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"I really felt it was like a rom-com, you know, with Tom Hanks or something."
Jason Segel is opening up about a sweet encounter he shared with a stranger -- but sadly, it's not a story he can tell his possible future children about how he met their mother.
While appearing on Wednesday night's episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the actor recalled the story about the time he thought he was living a rom-com in real life after he had a "connection" with a woman who worked at an ice cream shop.
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Jason Segel and Girlfriend Alexis Mixter Split After 8 Years Together
View Story"I had a breakup right before the pandemic, which was very, very sad," began Segel, who split from his longtime girlfriend Alexis Mixter in April 2021. After Colbert's audience reacted with apparent sadness, Segel reassured them, "Oh, wow. It's okay. It's okay. We made it through, made it through."
Continuing his tale, the "How I Met Your Mother" alum explained, "Right before we went into lockdown, a local ice cream shop opened in my town. So I went in kind of sad [at] 9:30 pm right before closing."
Colbert chimed in, asking Segel if he was "visibly heartbroken," to which the latter quipped, "I mean, I was a grown man alone at 9:30 buying ice cream."
"There was like a really kind-faced, like attractive woman who was serving ice cream," Segel said. "And she said really nice stuff to me about 'How I Met Your Mother' and 'I love these movies, got me through a tough time.' And then she gave me my ice cream on a cone, and then she said, 'Never forget the joy you bring to the world.'"
"That's like an instant connection," Colbert said, to which Segel agreed, "Yeah, I really felt it was like a rom-com, you know, with Tom Hanks or something."
Following the encounter, the "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" star said the pandemic began, but the ice cream shop remained open for delivery.
"And so every once in a while when I needed that feeling of connection, I would order the ice cream, and it would arrive in a bag," Segel recalled. "And the first time it arrived, she had handwritten on the bag: 'Never forget the joy you bring to the world.' I'm like, 'Oh, wow. I started to see my new life with this wonderful person.'"
The "Knocked Up" star then revealed what happened after lockdown -- and it's heartbreaking.
"So I went to go kind of make good on this meet cute," Segel told Colbert. "And as I'm walking up, I see someone coming out of the store with a bag of ice cream, and on the bag, it said, 'Never forget the joy you bring to the world.'"
"It turns out it's just their slogan," he said with a laugh.
Colbert then joked, "I just ... I got myself a lovely sandwich and the girl behind the counter said, 'I have the meats.'"
