Joaquin Phoenix Posts Marriage Rumors After Calling Rooney Mara His ‘Wife’

The actors got engaged in 2019 and are currently expecting their second child

Joaquin Phoenix just called his longtime love Rooney Mara his “wife.”

Discussing his 2020 Oscars acceptance speech during a rare podcast appearance, Phoenix, 49, sparked marriage rumors after apparently calling Mara, 39, his “wife” publicly for the first time.

During the September 29 episode Speak freely with Sam FragosoPhoenix revealed that he ultimately found inspiration for the speech by “talking to my mom and my wife.”

Moments later, Phoenix called Mary by name as he recounted how he crafted his speech, saying, “Rooney said, ‘That’s what you should have said!’ “

In his interview with Fragoso, Phoenix did not further clarify whether he and Mara are legally married.

Representatives for Phoenix and Mara did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Related: Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mary’s relationship timeline

Actors who met in 2012 on the set Herthey have been dating publicly since 2017 and got engaged in 2019.

The couple are also parents to son River, whom they welcomed in 2020 and who was named after Phoenix’s late brother, and is currently expecting their second child.

Both Mara and Phoenix often don’t reveal details about their relationship and family life, but the latter has previously revealed that he thought his current partner – who played his ex-wife in the sci-fi film – didn’t like him at first.

He later found out she was just shy, he said Vanity fairin 2019. “She’s the only girl I’ve ever looked for on the internet,” he said of Mary at the time. “We were just friends, e-mail friends. I’ve never done that. I have never looked for a girl on the Internet.”

Related: Rooney Mara supports Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux Premiere in Los Angeles, but they don’t pose together

When the couple went public with their relationship at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2017, a source told PEOPLE that the actors “seem completely natural and at ease.”

Later that year, Phoenix revealed that the pair had started living together during an interview T Magazine.

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Mara and Phoenix spoke publicly about their son in an exclusive November 2020 article for PEOPLE about migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, writing that “as new parents, I can’t imagine what that would be like.” was. “We feel like having our child taken away from us for just one day, let alone for years.”

Related: Rooney Mara Celebrates Growing Son River in ‘Creative Household’ with Fiancé Joaquin Phoenix

Since then, they’ve shared snippets of their parenting experiences several times, with Phoenix saying he hopes his son is vegan even though he’ll “support him” anyway, and Mara on seeking advice from other working moms when she brought River to the island Women talking make an appointment with her.

The Carol star revealed she was pregnant with the couple’s second child earlier this year on the Berlin Film Festival red carpet.

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