Cameron Diaz Finally Talks About Meeting Benji Madden — or ‘Benj,’ as She Calls Him

Cameron Diaz (Photo: Getty Images)

Cameron Diaz has been Mrs. Benji Madden for over a year now, but she’s just now spilling deets about their whirlwind romance.

“He’s just the most delicious, the most wonderful, lovely human being on the face of the planet,” The Longevity Book author, 43, said on Live With Kelly and Michael on Tuesday. “I’m so lucky. He’s just a dear.”

While calling him “a dear” makes her sound like a senior citizen, they had a modern meeting. And, yes, they were introduced by his brother and Madden Brothers bandmate, Joel Madden, and his wife, Nicole Richie.’

“I knew Nicole and Joel for a couple years before I met Benj,” she explained on Andy Cohen’s SiriusXM radio show. “It was at my house, where they were over for a bbq. Joel said, ‘Hey, can my brother come over?’ [I replied]: ‘Of, course, it’s family.’ And then he walked in the door and I was like: You! You!”

Diaz and Joel Madden at a basketball game right after they tied the knot. (Photo: GC Images)

Needless to say, the attraction was immediate. But it was a year later that a romance blossomed.

“The first thing I said when I first met my husband was, ‘He’s hot,’” said the clearly smitten actress. “How come I didn’t know this before? We had never been in the same circle. I saw him a year later [and thought]: Wait a second, still hot!”

They went public with their romance in June 2014 and were married at their Los Angeles home in January 2015 — after a two-and-a-half month engagement. (Not a 17-day engagement, as rumored, but not that much longer.)

"It was one of those things where everyone tells you, 'You just know when you know,’” she explained. “I was like, 'What does that mean? Oh, I get it. You just know when you know.’ Like, you’re my husband.”

Their wedding was low-key. “We got married in our living room in front of our friends,” she said. “Had a little party in our backyard on the tennis court.”

While she had some super high-profile romances with some other big name stars — A-Rod, Justin Timberlake, Jared Leto, and Matt Dillon included — they are all a distant memory now.

"You know, nothing matters now that I have my husband. Like, I don’t even remember any of that,” said Diaz, who was famously lukewarm about marriage before she met Madden. “That’s how I know he’s my husband… No one compares. Everything else just washes and slips away. You realize like, 'Oh, right — this is the real thing. This is what real love is. This is what real commitment and devotion is. This is the person you build your life with.’ For me, the rest of everything dissolves. I can see how special this is.”

The gushing doesn’t end there! She dedicated her new beauty book to her new husband, which you can hear all about here: