Celebrity Couples on How They First Met

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian were relatively hush-hush about their relationship until Williams announced their engagement in a Reddit post, telling us that he proposed in the same place they first met by chance in Rome.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend met on the set of his music video "Stereo" in 2007. She told Cosmopolitan, "I'm not going to lie. We hooked up," she admitted. "[When he went on tour] I left him by himself for a while. The worst thing you can do is try to lock someone like that down early on, then have them think, There's so much more out there. I played it cool for a long time. Never once did I ask, 'What are we?' Marriage was never my goal, because I've never been very traditional. I was just happy to be with him."

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody originally met on the set of The Oranges in 2011, but sparks didn't fly between the two until two years later when they filmed Lift Partners in 2013. Now, the happily married couple are expecting their second child together.

Zayn Malik and Gigi Hadid

Zayn Malik told the Evening Standard that he initially met Gigi Hadid at a Victoria's Secret party after recognizing her from a photo—and that he asked her out on a date. Sparks flew during their date at The Bowery Hotel's restaurant, Gemma.

"She's a very intelligent woman. She knows how to carry herself. She's quite classy and that. She's not, like, arrogant in any way, she's confident. She carries it well. She's cool," he gushed.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith told YourTango, "I met him when I was 19 at an audition for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After we had known each other for many years, we went out for dinner one night [with mutual friends] and I saw that he had grown from this lanky kid to this really responsible man. We started courting each other and our friendship turned into romance."

Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady

It's hard to believe that model Gisele Bündchen and NFL hunk, Tom Brady, would need assistance from friends in the dating department—but they met on a blind date! Clearly, it was a match made in heaven and the couple tied the knot in 2009.

Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna

Chyna revealed in a Facebook Live that she met Rob at Kendall Jenner's 16th birthday party.

"Me and Rob, we actually met at Kendall's sweet 16. It was Kendall's, right? At Six Flags...The weirdest thing now like looking back at pictures, we was like winning prizes together and sitting on the ride like close to each other."

The couple split in 2017, shortly after welcoming their daughter, Dream Kardashian.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth met on set while filming The Last Song in 2009 and were on and off until their engagement in 2012. They split in 2013, but rekindled their relationship in 2016 and tied the knot in the singer's Nashville home on December 28th, 2018. Sadly, the couple filed for divorce eight months later.

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel

Justin Timberlake met Jessica Biel through mutual friends. "I did it the old fashioned way—by telephone. That's something I learned from both my stepdad and my grandfather—that there is a thing called chivalry and it doesn't have to die with the birth of the Internet," Timberlake said. (Gentlemen, pay attention!) "The way I see it, if you're asking a girl out on a date, it's only right to do it in a way that she can hear your voice. I had to be pretty persistent in order to get her to say yes. But I have a fair amount of tenacity and if I want something I stick to it. And in the end she agreed."

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. met on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer, but didn't start dating until three years later. Their first date was actually an accident. "We had made plans for dinner with a mutual friend and the person canceled," Gellar told People. "We decided to have dinner anyway and never looked back."

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher

For Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher, their on-screen love started with an innocent kiss on the set of That '70s Show, but their IRL relationship didn't blossom until Kutcher's split with Demi Moore in 2011 and Kunis' with Macaulay Culkin. Sparks flew when Kunis saw Kutcher at an awards show.

Kunis told Howard Stern, "So I see this guy and I see his back and he's really tall and then [Kutcher] just turns around and it was literally like if we were in a movie, the music would start playing...I think that he, for the first time ever, took my breath away."

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux

Jennifer Aniston met Justin Theroux on the set of Tropic Thunder. "I thought he was very sweet and he was always very nice. But I remember thinking he was very dark," she told PopSugar. "At first you think he could be like a serial killer, but he is actually the nicest person in the world." Although the couple remain friends, they announced their separation after two years of marriage in February 2018.

Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello

Jesse Tyler Ferguson takes credit for setting up Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello, telling James Corden on The Late Late Show that he introduced the pair when they were at a party together. When Sofia's relationship went south with Nick Loeb, Manganiello was there to sweep the Modern Family star off her feet.

"Joe—like immediately, the moment it was out in the world—called me and was like: 'I need her number,'" Ferguson said. "And then I called Sofia and I was like: 'Can I give Joe your number?' And she was like, 'Ay, no!'—but like, wanting me to give the number—like, 'Oh no, you go ahead, okay, okay.' And so I did the number exchange and he took over from there!"

Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum

Things heated up between Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum while playing love interests in the movie Step Up in 2005. They went on to marry in 2009. The couple shares one daughter, Everly, but in April 2018 they announced their separation.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were good friends for years before they got together in 2012. They initially met when Kim was working as Brandy's assistant in 2004 and Kanye and Brandy were recording the track "Talk About Our Love." Kim and Kanye's friendship blossomed from there, but they didn't start a romantic relationship until 2012. They got married in 2014.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds met on the set of The Green Lantern. Reynolds told Entertainment Weekly's SiriusXM Radio, "We were buddies then. I remember it was funny because for about a year after Green Lantern had come and gone and all that stuff we were both single," he said. "We went on a double date. She was on a date with another guy and I was on a date with another girl."

"That was the most awkward date for our respective dates probably because we were just like fireworks coming across," Reynolds revealed, laughing. "It was weird at first but we were buddies for a long time. I think it's the best way to have a relationship is to start as friends."

David Beckham and Victoria Beckham

David Beckham knew he was going to marry Victoria Beckham when he first saw her in a Spice Girls music video. Victoria opened up about how she first fell for the soccer player at a Manchester bar, writing a note to her teenage self for British Vogue, "While the other football players stand at the bar drinking with their mates, you will see David standing aside with his family. And he has such a cute smile. You, too, are close to your family, and you will think how similar he feels to you. He's going to ask for your number. (He still has the London-to-Manchester plane ticket on which you wrote it.)" They got married in 1999.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z

Music's First Family met when they both were at the 2000 MTV Spring Break festival in Cancun, according to the lyrics of "713." The two ended up sitting next to each other on a plane ride by coincidence. They didn't date for another two years and eventually said "I do" in 2008.

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt met on the set of Take Me Home Tonight in 2007. They spoke about how walking the red carpet at the premiere of the movie was a spectacular moment for them, given they had the movie to thank for meeting.

After eight years of marriage, the couple filed for divorce in August 2017. Chris Pratt has since remarried, tying the knot to Katherine Schwarzenegger in 2019.

Emily Blunt and John Krasinski

Emily Blunt and John Krasinski met at a restaurant through a mutual friend in 2008. "It's just kind of a sad, lame story–well, not sad but it's just kind of lame," Blunt told Seth Meyers in 2018. "He was sitting with our friend Justin Theroux and then he abandoned Justin to come and talk to us. He did not eat, he just stood there and made me laugh." They started dating shortly after and got married two years later in a private ceremony at George Clooney's villa in Lake Como.

Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford

Carey Mulligan and Mumford and Sons singer Marcus Mumford began dating in 2011 and less than a year later tied the knot in a ceremony on a farm in Somerset. Although their courtship seems short, the couple first met when they were 12 years old (it's rumored they were camp pen pals!). In 2011, they reconnected at a party in Nashville and started up a romantic relationship.

Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher

Carrie Underwood was set up with her husband, Mike Fisher, through her band's bassist, Mark Childers. Underwood told VH1's Behind the Music that she was initially skeptical about a blind date. "I mean, can I make dating more difficult? Let's get a hockey guy who lives in another country. Awesome." But after meeting backstage after one of her shows, the match was an apparent success. The couple went on their first date a few months later. Now they are married with two children.

Mandy Moore and Taylor Goldsmith

Mandy Moore and her rocker husband, Taylor Goldsmith, have Instagram to thank for their union. The couple met after Moore posted a photo on Instagram of the new album from Goldsmith's band, Dawes. After praising the release, Goldsmith worked up the courage to slide into Moore's DMs. "Then we went on a first date and it was the most epic three-hour first date. We just didn't stop talking," Moore told Today. After three years of dating, the couple wed in a ceremony at their Los Angeles home in November 2018.

Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves

Matthew McConaughey was 37 years old when he met his wife, Camila Alves, in a club on Sunset Boulevard. "I'm not a club guy, this night I was a club guy," McConaughey told People in 2017. "As I was trying to get [her] attention across the room I went in my head, this is not the kind of woman you call over across the room, McConaughey. Get your a** out of the chair and go get her—which I did." The two went on their first date three nights after their nightclub meeting and have been together ever since.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

How does a member of the British royal family fall in love with an American TV star? Through a mutual friend, of course. "I didn’t know much about him, so the only thing that I had asked [our mutual friend] when she said that she wanted to set us up, was, 'Well is he nice?' Cause if he wasn't kind, it just didn’t seem like it would make sense," Markle told BBC during the couple's first sit-down interview in 2017.

Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth

After Reese Witherspoon split from her ex-husband, Ryan Phillippe, she was at a friend's house party when she met talent agent Jim Toth. "It happened out of the blue. This really drunk guy was hitting on me, making such an idiot of himself, yelling at me," Witherspoon told Elle. "He was like, 'You don't know me.' And I was like, 'Yeah, I know. I don't know you!' Jim came over and said, 'Please excuse my friend. He's just broken up with someone.' Jim was a really good friend, pulling him out of that situation. That's just kind of who he is, a really good person."

The couple got married in 2011 and welcomed their son, Tennessee James Toth, a year later.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall

Comedians Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall met when they were both students at Northwestern University and Louis-Dreyfus joined The Practical Theatre Company, which was co-founded by Hall. "I remember thinking early on that this was the guy for me, but I didn’t dare tell anyone, for fear they would say, 'That's ridiculous. You're so young—you don't know what you're talking about.' So I kept that little secret close to my heart," Louis-Dreyfus told The New Yorker in 2018. The couple went on to join the cast of Saturday Night Live together in 1982 and were married five years later. 

Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso

Matt Damon met his wife Luciana Barroso while on location filming Stuck on You in Miami. The actor was smitten by Barroso, who was working as a bartender in the South Beach bar he and his co-stars wandered into on a Saturday night. He joined her behind the bar so he could get to know her better, "So I put him to work with me! I said, 'You know, if you're going to be back here, you can't just be standing there!'" Barroso told Vogue in 2018. "He had trained as a bartender for a film years before, so he started making drinks. And he made me a ton of money in tips that night because of course everyone wanted to go and see him. So it turned into a really fun night."

Sarah Hyland and Wells Adams

Modern Family actress Sarah Hyland and her fiancé Wells Adams have Twitter to thank for their love story. "We had tweeted each other because I thought he was funny and he was a fan of the show," Hyland told Jimmy Kimmel in 2018. But it ended up being the couple's mutual love of tacos that sealed the deal. Adams messaged Hyland that the next time he was in L.A. he would take her out for drinks and tacos. "I love tacos. He loves tacos, so that was his thing. Like, 'I love tacos, let's see if she loves tacos.' We both love tacos! We have an obsession with tacos. Tacos and tequila, that's our thing," she said.

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez

Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez are a glamorous A-list couple, but their first encounter was pretty simple. Lopez explained their meeting on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "I was having lunch somewhere, I saw him walk by and afterwards I went outside, but for some reason I just felt like tapping him on the shoulder to say hi." The couple began dating shortly after and the former Yankee player proposed in March 2019. But as far as that faithful day in the restaurant parking lot, "I'd describe it as the luckiest day of my life," Rodriguez also said on Ellen.

Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner

Even before Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner first spoke, mutual friends knew that they would hit it off. Not long after, Jonas messaged Turner to hang out and she agreed to meet him at a bar in Sophie's London neighborhood, Camden.

"He didn't bring security. He brought a friend, and they drank just as hard as the rest of us," Turner told Elle. "We talked for hours, and hours, and hours. And I was, like, not bored. It wasn't contrived. It wasn't small talk—it was just so easy. And soon we were, like, inseparable. I went on tour with him." The pair were engaged by their first anniversary and got married in July 2019.

Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma

Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma first met in 2015 after collaborating on Duff's Breathe In. Breathe Out. album. They officially confirmed their relationship in 2017 after Duff divorced NFL player, Mike Comrie. After dating on and off, they welcomed daughter Banks Violet in 2018 and tied the knot a year later in December 2019.

"Timing is such a big deal...third time's a charm!" Duff said on The Talk. "I think that you have history and a past with someone and love, and just because it doesn't work out the first time, the second time, as long as there's not too much damage done, it can always work out again."

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick met while working on Broadway in 1991. The actress had just broken up with '80s heartthrob Robert Downey Jr. and was introduced to Broderick through her brothers, Pippin and Toby. "My memory is that literally months passed when I didn't ask her for a date," Broderick told The New York Times in 1996. But Parker says he then "left a very charming, very self-effacing message on the machine" and the rest is history.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas met through their friend, Danny DeVito, in 1998. "I found out that [we share the same birthday] the first night I met her and after she told me that and after she told me she loved golf, I told her, 'I'm going to be the father of your children' and then she said 'Goodnight,'" Douglas said On Air With Ryan Seacrest. "I thought it was the proper thing to say, but maybe I was a little presumptuous." 

Meryl Streep and Don Gummer

For 40 years, the Academy Award-winning actress has arrived to awards shows with her husband Don Gummer by her side. The two met in 1978 in New York City, when Streep was filming Kramer vs. Kramer and mourning the loss of her boyfriend, John Cazale. During the difficult time, the actress moved in with her brother, who introduce her to his friend, Gummer. Just six months later, the pair got married in her family's home.

Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky

The Australian action star met his Spanish wife, Elsa Pataky, in 2010 after being set up by their talent agent, William Ward. Three months later, the couple got married.

After being married for more than a decade, Hemsworth told Elle how he knew she was the woman for him: "There was no light-bulb moment. From the first time we met, we just made sense. She's fun. She's outgoing, and she has a sense of humor and a passionate attitude toward life, which is nice to try to keep up with."

Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith

Pierce Brosnan was still reeling from the death of his first wife, Cassandra Harris, who he'd lost three years before he met journalist Keely Shaye Smith. After meeting at a party in Mexico, where Smith was working as a correspondent, the two were drawn to each other. A few days later, they went on their first date.

"Wherever I went in the world I missed her, and I'd send her tickets to come so we could be together. We just seemed to fit," Brosnan told People. "I found a great woman in Keely Shaye. Not if I searched a million times over would I find one as good." 

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton

Proof that opposites attract: No Doubt rocker Gwen Stefani met country singer Blake Shelton while they were both judges on The Voice. Stefani signed onto the show in 2015, while she and Shelton were both going through divorces.

"I won't forget that day," Shelton told Billboard about choosing to tell The Voice cast and crew about his divorce. "I looked over at Gwen—who I didn't really know—and she had these huge tears in her eyes. I thought, 'Wow, she feels super bad for me!' She didn't tell me much, because we didn't know each other at the time, but she said, 'I'm going through something very similar to what you're going through. I understand. And I hate it.' That's kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day." By November 2015, they were a couple.

Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres

Portia de Rossi said that she knew Ellen DeGeneres was the one for her the moment she met her at a party in 2000, but that living as a closeted gay woman left her unable to pursue the relationship. Four years later, the two reconnected at a photoshoot, "and she took my breath away," de Rossi told The Advocate. The two have been together ever since, marrying in 2008.

Amy Schumer and Chris Fischer

Amy Schumer has her personal assistant, Molly, to thank for meeting her husband. Schumer told Howard Stern that Molly recommended her brother, Fischer, who's a professional chef, to cook for the comedian while on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. The two hit it off and are now married and parents to a baby boy.

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