Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart’s decades-long romance started with an awards show encounter.

Before auditioning for and securing the starring role in Ally McBeal, Calista Flockhart was mostly acting in Broadway theatre productions with only a few television and film roles to her name.

The late '90s legal dramedy received critical acclaim in its early seasons, and the now 59-year-old won a Golden Globe, a Screen Actor's Guild Award, and received several Emmy nominations for her portrayal of the Harvard-educated lawyer working at a corporate law firm.

After five seasons, Ally McBeal was cancelled in 2002. But it was that same year, at the Golden Globes ceremony in January that Flockhart, then mum to her newly adopted son Liam, met Harrison Ford. 

Watch the trailer for Harrison Ford's upcoming movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Post continues after video.

Ford, then aged 59 and well known for his roles in the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, was being honoured for his lifetime achievement in the industry with the Cecil B. DeMille award. 

The notoriously private couple dated for seven years before getting engaged while holidaying with son Liam on Valentine's Day in 2009. They were married in June 2010 in New Mexico where Ford was filming Cowboys and Aliens. 

According to People Magazine, the wedding was incredibly casual with Ford choosing to wear Wrangler jeans and Flockhart wearing a casual white dress.

While this was Flockhart's first marriage, it was the Blade Runner actor's third after his marriage to Mary Marquardt from 1964 until 1979, and his marriage to E.T. screenwriter Melissa Mathison from 1986 until 2000.

He also reportedly had a three-month affair with Carrie Fisher who he met on the set of Star Wars. She wrote about their romantic involvement in her 2016 memoir The Princess Diarist but Ford has never publicly commented on the claims. 

Ford has four children with his ex-wives: sons Benjamin and Willard with Marquardt, and Malcolm and Georgia with Mathison. He adopted Liam shortly after meeting Flockhart in 2002.

Flockhart and Ford in 2002. Image: Getty.

According to a 2013 Playboy interview with Flockhart's Ally McBeal co-star, James Marsden, the actor accompanied the couple on their first date.

"She said, 'Come to dinner with me and Harrison.' I’m like, 'Me, you and him?' It turned out to be a small group of us, thankfully, but I ended up as her wingman," he told Playboy.

After dinner, the group went back to Harrison’s home for drinks and music. "He was giggly and goofy around her but pretty aloof with the rest of us," Marsden recalled.

"We had more drinks, he played more music, and then at some point, he gave me a look that said, 'Okay, you’ve got to get the f**k out of here.'"

The rest, as they say, is history.

The couple's 22-year age difference initially attracted attention from fans and media.

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart at the 67th Golden Globes. Image: Getty. "It doesn't faze me," Flockhart said in an interview with People Magazine in 2003. 

"Sometimes I even say, 'Wow, I keep forgetting that he's [22] years older than me.' It doesn't factor into our relationship at all."

In the same interview, she commented on Ford's early morning appeal. 

"I like the way he looks first thing in the morning. It’s not handsome. It’s more cute. He looks like a little boy. You know how when you wake up in the morning and you’re kind of puffy and rumpled and you look kind of vulnerable? That’s what he looks like."

As someone who has experienced falling in love many times throughout his life, Ford was unsurprisingly happy to find it again, as he told People Magazine in 2003. 

"Romantic love is one of the most exciting and fulfilling kinds of love, and I think there's a potential for it at any stage of your life," he shared. 

"I was 60 when I fell in love with Calista," he later told Hello Magazine.

"What surprised me most was that I was still capable of establishing a long-lasting relationship, making a serious commitment."

In 2017, Flockhart spoke to Fox News about what makes their relationship so happy.

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart with son Liam and a friend at a hockey game in 2014. Image: Getty. "Harrison and I laugh a lot, and humour is everything to me," she shared. 

The couple, who will mark 14 years of marriage this year, live on an 800-acre ranch in Jackson, Wyoming but still maintain a base in Los Angeles. As a keen environmentalist and vice-chair of Conservation International, Ford has reportedly lived on the same ranch since the 1980s and has donated half of it as a nature reserve.

Now 81 years old, Ford is just as busy as he was in his early career. Last year, he was on a press run for his starring role in the Yellowstone prequel TV show 1923 and also for the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, where he played a psychologist. The Indiana Jones franchise also added a new addition, Dial Of Destiny, in which he reprised his iconic role.

During the 2024 Critics Choice Awards, Flockhart and Ford looked as loved up as ever, and after 50 years in show business, the ceremony honoured the actor with a Career Achievement Award. 

Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart at the Critics Choice Awards, 2024. Image: Getty.

During his speech, he reflected on his decades-long career and acknowledged Flockhart for her "support".

"I'm really happy to be here tonight to see what our business is turning into and all of the talented people who are getting opportunities that probably would not have existed in the early part of my career. I’m really happy about that," Ford said during his speech. 

"I'm here because of a combination of luck and the work of wonderful directors, writers, and filmmakers. I feel enormously lucky.

"I want to thank my lovely wife Calista Flockhart, who supports me when I need a lot of support – and I need a lot of support."

Feature Image: Getty.