How I Met Your Mother Characters' 'Real' Age is Honestly Eye-Opening
They're now in their 40s.
When How I Met Your Mother first aired, it got viewers a little confused as it featured two parallel timelines — one in 2005 and later (Season 1 onwards) and the other in 2030 (where 'old' Ted was telling his kids about how he met their mom).
Fortunately, the sitcom was exceptionally well-written, and fans quickly got used to the regular time jumps to 2030 and enjoyed following the characters' lives in the 2000s and 2010s. But did you ever wonder how old the friends were exactly?
It turns out most of the characters' ages aren't hard to calculate based on the information provided in the show — and actually, their ages correspond quite well to their personalities.
Barney
Barney is a veteran of this life, being the oldest of the gang. Though his exact age remains a mystery, certain episodes indicate that he was born between 1974 and 1976, which means he was 29–31 at the start of the show and 37–39 by the finale.
Ted
In Season 3 Episode 17, the protagonist celebrates his 30th birthday. Given that the timeline of the show ran parallel to our time (Season 3 was released in 2008), it means that Ted was born on April 25, 1978.
He met 'the Mother' in Season 8 (2013) when he was 35 and she was 29 (born in 1984). When their kids were born, Ted was 37–39 and Tracy was 31–33 years old.
Lily and Marshall
It's safe to assume Lily and Marshall were the same age as Ted, as all three studied together at Wesleyan University. Both were 29 when they married in 2007. Lily gave birth to their first son, Marvin, at 34. Their second child, Daisy, was born when the spouses were 36, and their third baby was born in 2016, after the series' main events, when they were 38.
Robin
Robin is the youngest among the friends. In the third episode of Season 5 (released in 2009), we learn that she was born on July 23, 1980. Remarkably, in the same episode, Barney writes in his notebook that she is 29, even though she tells everyone she is 26. As if things couldn't get more confusing!
Consequently, Robin was 33 at the time of her and Barney's wedding in 2013.
Cobie Smulders, the actress behind Robin, and Neil Patrick Harris, who played Barney, actually made cameo appearances in How I Met Your Father, the original series' spin-off. With its action also running parallel to our time, the 2020s, the spin-off featured the two characters when they're already in their 40s, with Robin being 42 and Barney 46–48.
So now that you know the beloved characters' age, how about binge-watching all HIMYM seasons over the weekend? Make sure you find some time for the spin-off's two seasons too!