Amy Poehler Shocks Ex-Husband Will Arnett as Surprise Guest on His Podcast

One of the fun elements of Arnett’s Smartless podcast, which he cohosts with Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes, is that the three comedians take turns choosing their guests, and don’t bother to tell the other two who they’ve invited.

And so, for the upcoming April 21 episode, Hayes decided it would be fun to bring one of the most venerated and respected comic actresses of her generation — who just happens to have a potentially awkward connection to one of his cohosts.

After Hayes read off a list of the Saturday Night Live alum’s career highlights and accomplishments,” Arnett stilled dropped a “No way!” when she walked in, per Us Weekly.

“Not a glimpse of recognition on Will’s face when [Sean] said all of those things,” Poehler quipped.

Perhaps part of his surprise, though, was that Arnett himself had invited his ex-wife onto the podcast in the past, including when they took their show on the road for a live tour, and she’d always declined.

“I wanted to wait until you had done 250 episodes to see if this thing was real,” Poehler responded to that. “I usually give something five years until I try it.”

When Bateman asked the Will & Grace star if he’d tried to float the idea of Poehler as a guest by Arnett before booking her, the Inside Out star wasn’t having any of that. “What are you guys talking about? Why do you have to float anything past anybody?” she shot back. “Guys, nice, by the way, great welcome. Nice to see you all.”

“I mean Jesus, you’re all talking about how weird it is that I’m here,” she continued. “Hi, I’m your guest. Nice to see you. Happy to be here.”

To offer some clarity for the listeners who may not be up to speed on why there might be any residual awkwardness, Hayes offered a quick recap: “You guys were married and now you’re not and it’s been years and years and everything is going swimmingly.”

Arnett first saw Poehler when she was performing with the improv comedy troupe Upright Citizen’s Brigade in 1996, but neither of them were single at the time.

“We watch the show. We’re blown away, we go for a drink after, we’re talking about it. We talk about it for a few days because nobody was doing what they were doing,” Arnett recalled on the podcast. “And we were like, ‘God, that was so funny and it was so inventive and it was so cool.”

He’s also admitted to being immediately smitten with Poehler, which is girlfriend at the time apparently picked up on. “I went with my then-girlfriend, and she was like, ‘You have a crush on that girl!’” he told People in 2005. “Amy did stick out. She was fantastic and obviously really cute.”

They began dating after they reconnected four years later, and by 2003 they were married. They welcomed two children together before their eventual divorce in 2012, though they’ve consistently stated since then that they have a healthy coparenting relationship.

He also still gushes about Poehler’s approach to parenting, which he says he still tries to emulate.

“I have to try really hard — Amy you’re really good at this and you help me do this in concert with you — to remember to listen to what they’re saying and to not try to impose what I think, ‘You need this, you need that,’” Arnett said on Smartless.

“To actually sit and listen to what your kid is trying to say. Encourage them to, as much as they can, to speak. I don’t come by it naturally because that’s not how I was raised,” he confessed.

Nevertheless, that partnership has remained strong over the years, with Arnett saying he’s “really proud of it.”

“That has been really important to both of us,” he said of successful coparenting. “I’m really, really lucky to have her as a partner in this way.”

“There aren’t many people I speak to more than I speak to her, which is weird, you know what I mean. But it’s great. I feel really lucky,” he added.

In fact, Arnett admitted that he still runs “a lot of stuff” by his ex-wife in his day-to-day life and even about his career. “She’s the person that I go like, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about doing this.’ Whether it’s life or work and I really seek her counsel because it’s important to me because I trust her,” she said. “She’s awesome.”

Arnett isn’t the only one who thinks so, either, as he also shared an adorable thing he remembers about how much her father adores his daughter and is proud of everything she does.

The Arrested Development alum shared a story of when they went back home to visit Poehler’s family in her Massachusetts hometown. In particular, he recalled a funny exchange that happened at an ice cream stand.

“There’s this girl and she’s like, I don’t know, 17 working [there] as her afternoon, weekend job scooping ice cream,” he said. “This is when Amy was first on SNL, you know, 25 years ago. He goes to the girl who’s kind of silent, ‘You like your job?’”

“She’s scooping ice cream and she’s like, ‘Yeah I guess so.’ He goes, ‘You know who really likes her job? My daughter,’” Arnett continued. “It was so good. But he’s so proud.”

And Poehler added that her father’s gushing enthusiasm has not wavered or waned through the years. “He will get on elevators with people and say, ‘Do you like TV and movies?’ That’s his question. Like, does anyone say no?” she said.

“We played golf with these guys years ago, [a friend] and I were playing with some random dudes,” Arnett chimed in. “He gets back in the car and looks at me and goes, ‘Well, I told them.’”

Fans can enjoy Poehler’s full appearance on the next episode of the Smartless podcast when it drops on Monday.