50 On-Screen Couples Who Dated in Real Life

(Image credit: MarieClaire)

published 22 September 2017

Life imitates art imitates...love? These celebrities may have been playing couples, but their relationships were anything but an act. From Rory and Jess to Serena and Dan, get ready for all the feels. Ahead, 50 on-screen couples who took their romance off-screen.

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Jenna Dewan and Channing Tatum

Dewan and Tatum played love interests in the 2006 film, Step Up. They fell in love on-set and were engaged two years later, officially tying the knot in 2009. After nearly nine years of marriage, Dewan and Tatum announced they would be getting divorced via an Instagram post in April 2018. They have a 4-year-old daughter, Everly Tatum, together.

Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev

The two play steamy vampire couple Damon and Elena on The Vampire Diaries and started dating in 2011 while filming the TV series. However, they ended their romance in May 2013. Somerhalder is now married to Nikki Reed, who recently gave birth to a baby girl.

Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried

Seyfried dated her Mamma Mia! co-star for three years, but Cooper ended up breaking Seyfried's heart after he allegedly cheated on her. Seyfried admits falling in love on set is "one of the easiest things in the world. You're put in a situation where you have to make out with each other. It's easy for things to get carried away."

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise

Kidman and Cruise first met each other on set for the 1990 film, Days of Thunder. They got married the same year and lasted until their split in 2001.

Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz

The pair were cruisin' towards each other while playing lovers on-set of the 2000 film Vanilla Sky. They started dating following Cruise's divorce to Kidman, but ended up splitting after three years.

Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp

Ryder and Depp dated for four years during the '90s and starred together in the 1990 film, Edward Scissorhands.

Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz

Look 👏 at 👏 that 👏 passion. It's no wonder McConaughey and Cruz started dating during the 2005 thriller Sahara. However, they ended up splitting a year later.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Burton and Taylor met on the set of Cleopatra in the early '60s. They were both married at the time, but apparently they shared their first kiss on camera and continued said kiss even after the director called "cut." #Scandalous. They wed a few days before Taylor's divorce was finalized in 1964.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth

Cyrus and Hemsworth met in 2009 on the set of The Last Song playing teenage lovers Ronnie and Will. (How can anyone forget the infamous "She Will Be Loved" scene?) The pair have had an on-and-off again relationship over the years (they were engaged in 2012 and broke it off September 2013), but made their debut as a newly engaged couple in 2016.

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

Hawn and Russell starred in the 1987 comedy Overboard, and have pretty much been inseparable ever since. They originally met on the 1968 set of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, but didn't start dating until over a decade later.

Courteney Cox and David Arquette

Cox and Arquette met on the set the 1996 thriller Scream and were married three years later in San Francisco. However, in 2010 they separated after 11 years of marriage. Cox reflects on her marriage, "I think you really need to work in a relationship, and I think that we tried. We're just really different, too. I'm the polar opposite of him."

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard

Put Heard and Depp at the top of the "Absolutely Disastrous, Messy Relationships of All Time" list. The two played love interests while on set of The Rum Diary in 2009, but they didn't start dating until several years later. They were married in 2014, but Depp allegedly began sending Heard abusive text messages long before. In June 2015 they smuggled their dogs into Australia (casual), and in 2016 the pair finally split while ensuing a lengthy, public divorce trial.

Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen

The two started dating in 2008 after meeting on the set of their film Jumper. They got engaged that December, but called it off in August 2010. Bilson and Christensen reconciled three months later, but officially split in 2017. 💔 They have one daughter together, Briar Rose.

Blake Lively and Penn Badgley

Sorry, but we'll never get over these two. On-screen couple Serena and Dan AKA Lively and Badgley met on the set of Gossip Girl in 2007 and dated for three years. After they broke-up in 2010, they still had to film the show together. We imagine that might have made things just a tad awkward.

Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger

A tragic ending for these two. Williams and Ledger played longtime sweethearts in the 2005 Oscar-winning drama Brokeback Mountain. Later that year, Williams gave birth to their daughter Matilda Rose Ledger in October. However, Ledger passed away in 2008 following a drug overdose.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone

Garfield and Stone played love interests as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. They started dating in 2011 and broke up in 2015, though it's rumored the pair is back together.

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

Bet you didn't know these Parks and Rec co-stars are actually married (explains the totally real sexual tension between Tammy Swanson II and Ron Swanson). Offerman and Mullally have been married since 2003.

Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck

RIP Ben and Jen. The two met on the set of the 2003 film Daredevil and divorced in 2015 after 10 years of marriage. He's now dating Saturday Night Live Producer Lindsay Shookus.

Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols

In May 2010, Bush confirmed she had been dating One Tree Hill co-star Austin Nichols (who plays her husband on the show) on and off for four years. The couple broke up in February 2012.

Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn

Aniston and Vaughn began dating in the summer of 2005 while working on their movie The Break-Up. Turns out they actually did break up a year later.

Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson

Holmes refers to Jackson as "my first love." The two played lovers throughout a complicated relationship in the teen drama Dawson's Creek. Holmes and Jackson dated during the first two seasons of the show.

Lea Michele and Cory Monteith

Perhaps one of the most heartbreaking stories of the on- and off-screen couples. Michele and Monteith met on the set of Glee in 2009. They dated for a year and a half up until Monteith's death in July 2013.

Kit Harington and Rose Leslie

Kit Harington and Rose Leslie play love interests on Game of Thrones and well... they're just plain adorable IRL.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

Ah, Ben Affleck sure does love his Jennifers. Lopez and Affleck started dating when they met on the set of the 2003 film, Gigli. They even got engaged (yeah, we forgot too), but called it off two years later.

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long

Barrymore and Long starred together in the 2010 film Going the Distance. The world is almost positive they were a couple off-screen, but they never *officially* confirmed it.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

In 2010, Lively and Reynolds played love interests in The Green Lantern. However, the two were solely friends at the time since Lively was in a relationship with her other on-screen boyfriend Penn Badgley and Reynolds was married to Scarlett Johansson (is this a real life Gossip Girl episode?). However, Lively and Badgley split around the time of Reynolds and Johansson's divorce a year later, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard

Bell and Shepard starred as boyfriend and girlfriend in the 2012 comedy Hit and Run. The pair got married in 2013 and now have two children together. We recently found out they briefly broke up before they got married. 😱

Vanessa Hudgens and Josh Hutcherson

These two hit it off after appearing alongside each other in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. They spent an awful lot of time together and were basically in a relationship without the label.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

AKA the OG badass on-screen couple in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Unfortunately the pair split in 2016 after 11 years of marriage and if you're asking, no, we still haven't recovered.

Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling

"It wasn't over, it still isn't over..."—us when we think about Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling's relationship. (Hint: It's definitely over.) Gosling is now married to Eva Mendes and they have two daughters together.

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes

Speaking of Gosling and Mendes, the two met on the set of the 2012 drama The Place Beyond the Pines and started dating while filming. In the movie, the two played a turbulent couple who share a son. In real life, they actually have two daughters together.

Channing Tatum and Amanda Bynes

Before Jenna Dewan, there was Amanda Bynes. Tatum and Bynes were spotted kissing multiple times while filming She's the Man in 2006.

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto

On- and off-screen Slumdog Millionaire couple Dev Patel and Freida Pinto dated back in 2009, but ended their relationship after 6 (!) years in 2015.

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt

You probably didn't remember that Pratt and Faris play boyfriend and girlfriend in the 2011 film Take Me Home Tonight. Unfortunately, the couple decided to split in August 2017 after eight years of marriage.

Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult

Lawrence and Hoult's romance starting in 2011 during the filming of the thriller X-Men: First Class. They split right before The Hunger Games wrapped filming in 2014.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith

Another OG couple who go way, way back (1997, to be exact), and brought their chemistry to the big-screen in the 2001 movie, Ali.

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillipe

Witherspoon and Phillipe have two kids together (who look identical to Witherspoon, btw). The pair got married when Witherspoon was only 24 years old, and split in 2007. Their characters fall in love with each other in the 1999 film, Cruel Intentions.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt

Paltrow and Pitt play husband and wife in the 1995 thriller, Seven. The two started dating in 1994 and split three years later. Paltrow recently admitted she f*cked up their relationship.

Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson

Who DIDN'T want Summer and Seth to end up together? And it makes sense since the chemistry was real—the two dated for three years while filming The O.C.

Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron

You didn't think we could forget these two, did you? While Hudgens and Efron did not meet on New Year's Eve singing karaoke, they did meet on-set of High School Musical and started dating in 2006. Sadly, they broke up in 2010 and no longer speak.

Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush

Team Peyton or Team Brooke? If you're the latter, you're probably happy to know Murray and Bush were married in real life. The not-so-good news? They only lasted five months before they separated. And it was really awkward filming afterwards.

Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf

Though these two were never an *official* item while filming Transformers, they did hook up despite the fact that Fox was with her on-and-off-again boyfriend at the time (and now ex-husband), Brian Austin Green.

Alexis Bledel and Milo Ventimiglia

Rory and Jess forever. The Gilmore Girls pair dated for more than three years and kept their relationship on the DL while filming. So Rory.

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher

Girl has first on-screen kiss, girl marries first on-screen kiss. Kunis and Kutcher met on the hit TV series That '70s Show, reconnecting years later following Kutcher's divorce from Demi Moore in 2013. They have been married since 2015 and have two children together.

Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender

Vikander and Fassbender play husband and wife in their film The Light Between Oceans. They started dating in 2014 after meeting on-set and are still very much in love.

Zoe Saldana and Bradley Cooper

The two starred together in The Words, but Saldana ended up marrying another man only a few months after her and Cooper stopped dating.

Alexis Bledel and Vincent Kartheiser

Bledel and Kartheiser starred on Mad Men together after landing a guest role on the fifth season in 2012. They started dating shortly after, and are now married. BRB while I accept a guest role so I can find my husband, too.

Will Arnett and Amy Poehler

Arnett and Poehler are married to each other in the sitcom Arrested Development, and were married in real life from 2003-2016. They officially separated in 2012.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart

Pattinson and Stewart took their romance off-screen for three years before the two broke up in 2012 following Stewart's cheating scandal.

Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift

Look what you made her do, Taylor (Lautner, that is). Lautner and Swift dated after meeting on-set of Valentine's Day in 2010. And if you weren't aware, "Back to December" is totally about their relationship.

Rachel Epstein is a writer, editor, and content strategist based in New York City. Most recently, she was the Managing Editor at Coveteur, where she oversaw the site’s day-to-day editorial operations. Previously, she was an editor at Marie Claire, where she wrote and edited culture, politics, and lifestyle stories ranging from op-eds to profiles to ambitious packages. She also launched and managed the site’s virtual book club, #ReadWithMC. Offline, she’s likely watching a Heat game or finding a new coffee shop.