Human Interest 'You've Got Mail' 's Delia Ephron Reveals She Also Fell in Love Via Email –– Just Like Her Film Delia Ephron said her sister, Nora Ephron, set her up on a date as a teenager with someone she would marry more than 50 years later By Jason Hahn Jason Hahn Jason Hahn is a Human Interest and Sports Reporter for PEOPLE. He's worked at PEOPLE's Los Angeles Bureau as a writer and reporter since 2017 and has interviewed the likes of Kobe Bryant, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Brady. He has a B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University. He previously worked for Complex Magazine in New York City. People Editorial Guidelines Published on May 2, 2022 09:54 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Screenwriter Delia Ephron says she found love again thanks to an unexpected email. Ephron — who co-wrote the classic rom-com, You've Got Mail, with her sister, late screenwriter Nora Ephron — received an email from a former flame after writing a New York Times essay about the death of her husband, Jerry Kass, in 2015. The message was from Peter Rutter, who Ephron briefly dated when she was a teenager. "We still can't agree on how many dates we had because I don't remember it at all, but I think it was two dates, but it might have been three," the 77-year-old recalled in a recent episode of Making Space with Hoda Kotb. "Fifty-four years before, when I was 18 years old, and my sister Nora had fixed us up." For more on Delia Ephron, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day. "So I got this very, very charming email from Peter, who was a psychiatrist, a Jungian analyst living in the Bay Area," she told Hoda Kotb of her now-husband. "And he said, 'You know, we had a couple of dates. It's just the most — was the most charming note. It was lovely. … So I wrote him back." Couple Marries on Plane 7 Miles Above Ariz. After Las Vegas Flight Drama: 'Your Co-Pilot Through Life' Hulton Archive/Getty Ephron said she and Rutter fell in love after exchanging messages, and soon, they were sharing conversations on the phone. "It was amazing, and we began talking on the phone for hours," she said on the podcast. Coincidentally, the romance shares parallels to You've Got Mail, where characters Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) and Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) spark a romance over instant messages and emails. After Beating Cancer Twice, Louisiana Woman Marries for the First Time at 73 — and She Has No Regrets But soon after Ephron and Rutter began their relationship, they were hit with devastating news. "Four months after I fell in love, I got leukemia," Ephron, who recently penned a memoir called Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life, told NPR. "[Rutter] proposed that weekend," she recalled. "On Monday, we went and got a license and we bought a ring, and on Tuesday, I checked into the hospital for my first chemo." RELATED VIDEO: Nick Viall Dishes Out Advice on Dating and Taking 'Control' of Your Love Life in New Book Ephron has since beaten the disease after undergoing treatment and a bone marrow transplant, NPR reported. She and Rutter are still married today. "Peter says we were not meant to be together when we were young," she said on Making Space with Hoda Kotb. "And that we met when we did. For some, we were — were meant to meet."