1. Riz Ahmed met his wife, Fatima Farheen, in a New York City coffee shop, where they were both “jostling over the same laptop plug points.” Speaking of their unexpected meeting, he said, “We just both sat down at the same table in a cafe, where we both turned up to write,” and they quickly “struck up a friendship.”
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The two connected later down the line, and he eventually proposed to Fatima during a game of Scrabble…which she initially thought was a joke. “She loves a bit of Scrabble. So we were actually playing Scrabble and I did that corny thing where I stole all the correct letters up and spelled out ‘Will you marry me?'” Riz explained on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. It looks like it all worked out, because the two officially tied the knot in 2020 and have one kid together.
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2. Stephen Colbert flew back to his hometown to contemplate whether he ~really~ wanted to marry his girlfriend at the time…and very quickly met his now-wife, Evelyn McGee-Colbert, at an afterparty.
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At the time, Stephen’s longtime girlfriend had given him an ultimatum: Either they get married or they break up for good. Stephen decided to spend a week back in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, to think it over. Very quickly, he realized that he was not, in fact, ready to marry her. His mom invited him to see a musical while he was in town, and it was there that he spotted Evelyn across the room.
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He immediately thought, There’s your wife; you’re gonna marry her. After she cut in front of him in line at the afterparty, he worked up the nerve to talk to her, and they realized they’d grown up with each other but had gone to different schools. They ended up talking for two hours, but Stephen was convinced that she was just being nice and didn’t actually like him. He decided to test his theory out when someone else interjected to talk to them. He turned his back for a single minute to give her a chance to get out of the conversation with him. When he turned back around, she was still there, smiling at him.
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3. Lana del Rey met her husband, Jeremy Dufrene, on a swamp tour with friends in Louisiana back in 2019. Jeremy was none other than the boat’s captain and tour guide.
They made their debut years later as a couple in late August of 2024, at Reading and Leeds Festival. By September of the same year, Lana was seen sporting an engagement ring, and they were married by the end of the month, next to the bayou where Jeremy gives his tours.
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4. Wanda Sykes first laid eyes on her wife, Alex Niedbalski, while boarding a ferry to Fire Island. She thought to herself, Wow, that’s what you need, Wanda. She told a friend the next day, who promptly informed her that she needed to start using cheesy pickup lines on the ladies instead of telling boring stories about things like remodeling her kitchen.
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It turns out that friend was very wrong, because when Wanda told the next person she met about her kitchen remodeling plans, they introduced her to Alex — who, coincidentally, sold granite countertops. The pair have been married since 2008 and have two kids together.5. Sarah Hyland and Wells Adams ~met~ on Twitter, where Sarah often tweeted about Wells on Bachelor in Paradise.
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Sarah told Jimmy Kimmel that she tweeted about Wells because she thought he was funny, and it turned out that Wells was a Modern Family fan, too. He tweeted back and slid into her DMs, and they agreed to meet up for drinks and tacos when they were in the same city.
Manny Carabel / Getty Images / @Sarah_Hyland / @WellsAdams / Via x.com / x.comWells was living in Nashville at the time, so the two had been talking for about a month when Sarah texted him an ultimatum, saying, “You need to come out to LA by the end of the week, or this is never going to happen.” Wells was conveniently going to be in town for work the next week, so the next day he texted her, “See you on Saturday.” The date must’ve gone well, because the two got engaged in 2017 and tied the knot in 2022.
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6. When Elton John returned to his Windsor house in 1993, he decided he wanted to make some new friends. So naturally, he asked one of his pals in London if they could get a group of people together for dinner at his place. Little did he know that his future husband, David Furnish, would be in attendance.
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Elton told Parade, “I was attracted to David immediately. He was very well dressed, very shy. The next night we had dinner. After it, we consummated our relationship. We fell in love very quickly.”
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The couple was legally married in 2014 and currently have two sons together. Elton shared how they’ve kept their love alive all these years, saying, “Every Saturday for 16 years, we’ve sent each other a card, no matter where we are in the world, to say how much we love each other.”
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7. Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor have a mutual friend, a Twitter PSA, and Holland sliding into Sarah’s DMs to thank for their love story.
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On Watch What Happens Live, Sarah explained that they first met “a very, very long time ago” when they were both with other people. However, thanks to a social media event at Martha Plimpton’s house, the two were reunited.
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They were both there, doing separate PSAs for the organization Martha was working with and “breezed past each other” at the event. They started following each other on Twitter because of it, and, of course, Holland eventually slid into Sarah’s DMs. They’ve officially been together since 2015.8. Emily Blunt met her husband, John Krasinski, when he abandoned Justin Theroux at a restaurant to chat with her. Emily told Seth Meyers that her friend — who knew John — noticed him across the restaurant. He’d been having dinner with Justin but decided to come over and talk to them for a while. “He didn’t eat; he just stood there and made me laugh.”
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John decided to “hit the gas” in his relationship with Emily and took her to a gun range on their first date, where he yelped the first time he fired the gun. He explained that he was so sure she wasn’t going like him that he decided he might as well blow it right away so he didn’t feel bad when it inevitably didn’t work out. Turns out he was very, very wrong. The two have been married since 2010 and have two children together.
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9. At Emily and John’s eventual wedding, Stanley Tucci met his now-wife, Felicity Blunt. Stanley and Emily starred in The Devil Wears Prada together, and Emily is Felicity’s sister.
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On Late Night With Seth Meyers, Emily explained that she loved Stanley so much from their time on set together that she invited him to her and John’s wedding. He met her sister Felicity there, and they hit it off. They’ve been married since 2012 and have two kids together, as well as three others from Stanley’s previous marriage.
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10. George Takei met his husband, Brad Altman, in the ’80s at a gay running club, where he asked Brad to help him train for a marathon.
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On Oprah: Where Are They Now? George explained, “He was the best runner in the club, and also great-looking. So I went up to him, and I asked him to train me for my first marathon.” Thankfully he said yes, and the pair have been married since 2008.
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11. Kristen Stewart and her fiancé Dylan Meyer originally met on a movie set six years before they actually started dating. Fortunately, the two were reacquainted at a mutual friend’s birthday party in 2019, and Kristen knew Dylan was the one.
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“The day that I met her, all bets were off,” Kristen explained in an interview with Howard Stern. “…I hadn’t seen her in six years, and she, like, rocked up at a friend’s birthday party. I was like, where have you been and how have I not known you?” The couple announced their engagement in November of 2021 and got married in April of 2025.12. Andy Samberg was a huge fan of Joanna Newsom, and first met her backstage at one of her concerts.
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Their mutual friend Fred Armisen introduced them, and Andy says he saw “heart bubbles” when she immediately recognized him from the “Just 2 Guyz” Lonely Island video. They’ve been married since 2013 and have one child together.
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13. Lily Tomlin originally reached out to Jane Wagner for help with her character Edith Ann in Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, but the meet-cute turned into a case of love at first sight.
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Lily told Variety, “A friend brought her to my hotel room, and I tell you, in two minutes, I fell in love with her. She had on hot pants, stretchy boots that went up to her knee, and a little backpack. I don’t know what it was, but I was in love.” Though Lily had to leave the next day for a show in Chicago, she flew back as soon as she could to reunite with Jane, saying, “I called Jane immediately, and I said, ‘Look, I don’t have much time, but I have to see you.’ She agreed to see me, and we had our first date.”
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The two have been together and collaborated on numerous projects since the ’70s, like Lily’s one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. They officially tied the knot in 2013.
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14. Lance Bass and Michael Turchin had a classic friends-to-lovers start to their relationship. The duo first met at a friend’s birthday party in Palm Springs and soon became really good friends. They both really liked each other, but were pretty convinced the other didn’t feel the same way.
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Michael told People magazine, “I am so shy and never would have made the first move. I was thinking, ‘This is Lance Bass. I grew up watching him on TV and listening to his music.’ That just added a whole other layer of intimidation.” Michael was really good at hiding it, because Lance was totally convinced the feelings were not mutual at all. So, Lance “focused on becoming such good friends that [he] wouldn’t be able to look at [Michael] in any other way.”Thankfully, things changed about a month later when they had their first kiss. The couple got married in 2014 and have two kids together.
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15. Salma Hayek’s first date with her now-husband, François-Henri Pinault, did not start off well. Salma’s friends knew she wouldn’t agree to go on the date on her own, so they tricked her into going by telling her it was “an event.”
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Needless to say, Salma was shocked when she showed up and there was only one other person there. She told Latina, “I was angry. And he didn’t know, because he thought I knew I was coming just to meet him.” Luckily, things turned around after that. The two have been married since 2009 and have one kid together, and three from François’s previous marraige.
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16. Chrishell Stause and G Flip started talking at a Halloween party after G Flip made the big move from Australia to LA. They were both dating other people at the time, but the pair quickly realized they had quite a lot in common.
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G Flip later personally invited Chrishell to star in their “Get Me Outta Here” music video, and the two totally hit it off on set. Chrishell confirmed their relationship in the Selling Sunset Season 5 reunion. They’ve been happily together ever since and tied the knot in May of 2023.
Speaking of the secret Las Vegas wedding, G Flip told People, “It’ll forever be one of the greatest memories of my life. And we’re actually planning to get married every single year. I don’t know why more people don’t do that. Like, it’s your person that you spend like every day with. Wouldn’t you wanna have a party to celebrate your life every single year? So yeah, we’re gonna do it. We’re so into it.”17. Vanessa Hudgens met her husband, professional baseball player Cole Tucker, in a Zoom meditation group during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
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The two got married in 2024 in Mexico, and have since welcomed two kids — one son and one daughter.
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18. Melissa Etheridge and Linda Wallem first met when Linda was the showrunner of That ’80s Show. She wanted Melissa to play a record store owner on the show, so the two met to discuss the role. While that didn’t quite work out, they did become good friends.
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After Melissa and her first wife divorced, she invited Linda to live with her and her kids, just as friends. She told Variety, “We were in separate rooms, but every morning, we would get up and feed the kids and make them lunches and breakfast and take them to school.”
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She went on to explain that the whole thing turned into a bit of a Parent Trap situation, in which Melissa’s kids really wanted them to date. Eventually they did, and they ultimately got married in 2014.
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19. RuPaul met his husband — a Wyoming-based rancher named Georges LeBar — on the dance floor of the Limelight nightclub on Georges’ birthday in 1994.
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RuPaul spoke highly of Georges in an interview with BuzzFeed News, saying, “He’s so kind and funny. I remember praying, ‘I want a sweet, sensitive man,’ and I got an Australian who’s just lovely.” The couple got married in 2017 on the anniversary of the day they met, 23 years later.
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20. Michael Bublé was leaving a performance in Buenos Aires when he saw a stunning girl across the room. He got into his car and told his grandfather, “That’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I’m never gonna see her again.” That girl was his future wife, Luisana Lopilato.
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Fortunately, he was wrong. Later that night, she walked into the party he was at…with another, very handsome man. She didn’t speak English, and he didn’t speak Spanish, but Michael was still trying to work up the nerve to ask about her. After a couple of drinks, he told “her boyfriend” that they made a beautiful couple, and was delighted to learn they were actually just friends. Michael was convinced that he just met ~the one~, and meanwhile…Luciana was texting her mom because she thought Michael was gay. It all worked out in the end, and the couple have been married since 2011 and have three kids together.
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21. Beanie Feldstein met her wife, producer Bonnie-Chance Roberts, on set of the 2018 movie How To Build A Girl, which Beanie starred in. Technically, the two met for the very first time on a Skype call, in which Beanie never got Bonnie’s name.
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She told Vogue, “In classic Bon fashion, she hadn’t actually introduced herself, she just launched into it all…At the end of the call, I wrote in my notes: ‘the producer… Brooke?'” Beanie flew out to London to audition, found out she got the part on Valentine’s Day, and fell in love with Bonnie while they were filming.
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“From the moment we first kissed, we both knew we would get married and months after that, Bon had announced that when the time came, she wanted to be the one to propose to me.” The couple announced their engagement in June of 2022 and tied the knot a year later in June of 2023 with a summer camp-themed wedding. Sarah Paulson — Beanie’s American Crime Story co-star — was a bridesmaid in the ceremony.22. Neil Patrick Harris first met his husband David Burtka on a street corner in New York City. Neil assumed David was his friend Kate’s boyfriend and congratulated her, saying, “Nicely done.” It turns out the two weren’t together, but David was in a long-distance relationship with another man.
Neil and David were “always around” each other, but they didn’t actually sit down and hang out for the first time until Kate threw an American Idol viewing party and invited them both. Neil explained, “I just stammered around him. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.” David told Out, “I ended up breaking up with my boyfriend, and a week later, Neil and I had a date… We started hanging out every single night, and after three months, it was just nonstop.”
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Years later, David proposed to Neil on the very street corner that they met on. The two have been married since 2014 and have two kids together.23. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds got close on the set of Green Lantern but were both in relationships at the time. A year later, they were both single and decided to go on a double date…with other people. Ryan called it “the most awkward date” for the people they came with, because they were obvious sparks between him and Blake.
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It was after that date that Ryan started seeing her as more than just a friend. The two have been married since 2012 and currently have three kids together.
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24. Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin have a real “trust the process” love story. The two first met at a party and were into each other, so Barbara followed him on Instagram. Naturally, Dylan slid into her DMs, and…she didn’t open it. He told W Magazine, “I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you’re in New York for very long, but we should hang out if you want to. Here’s my number.’ And she didn’t message me for six months.”
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The timing just wasn’t right — Barbara wasn’t in the place for a serious relationship, and Dylan had just booked a movie in China. His manager asked him if there’s anything he wished he’d wrapped up before leaving, and the thought of taking Barbara immediately came to mind. Coincidentally, Barbara texted him just 10 minutes later.
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When it came to their first date, Barbara ate a third of Dylan’s burrito on a single bite, then asked him to kiss her. She explained that it was 3 a.m. and they’d already been talking and texting for four months, so she decided to take fate into her own hands. Sounds like it worked out, because the couple officially tied the knot in 2023.
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25. Jesse Tyler Ferguson likes to tell people he met his husband Justin Mikita through mutual friends, but the pair actually met in the locker room of an Equinox gym in West Hollywood.
According to Jesse, Justin recognized him from the Modern Family pilot, so Justin stopped him to ask about his character. Jesse told Variety, “I was taken by how handsome he was and how sweet… I started asking questions about him, and I think he was sort of thrown off by that and ran away from me.”
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Fear not, though, because the two did make their way back to each other after that. They kept in touch and Justin eventually asked Jesse out, but he was in a relationship at the time. Luckily, they ran into each other again when Jesse was single, and the rest is history. Jesse and Justin have been married since 2013 and have two sons together.
26. Cynthia Nixon met her wife Christine Marinoni at a campaign event for the Alliance for Quality Education, where they were both fighting to decrease class sizes in the New York City public school system. Cynthia was in attendance as her kids were in the school system, and Christine had helped found the nonprofit organization.
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In an interview with Attitude, Cynthia — who had previously only dated men — explained, “Falling in love with my wife was one of the great delights and surprises of my life, but it didn’t seem like I became a whole new person, or like some door had been unlocked. It was like, ‘I have fallen in love with different people in my life, and they’ve all been men before. Now this is a woman, and she is amazing.’”
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The pair started dating in 2004 and have been married since 2012. They have one son together as well as two kids from Cynthia’s previous marriage.
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27. Luciana Barroso was working at a club in Miami when, suddenly, Matt Damon ducked behind her. He was in town filming Stuck on You, and fans who’d recognized him had started getting aggressive. Naturally, he hid behind her bar and said, “Oh, I saw you, and I really wanted to talk to you.”
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In an interview with Vogue Australia, Luciana explained that Matt had been hoping to have a chat and a drink while he waited, but she decided to put him to work instead. So, Matt — who had actually trained as a bartender for a previous movie — started making drinks. They hit it off, got married in 2005, and have since had four daughters together.
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28. Hayley Kiyoko and Bachelor contestant Becca Tilley publicly announced their relationship in 2022, but actually met and got together way back in 2018. In an Instagram post hard-launching their four-year-long relationship, Hayley revealed that the pair met at the release party for her debut album Expectations.
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She captioned the photo, “…we took this picture after 5 minutes. Her shirt said ‘no time for romance’…..it’s been 4 years. I guess she had some time.”At Hayley’s 2022 “For The Girls” release party in West Hollywood — hours before their Instagram hard launch — the couple made their IRL debut. Hayley brought Becca — who makes a cameo in the music video — on stage, handing her a rose Bachelor-style and kissing her.
You can watch the music video for yourself here. Becca’s cameo is at the very end.29. And finally, Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts and her wife Amber Laign were set up on a blind dinner date by friends in 2005 and completely hit it off.In her memoir, Everybody’s Got Something, Robin revealed that Amber had no idea who she was, saying, “She rarely followed sports, so she never saw me on ESPN. Her office mates at the time watched a different morning show…ouch!” Robin came out in 2013, and the couple went public with their relationship. They tied the knot in September of 2023 after 18 years together.
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