When it comes to celebrity couples, Hollywood can seem like an unpredictable place for love. But some stars have managed to defy even Tinseltown's skepticism and found lasting relationships with their significant other - from saying "I Do," to raising families together and all without signing a marriage license! These inspiring stories of star-crossed lovers prove that true love can indeed conquer anything.
Victoria and David Beckham
In 1997, the soccer star and pop diva began dating. Naturally, their relationship instantly attracted a great deal of media attention. The couple was dubbed as "Posh and Becks" by the media. Beckham proposed to "Posh Spice" on January 24, 1998. On July 4, 1999, the couple wed.
Despite rumors of breaking up, the British couple is still going strong after more than two decades together, and now they have four kids together.
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos
The couple first met when Mark Consuelos auditioned for All My Children in 1985. The couple's television romance quickly blossomed into a real thing. In 1996, the couple went ahead and eloped in Las Vegas. To this day, they keep their marriage strong by regularly going on date nights and keeping things feeling as fresh as day one.
The couple has three children — oldest Michael Joseph, middle child Lola Grace, and youngest Joaquin Antonio.
Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox
The pair first met after Pollan played Fox's girlfriend for a season of Family Ties. Three years later, the couple married and celebrated three decades of marriage in 2018. But, in 1991, Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's. The Canadian credits his wife for being by his side during his illness.
And, she helped him overcome alcoholism, accept his condition, and that partnership allowed him to later became an advocate for the cause.
Simone Smith and LL Cool J
The rapper and actor wed the jewelry designer back in 1995. But, before tying the knot, the couple first met when they were teenagers in the mid-eighties, and it's no surprise that they ended up marrying each other. Since their marriage in the mid-nineties, the couple has four kids.
One big reason why the couple has grown so close to each other is because Simone was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2004.
Michelle and Barack Obama
Long before they lived in the White House, the future president and First Lady met at a Chicago law firm. That's when Michelle was assigned to mentor her future husband. Eventually, their first date was in 1989, and they went out to see the movie Do The Right Thing.
The mother of two has been open about working on their marriage in couples counseling, including their struggles with infertility and miscarriages.
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham
Graham has been the subject of much publicity since 1986. It was all thanks to the tabloid articles claiming to chronicle his ongoing relationship with Winfrey. They first met at a charity event in Chicago. That happened in the same time that Oprah's show made its debut, The Oprah Winfrey Show.
They were engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place. Instead, the couple decided they would rather have a 'spiritual union.'
Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson
Danson went through a couple marriages before finally settling for the long haul. After Danson's affair with Whoopie Goldberg, he did find another love. In 1993, the Cheers actor met the future star of Elf on the set of Pontiac Moon. Just two years later, the couple got married on October 7, 1995.
Danson would become the stepfather to Steenburgen's children, Lilly and Charlie, from her previous marriage to actor Malcolm McDowell.
Deborra-lee Furness and Hugh Jackman
The couple first met on the set of the Australian TV show Correlli. The Wolverine actor personally designed an engagement ring for Furness. Jackman even credits the couple's solid marriage to basic compatibility.
In an interview with People Magazine, Jackman said, "One of the great pieces of fortune in my career, it started late, but that Deb and I were already set together, a team, madly in love, like literally before it all happened."
Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy
Huffman and Macy met in the early eighties, but they would date on-and-off for 15 years before making things official. The couple eventually tied the knot on September 6, 1997. Since their marriage, they've welcomed two daughters, Sophie and Georgia.
Macy plays the ukulele and is an avid woodturner, and he's also a national ambassador for the United Cerebral Palsy Association. Huffman identifies herself as pro-reproductive rights, campaigning for women's rights on behalf of NARAL.
Shante Broadus and Snoop Dogg
The famous rapper married his high school sweetheart in 1997. Interestingly enough, Snoop got advice from the late Tupac Shakur to go ahead and marry Shante. Despite having plenty of ups and downs, the couple briefly filed for divorce in 2004. However, they eventually made up by renewing their vows on January 12, 2008.
The couple became grandparents after their eldest son, Cordé Broadus, had a son with his girlfriend, Jessica Kyzer.
Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond
Tina and Jeff started dating in 1994, then wed in 2001. Much like the Carells, Tina met Richmond while working at Second City in Chicago. Fey was an actress while Richmond played music. The pair continued working together and sharing laughs on Saturday Night Live. Richmond served as the music director whereas Fey had a more prominent role.
Eventually, she became a cast member and the first female writer head writer of the show.
Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick
Ferris Bueller and Carrie Bradshaw first began dating in 1991. This was shortly after Parker ended her relationship with future Ironman star, Robert Downey Jr. Eventually, the pair got married in 1997.
Although Broderick considers himself culturally Jewish, the ceremony was performed by his sister, Janet Broderick Kraft. After two decades of marriage, they still schedule date nights. But, the pair only does it just so they can keep the romance going strong.
Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks
The pair first met in the early eighties on the set of the comedy sitcom Bosom Buddies. This happened at the same time that Hanks was married to Samantha Lewes, his first wife. Wilson and Hanks exchanged vows in 1988, one year after the Big star finalized his divorce.
Hanks gave Phoebe Robinson on the podcast Sooo Many White Guys some relationship advice. "We learned the secret of happiness with each other a long time ago, and that's always telling the truth."
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell
The stars of Overboard have been a couple since 1983. They first met in the sixties working on the film The One and Only, Genuine Original Family Band. But, they became more involved when the pair reconnected for another movie, Swing Shift. Hawn is also the de facto stepmother of Russell and Season Hubley's son, Boston.
The actress credits her relationship's longevity to a healthy intimate life, and never getting married.
Frances McDormand and Joel Coen
The Academy Award-winning actress and the director have been going strong for a long time. They first met back in 1983, when McDormand auditioned for a role in Blood Sample, the directorial debut of the Coen brothers. A year after the film's release, the couple married and now they live in New York City.
11 years after their marriage, they adopted a son from Paraguay, Pedro McDormand Coen, in 1995.
Kelly Preston and John Travolta
John met Kelly in 1987 when they were on the set for The Experts. Both the actor and actress claim it was "love at first sight." Preston divorced Kevin Gage in 1987, and she married the Saturday Night Fever star in 1991.
The couple traveled to Paris on an Air France Concorde for a wedding ceremony at the Hotel de Crillon. But, a second ceremony occurred due to the pair being Scientologists.
Trudie Styler and Sting
In 1982, after the birth of his second child, Sting separated from Fracnes Tomelty and began living with actress and film producer Trudie Styler. The couple married at the Camden Register Office on August 20, 1992. Plus, they had their wedding blessed two days later in the twelfth-century parish church of St Andrew in Great Dunford, Wiltshire, southwest England.
Sting and Styler have four children: Brigitte, Michael, Jake, and Eliot.
Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon
The happy couple met while filming a play and were married in 1988. The two first met after meeting on the set of the PBS version of Lanford Wilson's play, Lemon Sky. The couple has two children together, son Travis, 29, and daughter Sosie, 26.
According to Bacon, this is his secret to a happy marriage. "Whatever you do, don't listen to celebrities on advice on how to stay married," he jokingly told Entertainment Tonight.
Nancy and Steve Carell
The comedians have been laughing together through 23 years of marriage. The two first met when Nancy took Steve's improv class at Second City, Chicago's comedy troupe. In 1995, they married the same year Nancy was a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Long after their marriage, the Carell's both shared screen time on NBC's The Office.
Nancy had a guest appearance as Carol Stills, Michael Scott's real estate agent and short-term girlfriend.
David Furnish and Elton John
The musician met the filmmaker at a dinner party in 1993. In 2005, the couple went ahead and formed a civil union partnership. Eventually, they got married nine years later after same-sex marriage was legalized in the United Kingdom.
Elton was quoted by The Telegraph as saying, "There is a world of difference between calling someone your 'partner' and calling them your 'husband'. 'Partner' is a word that should be preserved for people you play tennis with, or work alongside in business."
Cheryl Alley And Ron Howard
Actor and Director Ron Howard and his wife, actress Cheryl Alley have been happily married since June 7, 1975, but their love story goes back to high school! Yep, these two are high school sweethearts, first meeting at John Burroughs High School in Burbank, California. Howard lovingly said of his wife, "I met her, and there was never anybody else."
The couple has four daughters together, including actress and director Bryce Dallas Howard and her sister Paige Howard, who is also an actress.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall
The couple first met when the Seinfeld actress auditioned for a play Hall was producing at Northwestern University. From there on, the college love-birds went on to work together on Saturday Night Live where Hall would serve as a news anchor on Weekend Update.
In 1987, they became married and they have two sons. Charles was a walk-on for the Northwestern men's basketball team, while their oldest son Henry is an aspiring musician.
Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance
Bassett and Vance first met the Yale School of Drama in 1980. Eventually, the Emmy-award winning actor wed the actress in 1997. But, the couple revealed a secret on Oprah in 2007. It was a shock when people found out that after years of fertility treatments, their children, son Slater Josiah Vance and daughter Bronwyn Golden, were born through a surrogate.
The couple has authored a book, Friends: A Love Story, with Hilary Beard.
Pauletta and Denzel Washington
It's no surprise that the Washington's are marriage royalty. They've been together for more than 30 years. We'll have to go back to 1977 to find the couple's origin story when the couple first met on the set of Wilma. Five years later, they married after Denzel's third proposal to Pauletta.
The couple believes that a strong foundation and a focus on family is the key to their enduring and longstanding marriage to each other.
Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg
During the production of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Capshaw became closer to the iconic director after she was cast as the leading lady in the film. Eventually, the pair got married but the actress had to do something afterward. She was originally an Episcopalian, but she would convert to Judaism before marrying the Jaws director on October 12, 1991.
The two tied the knot in a civil ceremony and with an Orthodox ceremony as well.
Susan Geston and Jeff Bridges
The actor and actress first met while Bridges was filming Rancho Deluxe in 1975. Of course, despite a long career in Hollywood, Jeff doesn't want his marriage to pan out like most celebrity unions do.
In an interview with Country Living, he said, "If you change partners every time it gets tough or you get a little dissatisfied, then you don't get the richness that's available in a long-term relationship."
Meryl Streep and Don Gummer
After actor John Cazale died of cancer in 1978, his heartbroken girlfriend, Meryl Streep, had her brother come by to help her move out of the pair's apartment. Streep's brother brought along sculptor Don Gummer. Streep and Gummer married six months after Cazale's death.
In August 1985, the family moved into a $1.8-million private estate in Connecticut, with an extensive art studio for Gummer's artwork. The two have four children together, who have all made their mark in the limelight in one way or another.
