Dawn O'Porter reveals twist of fate which led to her first meeting husband Chris O'Dowd as he admits they almost didn't end up together

Dawn O'Porter has revealed it was a twist of fate which led to her first meeting with her husband Chris O'Dowd in an interview on Wednesday. 

The TV presenter and Irish comedian, both 45, have been happily married since 2012 but admitted they very nearly didn't end up together. 

Joining Jessie and Lennie Ware on their podcast Table Manners they recalled their first meeting at Dawn's 30th birthday party in Los Angeles in 2009.

Speaking on the show, which was recorded live from the Union Chapel for a special event for charity Choose Love, she explained: 'We were both living out in LA but separately, I'd been out there for a year, and I was having a party. 

'My friend had lent me her Pilates studio for my 30th birthday party, which is the most LA thing ever. 

'We moved all of the Reformers to the side, and one friend bought me a dance floor for the night. And then two other friends, because I was born in Scotland, played bagpipes for me.' 

Dawn continued: 'Not that many people came because I didn't know that many people and everyone had left by 9:30. Chris had introduced himself to me on Facebook, weirdly, in the run up to this party. 

'He said, “Do you want to go bowling?” And I said, "No, but I'm having my 30th birthday tonight, so just come and bring all your friends”.

Chris recalled: 'I actually was coming over, and I didn't really know anybody either. So I asked a mate of mine who was also an actor, Nick Frost, lovely actor, if he knew anybody in town at the moment. 

'And he said, oh, you should look Dawn up. I know Dawn a bit and she's a good crack.'

Admitting that his future wife had, in fact, rejected him, he added: 'So I sent a couple of friend requests on Facebook... So Dawn said no couple of times, and then she was short on numbers for her birthday, so invited me along.' 

Dawn recently revealed the 'unbearable anxiety' she felt raising children in the US - after she and her husband Chris to leave LA after 16 years. 

She admitted the gun culture in America is 'terrifying' and that she began to find living their with young children 'really unsettling' as she appeared on Lorraine with Ranvir Singh. 

'I can't deny that for me personally the anxiety of America was becoming quite unbearable,' she said. 

Dawn also opened up about her first few years across the pond when her actor husband Chris shot to fame - with the writer admitting to feeling 'crushed and consumed' by the pressure of Hollywood. 

The author and actor couple recently decided to return to the UK with their children after living stateside for 16 years.  

Asked why they decided to come home, Dawn said: 'When something like a pandemic happens, you really weigh up where you are in the world and where you want to be. 

'So the main reason we came home was because we wanted to be closer to family, and that's it.'

'But I can’t deny that I was starting to find America really unsettling,' she said. 'The guns thing is really terrifying and very real in the schools.

'One of the school mums once said to me "You know if your kid is going on a playdate you have to call and say 'Have you got a gun in the house'". And I thought, I don't want this. I don't want to make that call and I don't want someone to ask me that question.' 

Dawn added: 'We were really lucky that we could go home and come back here.'

But Dawn insisted her feelings towards America weren't bad, as she said: 'I mean I left before I didn't like it anymore. 

'I do love it, I mean I had my babies there. I remember our time in LA so fondly, it was an amazing 16 years. But then it was time to come home.'

Dawn and Chris have been married since 2012, tying the knot in an intimate ceremony after first meeting at her 30th birthday party in 2009. 

The IT Crowd star saw a Hollywood explosion in his career when he starred in Bridesmaids - however Dawn admitted the red carpet environment made her feel a bit 'crushed' at the time.

'I think it's really important to remember that people who are in the public eye are people, and they’re not always having the experience that you think they're having,' she said. 

'You know it was a wonderful time in our lives, Chris was doing really well and we were on red carpets and that was the first time in my life I had ever been in those situations. I'd been on TV before but it wasn’t that, it wasn't glamorous.'

She added: 'And at the time I would just be like, "I really love being here and I'm really proud of Chris", but it feels weird doing all of that not for your own achievements - which is the interesting part of it because I wasn't able to see at the time that my amazing boyfriend was one of my great achievements. Which I see now. 

'I look back and I was so young and consumed with my success that I didn't take a beat to go "Well this is also a great success and lovely thing".'