Josh Duhamel Shares the Moment He Realized He's "Too Old" for Wife Audra Mari.
Josh Duhamel recalls the precise moment his outlook on his age difference with wife Audra Mari changed. The Transformers actor acknowledged that it wasn't until he reflected on the arrival of his younger sister Kassidy Kemper that he realized he was 21 years older than the former Miss World America.
"There’s a picture of me holding Kassidy as a 21-year-old young man with this little bitty infant," on July 13, Duhamel, who is currently 53, informed host Ryan Sickler on the HoneyDew podcast. "I looked at the photo, and I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘You and Kassidy are exactly the same age.'"
Duhamel pointed out that he was a top collegiate athlete when his half-sister from his mother Bonnie Kemper's second marriage was born.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 20 (June 8 – Sept 5, 2026).
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
"I was playing football at Minot State University. I remember looking up at the stands, and I saw my mom and [she] had this bump," Duhamel went into further detail. "And I’m like, ‘Is my mom pregnant?’ I’m 21 years old, and she’s having another baby."
After speculating that the relationship may be a "highlight or a lowlight," the Shotgun Wedding star came to the realization that he had misjudged the age gap between him and Mari, with whom he shares two-year-old Shepherd Lawrence Duhamel and two-month-old Rocca de Leon Duhamel.
"I am officially too old for you," after finding the family photo again, Duhamel recalled making light of the model, saying, "They’re literally months apart in age. I never looked at it like that until I saw that photo. I was like, ‘Wait a second.'"
However, the Safe Haven alum, who separated from Fergie in 2019 and has a 12-year-old son named Axl Jack Duhamel, feels a deeper bond with Mari than just numbers. After all, before they started dating, they had been friends for years.
"It was truly platonic for years," in a 2025 edition of the podcast Not Skinny But Not Fat, Duhamel described how he first addressed himself, "'I'm not even going to go there.'"
Even though Duhamel initially felt Mari was "too young" for him to date, in the end, her charisma overcame his concerns about their age difference.
According to Duhamel, "She's more mature than I am. That's how we started dating."