Cameron Diaz explains why she was only interested in Benji Madden and not his identical twin

Couple married in January 2015

Cameron Diaz opens up about first meeting with Benji Madden (Getty Images)

Cameron Diaz has reflected on the moment she met her husband Benji Madden, and why he stood out from his identical twin brother, Joel.

The What Happens In Vegas star, who married Madden in 2015, discussed the couple’s meeting during an appearance on the Anna Faris Is Unqualified podcast, where she was asked to recall how she and her husband met.

According to Diaz, she was introduced to her husband by his brother, Joel, and his wife and her now-sister-in-law, Nicole Richie.

“I met mine through my now sister-in-law and brother-in-law, I met them first and then they didn’t set us up but we were in the same room because of them, and then we found each other,” the 49-year-old recalled, adding that, at the time, she “was like: ‘How come I didn’t see him before?’”

The comment prompted a response from Katherine Power, who works with Diaz and who was also a guest on the podcast, who noted: “Which is funny, because you saw his twin brother.”

However, according to the Charlie’s Angels star, despite already being introduced to Joel, it wasn’t “the same” when she met the Good Charlotte musician.

“It wasn’t the same. They’re not the same, they’re so different,” Diaz said. “Even though they are twins, they are very, very different, obviously.”

The actor then went on to recall additional details of her and Madden’s first interaction, explaining that she “saw him walking towards me and thought: ‘Huh, he’s hot. I haven’t seen him before.’”

“But then when I saw him, like who he was, that’s what made me really be like: ‘Oh, you. You, you’re special, you’re the guy, you’re the hidden gem in my life,’” Diaz continued.

The couple, who became engaged in 2014, married in a secret ceremony in January 2015. They later welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Raddix Madden, in December 2019.

This is not the first time that Diaz has opened up about her instant attraction to her now-husband, as she told Andy Cohen in 2016 that her first reaction to meeting Madden was that he was “hot”.

“First time I met him, I was like: ‘He’s hot! How come I didn’t know this before?’ A year later, I saw him again and was like wait a second, ‘He’s still hot!’” Diaz previously recalled.

The actor also told Cohen that she knew immediately that the musician was the one for her, explaining that “everyone always tells you that you know when you know, and I was always like: ‘What does that mean?’

“And I was like: ‘Oh, I get it now - you’re my husband!’”