Zooey Deschanel and fiancé Jonathan Scott are on the road to marriage, but the actor's kids thought they already tied the knot.
During the couple's engagement at Scotland's Edinburgh Castle, Scott told People that they were with her kids when a guitarist he hired broke into Neil Young’s song “Harvest Moon.”
“Somebody magically took the kids over on the other side where the band was, and I was like, ‘Something’s happening,’” Deschanel said.
Scott said his now-fiancée finally put the pieces together when her kids pulled out a banner that read, "Zooey, will you marry me?" he recalled, to which Deschanel said, "Yes."
But Deschanel's oldest daughter, 8-year-old Elise, still wasn't so clear about what happened.
“When Elsie turned around and read [the sign], that was the first time she learned,” Scott told the publication. “And she immediately goes, ‘Huh, did you just get married?’”
He continued, “And we’re like, ‘Well, no, not yet, but we got engaged.’ And she’s like, ‘Does that mean I get to be a flower girl?’ And we’re like, ‘Yes. Yes you can.’ So it was really sweet to have them there too.”
In September, Deschanel posted several photos of her kids, Elsie and Charlie, 6, on their European vacation with Scott. The "New Girl" shares her two children with ex-husband Jacob Pechenik.
“Europe things,” she captioned the post on Instagram.
None of the pictures show her kids' faces. One was taken in a large, majestic hall. Another show captures her two kids standing by a stone ledge while looking out at a city below, while a third picture shows them from a distance with their faces buried in a bench.
Ever since she started dating Scott, Deschanel has regularly gushed about how great the "Property Brothers" star is with her kids. Now that the longtime couple is engaged, Scott will soon be solidifying his father figure role when he takes on the official title of stepdad.
It's a job he takes very seriously. In June, Scott celebrated Father's Day by sharing a loving message about his blended family.
“Being a bonus dad has been one of my greatest accomplishments and adventures so far,” he wrote on Instagram.
The previous year, Deschanel gave Scott and Pechenik a shoutout on Father's Day, writing, “So thankful my kids have these two awesome guys in their lives: @jonathanscott and their dad @jacobpechenik.”
Deschanel and Scott even renovated their home with the intent of one day passing it on to their kids.
“We literally designed this house, so that … my hope is it will stay in the family forever, our kids will take it over, and then their kids will take it over,” Scott told TODAY.com at the time. “I waited my whole life to find Zooey, and I’ve now waited my whole life to have my dream home with someone like Zooey.”
Read on for more about their blended family.
Elsie Otter, 8
In January 2015, Deschanel and her then-boyfriend Pechenik announced they were expecting their first child together. Before giving birth, Deschanel revealed that she and Pechenik wanted to be surprised by the baby's gender.
“It’s more fun, you know. Make it into a game,” she told Jimmy Kimmel at the time.
By August, the couple had gotten married and announced the birth of their baby girl. While speaking with TODAY two months later, Deschanel revealed the inspiration behind her daughter's name, Elsie Otter.
“We just really liked the name Elsie, and then we both love otters because they’re so sweet and also smart,” she said. “They use tools, they keep their favorite tools, they hold hands while they sleep, there are so many amazing things about otters. They’re wonderful animals.”
The following year, Deschanel opened up about how grateful she was to have a long maternity leave.
“We live in a country that doesn’t give paid maternity leave,” Deschanel told Cosmopolitan. “I felt very lucky to have an employer who was understanding and let me have, like, four months with my baby before I had to go back to work.”
In 2019, Deschanel told People that her daughter already had a passion for fashion.
"She likes to put together outfits and she has very distinct opinions on what she will or will not wear," she said. "It’s very sweet to see her say, ‘I like this’ or ‘I don’t like that,’ and express herself in that way."
In September 2019, Deschanel and Pechenik announced they were splitting after four years of marriage. After she started dating Scott, Deschanel quarantined with her children and new beau when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
Fast forward two years and Deschanel told TODAY.com that Scott was an "amazing stepdad." He added that he was enjoying the role.
“I love it. Just (to) be sitting doing nothing and they’ll come over and just plant a big hug on you or say something really sweet,” he said. “Like, that came out of left field but I will take it!”
Deschanel, Scott and Pechenik have appeared in several photos featuring their fun adventures together over the past few years.
Scott proudly shared a story about Elsie in 2021, telling People that she was already concerned about the environment.
“The sweetest moment was when Elsie wrote a letter to our senator,” he said. “It was the sweetest thing in the world to know that a 6-year-old wrote a letter to her senator and it was all about waste.”
Deschanel elaborated on the story: “She said that people are throwing away too much trash. And she was 5 when she wrote it. She’s very conscious.”
Charlie Wolf, 6
Deschanel and Pechenik welcomed their second child, a son named Charlie Wolf, in May 2017.
During an interview with "Access Hollywood" in November 2022, the actor suggested her son may have inherited her creative side.
"My son likes to make up dinosaur movies all the time, and make up songs. My daughter does too, so they both kind of like to make up stuff,” she said. “But I don’t know if it’s just, like, childhood creativity or (something else). You know, we’ll see."
While speaking with TODAY.com last January, Scott said he and Deschanel “enjoy every minute” of co-parenting with Pechenik. He also shared the moment when he really began to connect with Deschanel's children.
“The first time I realized (we had a connection) ... our youngest came back from school with a picture that he had drawn, and in the picture, he has Mommy and Daddy and Jonathan and his sister and our puppies,” he said. “He had drawn this whole picture. This is his happy family.”
“I think that was when I was like, that’s pretty sweet, because the way we think of it is, he has the benefit of a ‘bonus dad,’” he continued. “How cool is that? You have more people that love you.”
Scott also said he "always knew" he would be a "great dad" and described parenting as "incredible."
“You see your life transform, your priorities become your kids, and when they have a performance that they’re doing at school, or working on some of their homework, or whatever it might be, it’s a joy," he said.
Scott and his twin brother, Drew, shared their thoughts about fatherhood in an interview on their website this past June. Scott revealed that it was initially a "struggle" to determine what Deschanel's children would call him.
"They have their dad and they have a great relationship with him, so he’s daddy. I couldn’t say papa because that’s what they call their grandpa (though at one point we tried to change the narrative and get them to call me papa instead, but they weren't having it). Eventually they came up with 'my Jonathan.' So, whenever they tell a story they say, 'There’s daddy, there’s mommy, and he’s my Jonathan,'" he said.