The Ransom Canyon actor has been married to pageant queen Audra Mari, 31, since 2022

Josh Duhamel’s love story with his wife Audra Mari didn’t come without some hesitations on his part.

The Ransom Canyon actor and his wife, who is 21 years younger than him, have been married since 2022, and share a son together, Shepherd, who just turned one in January.

However, they were friends for a long time before they started dating, and the father-of-two — he shares son Axl, 11, with ex-wife Fergie — has cited their age gap as the reason.

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Audra and Josh were first romantically linked in 2019

In a clip from his upcoming appearance on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast shared with Us Weekly, Josh, 52, first explained that he knew who Audra, 31, was because of her work in pageants, but it was actually her who reached out first. Audra was crowned Miss World America in 2016, and represented the United States at Miss World the same year.

“It was truly platonic for years before that because I was like, ‘No, she’s too young for me. I’m not even going to go there,'” he maintained, before revealing: “Then, we started DMing back and forth.”

They eventually forged a stronger connection over having both a friend in common and having roots in North Dakota, where they are both originally from.

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They welcomed their first son together in January 2024

Josh further shared: “Then, I invited her to a barbecue, still thinking it was totally platonic just as a friend from [North Dakota]. There aren’t many people from there,” and went on: “But she did come, and I saw her and I was like, ‘Holy [expletive], this girl’s beautiful.'”

“She’s more mature than I am,” he then confessed, adding: “That’s really how we started dating and it’s been a beautiful thing. We’ve been married now for over two years. She’s an amazing mother.”

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Josh with his two sons

Audra, Josh and the kids are largely based in a lakeside property in northwest Minnesota that he bought almost 20 years ago.

Speaking with Country Living, he described his cabin in rural Minnesota as akin to a “doomsday cabin.” Noting it’s “about 40 minutes from civilization,” he emphasized: “It’s an exhale whenever we get here.”

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The actor was married to Fergie from 2009 to 2019

Recalling how he developed the land over time from an initial rustic cabin he built, he shared: “We were basically homesteading the first 12 years. For the longest time we didn’t have plumbing. We were using outhouses and washing dishes in the lake.”

“I feel so connected to it — I didn’t just buy the place, I shaped this place. While we’ve made a lot of improvements, you still feel like you’re roughing it, and I love that,” he then reflected.