There is something magical about hearing about how two people met. I love it when people ask me how my husband and I met, because to me, it’s a pretty great story. It starts like a lot of people, with mutual friends and a party. The next day, my now-husband hunted me down at the book festival where I was volunteering. I may be biased but I think it’s a pretty great story.
So I figured if my story was so magical, then celebrities must have some seriously great stories. And they did not disappoint. From couples who met in a house fire to couples who literally dreamed up their relationships, there really are some great stories to be found. Even if they weren't particularly interesting, the "how we met" story of every couple is magical because it's the beginning of a love story, no matter what happened later. Lucky for us, some celebrities do have good stories and they've shared them with the world.
Get the happy tears tissues ready, because of few of these stories are real tear jerkers. And dig into my 20 favourite “how we met” stories from celebrity parents.
20 David Beckham Wanted To Spice Up His Life
It was the late '90s and the Spice Girls were streaming across the television screens of people all over the world. Including football superstar David Beckham. It was then that he first laid eyes on Posh Spice aka Victoria Adams.
And like most of us, he was smitten with the girl on TV. “See the girl in the dark short dress?” he said to a friend. “I’m going to marry her.” And marry her he did.
He then invited her to a Manchester United match in 1997. In a letter that Victoria wrote to her younger self for Vogue UK, the singer and fashion designer wrote all about meeting the love of her life.
"Yes, love at first sight does exist," Beckham wrote. "It will happen to you in the Manchester United players' lounge—although you will get a little drunk, so exact details are hazy. While the other football players stand at the bar drinking with their mates, you will see David standing aside with his family. (He's not even in the first team at this stage—you are the famous one)," she remembered.
"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.)"
Are you swooning yet?
19 Kate Winslet And Ned Rocknroll Met During A House Fire
I’ve heard of steamy romances but the story of how Kate Winslet met her husband Ned Rocknroll takes that saying to a whole new level.
Winslet was vacationing on Richard Branson’s private island, Necker Island, when a house fire erupted back in 2011. As fate would have it, Rocknroll, who works as the Head of Marketing Promotion and Astronaut Experience for Virgin Galactic, was also on Necker Island.
At the time, Winslet was with her then-boyfriend Louis Dowler. And to make the story even more outrageous, Winslet actually saved Branson’s 90-year-old mother from the fire.
“My husband and I met in a house fire basically. Well, we did," Winslet told Ellen on the Ellen Degeneres show. The couple married in 2012 and welcomed their son in 2013. As a nod to how they met, the couple chose an interesting middle name for little Bear. “The house burned down and we survived. But we wanted something of the fire and so Blaze was the name that we came up with.” The moniker is an interesting homage to such a strange, unique, memorable meeting story. A private island owned by a billionaire, a house ablaze, saving an old lady, and true love. Kate Winslet has quite a life.
18 Kanye West Pined For Kim Kardashian For Years
Believe it or not, the Kanye West-Kim Kardashian saga began a long, long, long time before the two finally got together in 2012. They actually met for the first time ten years earlier in 2002, when West was recording a song with Kardashian’s friend, Brandy.
“He was recording a song with Brandy, and I was her friend. I vividly remember hanging out with him and then they did a video together, so I'd see him a few times. He was asking his friends: 'Who is this Kim Kardajan?' He didn't know what my name was,” Kardashian recalled.
The two continued to live their separate lives and in 2006, West saw a photo of Kardashian that sparked his interest again. She was posing with then-bestie Paris Hilton. They kept running into each other, and West’s crush only grew stronger. “I just dreamed about being next to her,” West has since confessed.
Kardashian went on to marry Kris Humphries in 2011, but the marriage ended in 2013. It was then that West made his move.
“After my breakup, I was feeling really low and down and he said, 'Just come to Paris and see my fashion show.' He jokes that he put on this whole fashion show just to get a date with me,” Kardashian said. “So I went there and I stayed with him, and that's where we started dating. I swear from the moment I landed, I fell madly in love with him and I thought, 'Oh my God, why didn't I do this sooner?' Like, this is what real life is like—love and fun and real support.”
17 Mila Kunis Married Her First Kiss
Mila Kunis met her future husband when she was only 15 years old on the set of That 70s Show. She played Jackie to Ashton Kutcher’s Michael Kelso.
Kunis even had her first kiss ever on set. It was with Kutcher when their characters kissed on the show.
For the next 18 years, the two dated other people—Kutcher was even married to Demi Moore from 2005 to 2013.
Kunis admits their friendship went through ups and downs during those 18 years. And at the peak of Kutcher’s Punked fame, Kunis wasn’t even sure she liked him as a friend. “At the height of his career, I was like, 'Ugh, I don't like you. I don't even know you anymore. You think you're such hot [stuff],'” she said.
Fast forward to 2012, when Kunis ran into Kutcher at an award show. “So I see this guy, and I see his back, and he's really tall [Kutcher is 6'2; Kunis is 5'4], and I was like who's that tall guy?… And I'm standing there like this, literally like ‘Hmm...;’ and I'm wearing this big poofy dress, and look ridiculous, and then he just turns around, and it was like literally, if we were in a movie, the music would just start playing and violins would go. I just went [gasps]. Like, I think he for the first time ever took my breath away.” He turned around and it was Kutcher.
The couple started seeing each other as “friends with benefits” but as well all now know it blossomed into so much more. The couple is now married with two kids.
16 Prince William And Kate Middleton Were College Sweethearts
A great time to start meeting the one is during your college and university days. You’re a little older, a little more mature and you’re starting to find direction in your life. And you’re most likely surrounded by other like-minded people who are around the same age as you and looking for the same things out of a relationship. I figure if it works for royalty, it can’t be too bad right?
Prince William first met his future bride, Kate Middleton, at St Andrews University. The pair were both studying Art History in 2001 when they met.
The now-Duchess of Cambridge had what I’d consider a pretty normal reaction to meeting a real-life Prince Charming. “I went bright red and scuttled off, feeling very shy,” she said. But she clearly made an impression on Prince William. He went on to pay £200 just for the opportunity to sit front row to watch Middleton walk in a charity fashion show later that year.
I mean, come on, that’s enough to make you Prince Charming material even if you aren’t an actual prince!
“We just spent more time together, we had a good giggle and realised we shared some interests,” Prince William has since explained. “She has a normal sense of humour which is really good for me because I’ve got a dead sense of humour, and things happened.”
15 Kourtney Kardashian And Scott Disick Have Girls Gone Wild To Thank
There aren’t a lot of things that people don’t know about the Kardashians. Between their impeccable social media accounts, their apps and, of course, 13 seasons of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, the world has been given an in-depth look into their lives.
So I was quite surprised when I realized that I didn’t actually know how Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick met. And I was even more surprised when I found out the story of how their courtship began.
Kardashian was at a party in Punta Cana hosted by none other than Joe Francis aka the creator of Girls Gone Wild. Yes, that Girls Gone Wild.
It was there that the couple met for the first time. “I introduced Kourtney and Scott at my house in Mexico. Scott came as the guest of a friend of mine, and they met in my master bedroom,” Francis said.
The couple never married and had their fair share of ups and downs. But during their relationship, they welcomed three children that they now continue to co-parent together. They've both moved on (Scott is now with Sofia Richie, Nicole Richie's 19-year-old sister), but their love produced three lovely children and began with quite an unusual start.
14 Fergie Is Josh Duhamel’s Dream Girl, Literally
The romance between Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie and Josh Duhamel started with an actual dream. Actor Duhamel has said in the past that he had a dream about Fergie before he met her.
The couple finally did meet when the Black Eyed Peas made a guest appearance on Duhamel’s show Las Vegas. The first words Duhamel uttered to Fergie? “You’re hot.”
"It sounds corny when you say it, but I think she knew I was sort of saying it tongue-in-cheek because she had already known that I had a little bit of a crush on her while she was there and it was sort of a way of saying something she already knew," Duhamel went on to explain.
And while you might not be surprised to find out that the “you’re hot” tactic didn’t win Fergie’s heart over right away, Duhamel wasn’t giving up without a fight. In his own words, he stalked her!
“That’s how I got my wife. I literally stalked her for weeks until she said yes. They say it’s not stalking if she says yes,” he said. “I’m not a huge believer in love at first sight, but I think that when it is right, often it’s somebody that you had that feeling about when you first met them".
The couple married in 2009 and welcomed their son Axl in 2013. Sadly, they split in 2017 but still co-parent young Axl together.
13 Gisele Bündchen And Tom Brady Are Each Other’s Doppelgängers
Being set up by mutual friends is a great way to meet your next partner, just ask Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady.
While Brady was still in a relationship with actress Bridget Moynahan, the Patriots football star was set up on a date by a friend. “He told me he knew a girl version of me," Brady said. And Gisele was told the same thing by the same friend: “And he said to me he'd found a boy version of me!"
"I knew right [a]way — the first time I saw him," Bündchen confided in a 2009 Vanity Fair interview. "The moment I saw him, he smiled and I was like, that is the most beautiful, charismatic smile I've ever seen! We sat and talked for three hours. I had to go home for Christmas, but I didn't want to leave. You know that feeling of, like, you can't get enough? From the first day we met, we've never spent one day without speaking to each other."
Brady quickly called it off with Moynahan, but merely two months into his relationship with Bündchen, he found out that Moynahan was pregnant with his son.
"It was definitely a surprise for both of us," Bündchen said. "In the beginning, you're living this romantic fantasy; you're thinking, this can't be true, it's so good! And then, whoops—wake-up call! We were dating two and a half months when he found out, and it was a very challenging situation. Obviously, in the beginning, it's not the ideal thing."
But the couple was able to move past it. They are now married and the proud parents of three kids, including Moynahan’s son Jack.
12 Lauren Conrad Is More Than Just A Groupie
It’s no surprise that former The Hills and Laguna Beach star Lauren Conrad was living the rock star lifestyle at age 16. And it was then that she met her future husband for the first time.
She was on stage at a Something Corporate concert, and William Tell was the guitarist for the band. “I met my husband when I was 16 and sitting on stage at one of his concerts.”
But for the time being, that was that. Conrad went on to star in The Hills, become a fashion designer and build out a successful lifestyle brand while William Tell spent the next ten years moving away from the musician life. He pursued a law degree and he is now working as an entertainment lawyer.
So how did the two reconnect? “Ten years later we were set up on a blind date,” Conrad explained. The couple married in 2014 and welcomed their son, Liam James Tell, in 2017.
Conrad opened up on the best way to meet a guy on her blog.
"I think the best way to meet someone you are compatible with is doing something you really enjoy,” she said. “Now, when I say something that you enjoy I don't mean shopping, visiting a farmers market or taking a cooking class. These are things that men do for women but don't necessarily enjoy doing by themselves.
“Instead, try out activities that you enjoy and think a guy would like, too. If you enjoy watching sports (you don't have to be a fanatic) try a sports bar with a couple friends. If you enjoy music, a low-key show is a great place to meet a guy. If you like art then try finding local art shows to attend. The bottom line is, don't drag yourself to places just to meet a guy. Do things that you love and hopefully you will find someone who can enjoy them with you," Conrad wrote. "If nothing else you'll have a great time until you find Mr. Right."
11 At Least Something Good Came Out Of 2010’s The Green Lantern
The story of how Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds met and finally ended up together reads like a romantic comedy you’d expect them to star in together.
Back in 2010, before Reynolds became Deadpool, he played another superhero.
They met on the set of The Green Lantern while playing each other’s love interests. At the time though, they were both seeing other people (honestly, are you ready to buy tickets to see this movie yet?).
Reynolds was married to Scarlett Johansson and Lively was dating her Gossip Girl costar, Penn Badgley.
They became good friends and when they were both single a year later, they went on a double date together. The catch? They weren’t each others’ dates! "We were buddies then," Reynolds told Entertainment Weekly. "I remember it was funny because for about a year after Green Lantern had come and gone and we were both single. 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 because we were just like fireworks coming across," Reynolds added. "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."
10 The “Un-Hollywood” Romance Of Justin Timberlake And Jessica Biel
By definition, any romance between Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel is going to be Hollywood. I mean, they are a famous singer and actress who live their lives in the Hollywood spotlight. But if you ask Timberlake, he’ll tell you that their relationship began in a “very un-Hollywood-esque” way.
It was back in 2007 when Timberlake had just recently broken up with Cameron Diaz. The pair met through mutual friends And before Timberlake made his move, he made sure to do the gentlemanly thing—he checked in with his friend first to make sure it would okay for him to reach out to Biel.
“There was nothing starry about the way we got together... 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,” he said. “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.”
And while Timberlake picking up the phone to call us might be enough to get a date (and maybe even our hand in marriage) it took a little more for Biel to come around to his charms. “I had to be pretty persistent in order to get her to say yes. But, if I want something I stick to it. And in the end, she agreed.”
9 Joel Madden And Nicole Richie Disagree On How They Met
It may seem a bit crazy, but when you’ve been together for 12+ years you might start to forget, or misremember, certain aspects of your relationship. That’s what seems to have happened to Joel Madden and Nicole Richie.
If you ask Madden how they met he’ll tell you that it was at one of his Good Charlotte concerts, where he was the lead singer.
"When I first would see her around, we were friends. But I don't think I'm the obvious choice. I'm always like, 'Just give me a shot. Just give me one date.' If I can get my foot in the door,” he said.
Richie, on the other hand, swears they met for the first time at a mutual friend’s party.
"I was at my girlfriend's party and he was there hanging out with my girlfriend's sister, and we met very, very briefly. He was very shy and just kind of kept to himself. I couldn't get a read out of him for the life of me," she said in a 60 Minutes interview.
Richie also told Ryan Seacrest in 2016 that she may have told Madden a little white lie to make sure he was interested in her. “I was 25 when I met him, and he said, 'Have you ever watched The Wire?' and so I lied and said that I did so that he would hang out with me . . . he literally dropped me in season three, and I pretended to know everything and it was horrible and then I hated the show."
But it all worked out in the end! The couple married in 2010 and became parents to daughter Harlow in 2008 and son Sparrow in 2009.
8 A Blind Date Brought Khloe Kardashian And Tristan Thompson Together
Blind dates strike fear in the heart of most single people. Sure, you hope that your friends who have set you up have picked someone you’ll at least be compatible enough with to have a meal, but who knows? We’ve all heard nightmare blind date stories, and for some, that’s enough to swear off blind dates altogether.
But it was actually a blind date that brought Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson together. And, like any sane single woman, Kardashian had her hesitations on whether or not she really wanted to go on a blind date.
"Brandon Jennings, who is a basketball player, is a friend of mine and Malika [Haqq], and he was like, 'You're such a good girl, I want to introduce you to someone,'" she said. "I was at the Bel-Air Hotel. He came to the dinner. I didn't want to go on a blind date."
To curb the awkwardness a bit, the reality star was with a group of friends when Thompson showed up for. "Brandon kind of ambushed the blind date. So I had a bunch of people, and he brought him and we just connected," she said. While there's been trouble along the way, they've stayed together and had a beautiful daughter.
7 Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance were almost college sweethearts
It’s always great to meet your significant other when you are doing something you both love. If you meet while you’re both engaged in an activity you are passionate about, you clearly have something in common.
For actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance, acting really was what brought them together. They met while studying at Yale School of Drama. “He had a beautiful, beautiful girlfriend at the time, who was also in drama school with us,” Bassett recalled. But that didn’t stop the two from becoming close friends.
Bassett graduated in 1983 and Vance followed in 1986. But it was still years before the two became an official couple. “So maybe about 14 years later, our paths crossed here in Los Angeles. And I was single, he was single,” said Bassett.
“And I had such an appreciation for him over those years—of his consistency, how he treated other people, of what a supporter he is, what a connector of people and ideas he is, how passionate he is.”
The duo wed on October 12th, 1997 and after struggling to have children for many years, welcomed their twins Slater and Bronwyn via surrogate in 2006.
6 Hugh Jackman Was Star-Struck Meeting Deborra-Lee Furness
When Hugh Jackman met his now-wife Deborra-lee Furness he was, well, a bit of a nobody. He was just out of drama school and Furness was a huge celebrity in his native Australia.
“My first job out of drama school—it was a massive break for me. I was really scared,” Jackman told People Magazine.
“Deb, she was a big star. I get picked up, and Deb is in the front seat of the car. I’ll never forget. She took off her seatbelt and she turned around and put out her hand and took off her sunglasses and said, ‘Hi, I’m Deborra-lee Furness, nice to meet you.’ I remember thinking, ‘I like this girl.'”
It took Jackman six weeks before he had enough courage to ask her out. He kept talking himself out of it, worrying that he wasn’t being professional and that having “a crush on my leading lady” wasn’t the right thing to do.
Eventually, he held a small get-together with some friends and invited Furness to attend along with about 20 other friends. When he was cooking dessert, Jackman made his move. He asked Furness to give him a hand in the kitchen.
“She said, ‘I noticed you haven’t talked to me in like a week, what’s going on?’ I said, ‘I got a crush on you. I’ll get over it, I’m sorry.’ She goes, ‘Oh? Because I’ve got a crush on you too.’ I never in a million years thought she reciprocated.”
5 George Clooney Knew He Loved Amal The Moment He Saw Her
George Clooney was in his own home when he first saw the beautiful human rights attorney Amal Alamuddin. It was 2013 at his home in Lake Como, Italy.
"It's the wildest thing. A mutual friend of ours said, 'I'm stopping by and can I bring my friend?' And I was like, 'Of course.' I got a call from my agent who called me and said, 'I met this woman who's coming to your house who you're gonna marry,'" George said in an interview with David Letterman.
"The funniest thing was my mom and dad were visiting, so my parents were there, and we just talked and we stayed up all night talking and then, you know, I got her email address 'cause she was going to send me some pictures of my parents and then, we started writing and I didn't know if she wanted to go out with me. I just thought, you know, we were buddies."
The actor went on to chase “her for months, calling and writing, those kinds of things." But he knew that they were meant to be together. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, he said that "from the minute we met, we just sort of felt like we were going to be together."
4 For Stephen Colbert, It Was Love At First Sight
The moment that Stephen Colbert laid eyes on Evelyn McGee, he knew she was the one.
He saw her in a theatre lobby and thought, “Her. That’s your wife. You’re going to marry her.” They didn’t formally meet each other until later that night while waiting in line for food. “You will kick yourself for the rest of your life if you do not turn around and say hello to her,” Colbert said to himself.
And so turn around he did. It was then that they realized that they had in fact grown up together. They went to different schools in the same area and their families knew each other. Can you say kismet?
Colbert worried that McGee was “just being nice to me because our families know each other. She doesn’t really like me.” So he turned away for “the most harrowing minute of my life” to give McGee a chance to escape.
“She was still there when I turned about, smiling at me, and now we’re married.” Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard? It's the kind of thing every woman hopes her dream man thinks about her. The couple have been married since 1993 and have three children together.
3 A Drunk Guy Brought Reese Witherspoon And Jim Toth Together
I am sure most of us have been hit on once or twice by an extremely drunk person. Usually, it results in some awkward conversation and a tactical escape. But some people are just luckier than others I guess. You see, Reese Witherspoon never thought that getting hit on by a really drunk guy at a friend’s party would be how she met her husband, but the world works in mysterious ways.
At a friend’s party, Witherspoon was hit on but what she referred to as a “really drunk guy”. It wasn’t a great experience and Witherspoon even called the guy a jerk. But that jerk did technically introduce her to her now-husband, 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. He was like, [slurring, scowling, pointing finger in her face] ‘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.’"
"I remember thinking … Jim was a really good friend, pulling [his drunk pal] out of that situation. That’s just kind of who he is, a really good person.”
2 Naomi Watts Asked For Liev Schreiber’s Digits
When Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber met at an event in Manhattan, Watts was quick to make the first move. She invited Schreiber to go out dancing with her that night. He agreed, but when he arrived his nerves got the best of him.
"So I went down to this club that she told me to meet her at, and of course she was there with Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro, and I'm kind of standing around like a bump on a log, waiting for my turn. I think I was nervous, and I felt very embarrassed being there, and self-conscious, because all these movie stars were hovering, and I felt … awkward and out of my element. And I wasn't going to make a good impression. So I said, 'I'm sorry, but I gotta go home.'"
But then Watts did something that a lot of women would be too shy to do. She chased Schreiber outside and said, “Don't you want my digits?” Of the bold statement, Watts has since said, "It was the first thing that came to me. I've never said those words before in my life and never since."
The next day they went out for cupcakes and then Watts went back to L.A. But Schreiber knew that wasn’t the end of their story. " I wrote her all the time. Lots of emails. I think that was it—seduced by email."
1 Katie Couric Knew She Had To Meet John Molner
Katie Couric stands by the fact that she knew she was smitten with her husband John Molner the moment she met him. But it took Molner a hot minute to get with the program after the two were set up by mutual friends.
“In 2012 I was single again and I asked a friend of mine, Molly, whose husband is a trauma surgeon if her husband knew any other doctors because I thought I’d like to go out with a doctor,” Couric told People Magazine. “And so she thought about it and she said, ‘We don’t really know a doctor, but we do know this banker named John Molner.’ And I said, ‘Does he have a pulse?’”
All jokes aside, Couric was clearly interested in meeting Molner. So when she didn’t hear from him, she didn’t let it go. Instead, she kept reaching out to her friend to try to get her to get Molner to call her.
“Finally, after much badgering,” Couric managed to get her phone call. “He finally asked me out, we met at a restaurant and what can I say?” Couric recalled. “He had me at hello.” Given this whole back story, it sounds like he had her long before he ever said "hello."
References: glamourmagazine.co.uk, vogue.co.uk, instagram.com, elle.com, elle.com, popsugar.com, elitedaily.com, usweeklymagazine.com, eonline.com, bustle.com, instagram.com, eonline.com, romper.com, elitedaily.com, bustle.com, popsugar.com, popsugar.com, people.com, popsugar.com, people.com, popsugar.com, people.com, elle.com, esquire.com, dailystar.co.uk, thoughtcatalog.com, hollywoodlife.com, eonline.com, ibtimes.com.au, popsugar.com, laineygossip.com, people.com, instagram.com, pinterest.co.uk, toofab.com, twitter.com, eonline.com, popsugar.com, electric949.com, aol.com, closerweekly.com, dailymail.co.uk.