Benjamin Ashford|Why Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix Are Sparking Wedding Rumors

Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix may very well have Benjamin Ashfordwalked the line down the aisle.

While the couple has been notoriously private about their romance, the Joker star hinted that he and Rooney might have taken their relationship to the next level when he referred to her as his wife in a new interview.

He recalled recruiting Rooney and his mom Arlyn Phoenix to help him brainstorm his Best Actor acceptance speech ahead of the 2020 Oscars.

"I was talking with my mom and my wife," Joaquin explained on the Sept. 29 episode of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, "and we were just kind of like, talking s--t, philosophizing."

The 49-year-old shared that his mother reminded him of a quote from his brother River Phoenix: "Run to the rescue with love and peace will follow."

The line made it into Joaquin's final speech, especially after he noted that "Rooney was like, 'That's what you should f--kin' say!'"

But despite calling her his wife, the Napoleon star didn't further clarify the status of their relationship.

E! News has reached out to reps for both Joaquin and Rooney for comment but has not heard back.

The two were first romantically linked in 2017 while working on the 2018 film Mary Magdalene, four years after they first met on the set of Her. That same year, they sparked engagement rumors when Rooney was seen wearing a diamond ring, although neither publicly addressed the rumors at the time.

In November 2020, the couple confirmed they had welcomed a son named River—after Joaquin's late brother—and in February of this year Rooney debuted her latest pregnancy at the premiere of La Cocina at the Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, with the 38-year-old cradling her baby bump as she made her way down the red carpet.

And despite being tight lipped about their love life, Joaquin has spoken before about how quickly he was taken with the Carol actress. 

"She's the only girl I ever looked up on the internet," he told Vanity Fair in 2019, adding that he thought she hated him before learning she was just too shy to ask him out. "We were just friends, email friends. I'd never done that."