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Alan Alda addresses viral claim he met wife when they both ate a cake off the floor

Alan Alda and his wife Arlene, who first locked eyes over a rum cake, in 2014 (Janette Pellegrini/Getty Images)
Alan Alda and his wife Arlene, who first locked eyes over a rum cake, in 2014 (Janette Pellegrini/Getty Images)

Alan Alda has addressed a viral claim that he and his wife first met when they both ate a rum cake off the floor.

On Wednesday (18 August), Twitter user @sonyashea3 tweeted a screenshot of Alda’s Wikipedia page, which claims that he and wife Arlene met while students at New York’s Hunter College, and shared a memorable introduction.

“They bonded at a mutual friend’s dinner party,” the Wikipedia entry claims. “When a rum cake accidentally fell onto the kitchen floor, they were the only two guests who did not hesitate to eat it.”

The tweet rapidly went viral, being retweeted more than 14,000 times and “liked” more than 160,000 times. One person to eventually spot it was Alda himself, who added to the story on Thursday (20 August).

In his own tweet, Alda clarified that he and his wife did not meet amid a fallen rum cake, but that the story is otherwise true.

“We did eat the rum cake off the floor and were inseparable after that,” the M*A*S*H star wrote. “But I was captivated by her even earlier in the meal when I heard her at the end of the table laughing at my jokes.”

Alda added: “She had me at Ha.”

Arlene Alda – a musician, writer and photographer – has been married to her husband since 1957, and the pair have three children and eight grandchildren.

Alda, who is best known for his role as army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce in the long-running TV series M*A*S*H, has also appeared in films including Crimes and Misdemeanors and California Suite. He most recently portrayed Adam Driver’s divorce lawyer in the Oscar-winning drama Marriage Story.

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