worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live! for eight years before an awkward encounter between the pair ultimately sparked their romance.

Molly McNearney appeared alongside her now-husband, Jimmy Kimmel, during an episode of the Armchair Expert podcast, where she recalled the moment she realized her then-colleague was interested in having sex with her.

It 'immediately registered', the producer admitted.

It was when the 48-year-old was in a meeting that a colleague had asked everyone to name their five favorite foods - a detail Kimmel filed away for a later occasion.

"Pizza and gnocchi, crab claws, BLT and chocolate chip cookies," she listed, all of which the presenter cooked for her six months later.

"Talk about a long play," she joked, noting how 'nervous' she felt spending time with her 'boss' outside of work.

She noted it 'immediately registered' that he was interested. (Armchair Expert podcast)

She recalled: "I go to Jimmy’s house, he asks me to come over after work, and he opens up the door and it smells delicious and he’s like, 'I made some things,' and it was pizza and gnocchi, crab claws, chocolate chop cookies and BLT.

"It made me very excited and very nervous. I remember thinking, 'Oh, no. This is a bad idea.' He was my boss."

While 58-year-old Kimmel suggested he 'didn’t have that thought at the time', his now-wife clapped back: "The person in power usually doesn’t, but I was very nervous about it. I thought it was a terrible idea. I was very skittish."

The couple got married in 2013. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

The pair admitted that they kept the relationship under wraps during their early months of dating, as the mom-of-two added: "I just kept thinking statistically this is not going to work out and your life isn’t going to change but mine does. And that’s what freaked me out. Because I had worked really really hard.

"I was very nervous about it changing the work dynamic and I was in a room of mostly men and we had a great thing going on and I didn’t want it to change."

The couple tied the knot in 2013 after dating since 2009, and now share two children together.

"I met him a couple weeks into working at the show," she recalled.

"I went into the office with the executive producer at the time. I don’t think Jimmy even looked up from his desk when I was introduced to him," she joked.

Kimmel is also dad to Catherine 'Katie', now 34, and Kevin, 32, from his first marriage to Gina Kimmel, between 1988 and 2002.