'The Simpsons' star Yeardley Smith marries former detective hired to protect her

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Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines 7/13

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"The Simpsons" star Yeardley Smith is married!

Smith, who has voiced Lisa Simpson in the famous adult cartoon since 1989, married former detective Dan Grice in June. Grice was hired to work security at a "Simpsons" event in 2014, which is where they first met.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Smith, 58, did not want to attend the event amid security concerns as she was stalked in the past. Smith had to be sure proper security measures would be in place "because my vision of it would be me on an apple box with the first person in the front row literally an arm's length away," she told the outlet.

Yeardley Smith, who voices Lisa Simpson in the sitcom, is married! (Photo by Vivien Killilea)

Once she agreed to the event, Smith was told that a man from the Springfield Police Department would be assigned to be her private security detail. "That was Dan," she said. 

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Grice, 47, also did not want to work the event because he "just knew it probably wouldn't be any fun."

When he was approached for the job, Grice told the Hollywood Reporter, "I looked around the room at the other detectives, including my brother. It was summertime and I thought, let these guys have time with the families since they all have children. I'm single and I don't have any children, I thought I can do this."

Smith married a former police detective that was hired to protect her in 2014. (Photo by Tommaso Boddi)

Grice shared that he recognized Smith from "The Legend of Billie Jean" and "Maximum Overdrive," but admitted he did not know she voiced Lisa Simpson.

Grice met Smith at the airport gate in Oregon and spent the rest of the day with her, which Smith remembers as "the best day."

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Once Smith’s time in Oregon concluded, Grice was eager to show her a picture he took on a recent trip to Singapore but couldn’t find it. Smith gave him her phone number so he could share the picture with her later.

Smith said the duo exchanged text messages but there was no pressure. Smith has been married twice and Grice was focused on his career goals at the time. Eventually, Grice made a trip to Los Angeles to visit Smith and the rest is history.

Smith has voiced Lisa Simpson since 1989. (Reuters/FOX)

Smith was married to Christopher Grove for two years in 1990 and remarried Daniel Erickson in 2002 before separating in 2008.

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The couple became engaged in August 2018 and planned to tie the knot in March 2021 but pushed their wedding back twice due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

"I get a giggly feeling when I think about it because Dan didn't want to go to this event and I didn't want to go to this event, but something bigger than us was like, 'No, no, listen, you two are going to meet and it's going to work out. You just have to have faith,'" she told the outlet. "We've seen it in movies and you always wonder, wouldn't it be great if life was like that? Sometimes it is."