Marcus Mumford must be excited to return to Saturday Night Live on February 28 as Musical Guest with Host Connor Storrie, based on how he acted the last time we saw him in Studio 8H.
While his band, Mumford & Sons, hasn’t performed on SNL since 2018, the frontman made his most recent appearance in 2021 when his wife, actress Carey Mulligan, hosted in Season 46.
During her monologue, the Promising Young Woman star talked about weathering the pandemic with Mumford and their (then) two children, and mentioned that, “He couldn’t be here tonight, so he’s at home watching the children.”
She addressed him looking to the camera, saying “Hi babe, love you” — only to hear “Love you too, hi Carey!” from the audience.
“It’s me, Marcus Mumford!” he yelled. “From the band Mumford & Sons!”
*Watch Carey Mulligan’s monologue featuring Marcus Mumford here.*
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Marcus Mumford volunteered to be SNL Musical Guest (but wouldn’t return until Season 51)
“Yes, darling, I know! What a surprise. Lovely to see you,” a confused Mulligan told her husband. “Where are the kids?”
“I left them with the Sons,” he said, a band joke that the audience didn’t seem to catch. “Couldn’t miss this for the world. You’re gonna smash it, really. Just be sure to soak it in,” he warned. “Because after it’s over, you’re gonna think about it all the time. Like, all the time. And I meant to ask…do you know if they booked a Musical Guest for tonight?”
“They did, yeah,” Mulligan confirmed (it was Kid Cudi).
“Well if they end up needing anyone, I’m very happy to do it,” he offered. He furnished a guitar and began to strum it, as proof.
When Mulligan protested, he explained that he thought she was giving him “our secret couple signal for ‘Please play the guitar.'”
“I’m alarmed that you think that we have that,” she told her husband. “Come on, you’re being that guy who takes his acoustic guitar out at a party.”
“People love that guy!” he insisted.
SNL does, in fact, love that guy: In addition to Mumford & Sons’ soon-to-be four stints as Musical Guest, the band performed at February 2025’s SNL50: The Homecoming Concert.
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Marcus Mumford and wife Carey Mulligan first met as kids at camp
Mumford and Mulligan actually met when they were children, when she was 12 and he was 10. Mulligan shared the story on Good Morning Britain in 2024. As new friends, they…faxed each other.
“We ended up going to the same summer camp when we were kids, so we became pen pals,” she said. “That’s how we kept in touch because we didn’t have phones. We used to fax a bit, when fax machines were cool.”
They lost touch for about 10 years before reconnecting over email, Mumford explained on the Zach Sang Show in April 2025.
“I was staying at a friend’s house here in Los Angeles and I wrote to her out of the blue, ’cause we hadn’t spoken for a couple years,” Mumford explained, adding that he knew she’d seen his band perform when they were opening for English singer-songwriter Laura Marling. “She slipped a note to my tour manager, but I didn’t see her, and then I think it had her email on it and then I wrote to her, and that was a couple years later.”
When Sang suggested the “universe” lined this up for a reason, Mumford answered, “yeah, I believe in that.” Aw!
Mumford and Mulligan married in 2012 — about five months before the band first appeared on SNL in September of that same year.
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Mumford and Mulligan share three children
The couple’s oldest daughter, Evelyn Grace, was born in 2015. They had a son named Wilfred in 2017, and another daughter in 2023.
After the 2024 Golden Globes, Mumford posted a video of himself carrying Mulligan around, soundtracked to March 7 Host Ryan Gosling‘s “I’m Just Ken” from the Barbie movie. In the Good Morning Britain interview, Mulligan explained that her shoes were “so unbelievably painful” that he had to carry her, and that the clip ended before he put her down and groaned. Looks like Mumford is happy to be his wife’s supporting act at any event.
Don’t miss Mumford & Sons on SNL on February 28 with Host Connor Storrie, 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.