He may be a household name thanks to unforgettable roles in The Walking Dead, and more, but there
was a time when no one wanted to cast this seasoned actor.
From his love life to living the small town life, this is the untold truth of Jeffrey
Dean Morgan.
"You really wanna piss me off."
Back before Morgan simultaneously hit our screens in Grey's Anatomy, Weeds, and Supernatural
in the mid-2000s, he nearly called it quits on acting.
In 2015, Moves reported that Morgan had been quote, "dumped" by his manager a decade prior.
The actor explained that at the time, she had told him:
"I'm expendable, that I'm too old, whatever it was, that I didn't have the talent.
It was crushing.
But I remember thinking, 'I've got no other option, here…I can't give this up now.'"
"That's a tough one."
The next day, he signed with a new manager, and the rest is history.
Before Morgan met his now-wife, he was engaged to Weeds co-star Mary-Louise Parker.
Morgan portrayed Parker's late husband on the show, which debuted in 2005, and the pair
had a somewhat on-and-off relationship, with reports of breakups and makeups surfacing
throughout 2007.
Parker told People magazine in March of that year,
"The New York Post said we were fighting at Nobu, but I'm certainly not dumb enough to
fight at a [high-profile] restaurant like Nobu."
By the following February, the two had gotten engaged.
But just a short two months later, the engagement was off.
At the time, reps for the couple refused to comment on the rumored split.
Morgan's love story with Hilarie Burton, who famously played Peyton Sawyer on One Tree
Hill, is one for the ages.
"It's gonna be okay, just step away from the cake.
You have too much to live for."
According to E! News, the actors started dating in 2009, when an alcohol-fueled blind date
went swimmingly, with Morgan admitting to HuffPost in 2015,
"I [got lit]…We ended up back at my house drinking shots of tequila."
Despite multiple reports to the contrary, the pair didn't actually marry until 10 years
later.
Burton posted in October 2019:
"For years, publications have reported that we got married in 2014 or 2015 and that I've
been married and divorced before.
All untrue…From the moment I met [Jeffrey], he was my husband.
Rather than make vows right out of the gate, we lived them.
For over ten years."
To top it all off, Entertainment Tonight reports that The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus performed
a reading at the wedding, and the man responsible for introducing the happy couple, Jensen Ackles,
officiated.
"It was his big idea in the first place, so."
Burton and Morgan are not only happily married, but they also live on a working farm together.
The newlyweds reside in Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, in upstate New York.
While speaking about their abode with Parade in 2012, Morgan said,
"We found a little piece of land with a log cabin in the Hudson Valley that we love.
We're like Little House on the Prairie out there, getting up in the morning to chop wood.
People would laugh if they saw us, but that's the world I'm comfortable with."
Burton even shared a behind-the-scenes look at the couple's farm life in a 2018 Twitter
video, which she captioned with, quote, "It's Alpaca/Llama Shearing Day!!!!!!!"
When the couple were asked why they chose Rhinebeck, Morgan told the Hudson Valley News
Network,
"And we bought a little cabin up here thinking, 'Well, we'll spend a month or two out of the
year.'
We had a house in L.A., and we never went back."
Considering they upgraded from that cabin to a full-on working farm, with animals, it
all certainly seems like a welcome world away from the bright lights of Hollywood.
"This is the first time I've done something where I know that people are just gonna despise
me."
While Morgan is now pretty much synonymous with his role as the villainous Negan on The
Walking Dead, it seems as though he was destined to land the coveted gig.
In 2016, the actor told Interview magazine,
"I was at a Comic-Con actually, I think it was in San Diego, when somebody came up to
me and said, 'Have you seen Kirkman's new book?'
I said, 'No,' and they said, 'There's this character Negan.
You should be Negan.'"
"I can do that."
Morgan went on to explain that once he got around to reading said issue, he knew that
he'd be a great fit for the role.
It wasn't until five years later that the AMC series introduced the character, and the
production team apparently already had Morgan in mind for the part.
Morgan's agent had called and said, quote, "The Walking Dead is offering you the role
of a villain."
They refused to reveal the villain's name at the time, keeping the character's identity
strictly under wraps.
Still, that was the moment Morgan knew that he'd landed his dream role.
"Boy, do I have a feeling we're getting close."
He told the outlet,
"I knew immediately, I knew because I watched the show and knew where we were.
And I'm like, 'It's f---ing Negan!
And I'm going to f---ing do it.'"
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