28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Who is Anchorman actor Will Ferrell's art-loving partner, Viveca Paulin? The collector and auctioneer shares his sense of humour – and introduced him to Eurovision
The most exciting time of the year for basketball fans is finally here. The 2025
NBA playoffs have tipped off, and with the league championship at stake the hardwood is on fire. The inaugural game, on April 19, was attended by some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Among them were comedy legend Will Ferrell, 57 and his wife, Viveca Paulin, 56, who turned up at the Arena in Los Angeles for a match between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, per USA Today.
Will Ferrell and his wife, Viveca Paulin, attend the game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 19. Photo: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The couple were dressed casually – unlike on a previous appearance at an NHL game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings late last year, where Ferrell showed up as his Elf character, Buddy the Elf. At the time, the
Saturday Night Live star told Today that he had explicitly instructed Paulin not to smile. Sure enough, she hardly broke character while her husband channelled a post-Christmas, 'laid-off' Buddy.
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Clearly, these two were made for each other. So, what else do we know about Viveca Paulin, who went from 'the one that got away', as Ferrell described her in a 2023 interview with Elle, to his 'partner in crime', which he calls her now, per People?
What's her background?
Will Ferrell and Viveca Paulin arrive for the Los Angeles premiere of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, in 2006. Photo: AFP
Viveca Paulin hails from Askim, Sweden. But she grew up in Boston, according to Elle and studied art history at Pomona College in Claremont, California. The You're Cordially Invited actor Ferrell once told People that the names of his sons with Paulin – Magnus, Mattias and Axel – are a nod to her Scandinavian roots. 'My wife was born in Sweden and we loved the idea of a Scandinavian name,' he said. Explaining
Magnus ' name, which, in Latin, means 'the great one', he added, 'I've gotten a lot of flak: 'What kind of ego do you have to have to name your child the great one?' That is not it at all.'
Ferrell's film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) was inspired by his first time watching the international music competition show with Paulin in Sweden, while at dinner with her cousin, he told the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
She used to be an actress
