All About Mark Ruffalo’s Wife, Sunrise Coigney
Before he was the Hulk, Mark Ruffalo was a well-known rom-com hunk, starring in movies like 13 Going on 30 and Just Like Heaven. More recently, he’s been able to expand beyond the MCU again, co-starring in the critically acclaimed Poor Things across from Emma Stone. But the woman who has supported him through it all is his wife of 24 years, Sunrise Coigney. The pair share a real-life romance that seems to have been the backbone of Ruffalo’s life and in a way his career for the last several decades.
Here’s everything to know about Coigney and her relationship with Mark Ruffalo, which would really make a great movie.
Who is Sunrise Coigney?
Coigney is an actor as well, and she and Ruffalo first crossed paths in Los Angeles, of course. But she’s originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and was born on Sept. 17, 1972. Of her life growing up, she’s said, “We were young, Mark was doing theater, we had no money. Mark’s from Wisconsin, I’m from New Orleans, we both grew up around a lot of trees—mine were big oak trees, his were more like forests.”
Before acting, she modeled for a while but went on to play roles in Campfire Stories, 100 Centre Street, and In the Cut, as well as starring in Line of Fire.
She and Ruffalo eventually moved to upstate New York to raise their family, and Coigney stepped out of the limelight. She ran a boutique called Sunny’s Callicoon Pop in Callicoon, New York, from 2017 to 2023 that specialized in home decor.
“I meet people and wander into studios and little nooks and crannies in different little towns that I visit, and I’ve just discovered so many different people,” she said of filling her boutique when it opened. “I really am drawn to an artist. There’s something vulnerable about them at times, and at times innocent, and maybe a little damaged even. But it’s that vulnerability I think that I’m drawn to, and that I find beautiful. Being around that creativity feeds me. [The pop-up is] a collection of things from people in my life that have just titillated me along the way.”
She added, “I wouldn’t put one thing in my store that I wouldn’t want for myself. I have to love things—and I do have enough love in my heart for a lot of things. My taste is pretty wide-ranging and eclectic, but I also know how to bring everything together so it’s cohesive.”
How long have Coigney and Ruffalo been together?
The couple met on the street in 1998 in L.A., while Ruffalo was walking with a mutual friend. Ruffalo told Men’s Journal in 2017, “I don’t think he wanted us to meet. I saw her and was like, I’m going to marry that girl.”
Getting her as interested in him “took some doing.”
“All I had was my decency, wit and charm—I didn’t have anything,” Ruffalo went on. “When I met her, she was like, ‘You don’t have a driver’s license, you don’t have a credit card. What is wrong with you, dude? I can’t be with you!’ I was living in a converted garage, and she was there for that, she was game. She believed in me. She was like, ‘I know you’re a really good actor,’ and I was like, ‘You haven’t really seen me act yet.’ And she was like, ‘I just know it, I can tell.’”
They were married in June 2000. On their 23rd wedding anniversary, Ruffalo shared a sweet black-and-white shot from the big day on Instagram, writing, “Happy 23 years, my friend, my partner, my lover. Everything beautiful in our lives comes from you. You also happen to keep this whole shambling enterprise on the rails. I admire you and love you.”
Coigney is wear a sleeveless wedding dress and has her hair in an updo with curling tendrils falling down her back and a simple necklace.
Do Ruffalo and Coigney have children?
The couple share three children, Keen, Bella Noche, and Odette. Before opening her boutique, Coigney spoke with WWD about coming back to business after stepping back to raise kids.
“I had a woman once tell me, ‘You know, Sunrise, you’ll always get a second chance at your career, but you’ll never get a second chance with your children,’” she explained. “And now is the right time for me to dive back into that world. Putting my creative energy into more places besides being a mother.”
In his interview with Men's Journal, Ruffalo shared the chaotic process of choosing their first born’s name.
“We had a lot of names picked out,” he explained. “But when Keen was born, we took one look at him and said, ‘None of those fit.’ For the first two weeks we tried a new name every day: Hi, Clyde. Hi, Tony. Hi, Frank. Hi, Romeo. Then after two weeks, we got a phone call from the Department of Records: ‘Hey—you haven’t picked out a name for your kid! You have until 12 o’clock today, otherwise his name is going down as Baby Boy Ruffalo–and it’s really hard to change.’”
He suggested “Keen” after looking up the definition: “sharp, interested in, fond of, and also, a low, braying, mournful cry.”
“She was like, ‘That’s perfect,’” said Ruffalo.
The happy family recently supported the She-Hulk actor when he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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