Maybe it’s the pressure of fame and the spotlight, or just some sort of Hollywood curse, but generally speaking, a celebrity couple has a lot going against them. But these ’90s celebrity couples, living the high life of the 1990s while maintaining strong romantic connections, show that some love affairs in Hollywood truly can stand the test of time.
It was November 1991 on Broadway. Broderick was directing a play for his brother’s theater company, the Naked Angels. Parker, who was coming out of a relationship with Robert Downey Jr., was introduced to the Ferris Bueller star through that very same playwright brother.
It took a few months until Broderick finally mustered up the courage to say something. One fateful voicemail left on the future Sex and City star’s machine later, and the two finally began dating. Five years later they were married in a ceremony officiated by yet another Broderick, Matthew’s sister. Looks like the two owe a lot of their relationship to those siblings!
Now this is a story about how Will Smith’s life got turned upside down! It all started on television — literally. While working on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Smith met Jada Pinkett, who was auditioning to be his on-screen girlfriend. Fiction became reality, and three years after that first on-set encounter, the two were married in a secret wedding in Pinkett’s hometown, Baltimore.
The celebrity couple have since had two children, Jaden and Willow, and from all accounts, they remain very happy. Smith once addressed rumors of a split by confidently stating in People magazine, “There is not now, never has been, and there never will be any trouble in paradise.” Talk about love!
Starting off as colleagues in the country music scene, this talented duo soon developed a friendship that quickly blossomed into romance. First married in 1988, the couple took a break in 1994, but quickly found their way back into each other’s arms. Since marrying a second time in 1996, Hill and McGraw have had two children together.
Both living and working with your spouse may present its own share of difficulties, but the country duo seem to have found a working system. They both reportedly have their own dressing rooms and do separate studio recordings in order to maintain their own space. Overall, the experience seems to have been rewarding, with McGraw describing the experience of performing with his wife as “rare and special.”
L.A. Law star Harry Hamlin and Days of our Lives actress Lisa Rinna have been married now for 22 years, and neither one of them seems to have any idea how. When asked about it, Hamlin told US Weekly that they’re exact opposites.
Hamlin explained: “I love to cook and she doesn’t…I have no interest in pop culture and she does…as the science stuff goes, she’s marginally into that.” Yet on top of all that, Hamlin couldn’t help but remind audiences that they make a great team. Not only have these two actors excelled at marriage, they’ve also teamed up in business, creating a fashion line called Belle Gray.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was already a popular ’90s star before marrying Freddie Prinze Jr. at the turn of the new millennium. Gellar jumped into the spotlight with her roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and All My Children, the later winning her a 1995 Daytime Emmy Award.
As for Prinze, he was launched into stardom playing alongside Gellar in the popular 1997 film, I Know What You Did Last Summer. Not only did the film propel him to stardom, which only increased with his romantic leading role in She’s All That, but it also got him a brand new girlfriend who became his wife in September of 2002.
NEXT: These ’90s celebrity couples seem like they were meant for each other!
Already an Academy Award-nominated actress by 1998 for her role in Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett had known fellow Aussie and playwright Andrew Upton for 17 years prior to their 1997 marriage. That relationship didn’t start with any sparks of magic, however. Blanchett went on air admitting to Ellen DeGeneres that before the two began dating she found Upton arrogant, and he thought she was aloof.
That all changed during a steamy kiss at a poker game one night. 21 days after that unexpected gamble, Upton wasted no time at all. He proposed to Blanchett, who accepted. The two since have had four children and additionally own a production company together, Dirty Films.
In the late ’90s, before making it big on the X-Men franchise, Hugh Jackman was living as an unemployed actor in Australia. His luck changed after he got a call for work on the ’90s ABC drama Corelli. While on the set, he happened to catch the eye of Furness, or rather she caught his. As he explained, “She was the star. I had this major crush on her. Everyone did.”
In an industry where divorce is rampant, Jackman had this to say about how he and Furness have kept their relationship going: “Before we had kids, Deb and I made a pretty simple but powerful choice to look each other in the eye at every crossroads in life.” Seems like that choice has worked out quite well for them!
20 years and thousands of tabloid articles later, Mr. and Mrs. Beckham are still going strong. With a family brand and international fortune large enough to rival those of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, these two celebrities are a shining example of what hard work in a marriage can lead to.
Although David Beckham is now one of the most recognizable soccer legends in the world, when he met Posh Spice in 1997 at a charity soccer match, he was still an up and coming player. Even so, he was somehow able to charm Victoria, who at the time was one of the biggest pop stars in the world, and the two have been inseparable ever since.
After leaving the US for Windsor, England, Elton John was hosting a dinner party at his house in 1993. In walked in a young advertising executive named David Furnish. Rather than Furnish being intimidated by John, the international music superstar was actually the one to find this financially independent exec unnerving. Elton recalled: “I thought, ‘God, this is new territory for me, someone wants to be with me just because he likes me.’”
The rest of the decade would prove to have some of the hugest moments in Elton John’s career. 12 years later, he finally proposed to Furnish at a separate dinner party in 2005, and the two entered in to a civil union that same year. In 2014, after same-sex marriage became legal in Britain, the couple decided to wait until the exact date of their wedding anniversary, December 21, to become legally married.
Scent of a Woman and Batman franchise star Chris O’Donnell met Caroline Fentress via his sister, who was her college roommate. For O’Donnell, it was love at first kiss, or as he likes to say, “As soon as I kissed her, I knew she was the one.”
23 years on, O’Donnell and Fentress are living in paradise. Their house in Pacific Palisades is custom-built for the loving couple along with their five kids. O’Donnell is still in the Hollywood spotlight years after his time as a ’90s leading man. Since 2009, he has been busy with both his family and his role as G. Callen on NCIS: Los Angeles.
NEXT: Talk about love! How have these celebrity couples made marriage and show biz work?
Known as one of the greatest comedians alive, Jerry Seinfeld met his current wife, Jessica Sklar, at one of New York’s finest health clubs, then known as the Reebok Sports Club, now the Upper West Side’s Sports Club New York. The former PR exec for Tommy Hilfiger was so enamored with the Seinfeld star, that the two were married later that year.
Since tying the knot the two have reportedly been a constant source of support for each other’s careers. Sklar has recently published her own cookbook, along with being an active figure in numerous charities, as husband Jerry hosts the popular television show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Back when 19-year-old Candace Cameron was starring as D.J. Tanner on Full House, she decided to attend a charity hockey match in support of co-star Dave Coulier. It was there, staring at the ice, that Cameron suddenly noticed one hockey player in particular: Valeri Bure. Lucky for her, wingman Coulier was quick to make arrangements, and Bure and Cameron went on a date shortly after.
A short year of dating and romance later, and the two were married in 1996. Since then, the ’90s celebrity couple have become parents to three children, and although they’ve admitted it hasn’t been “all roses,” what marriage is? The two have persevered, and after 24 years are still proud to say they love each other.
Kudrow first met the French advertising executive Michel Stern through her roommate in the late 1980s. The only problem? He was her roommate’s boyfriend at the time! Even though Kudrow felt attracted to him, she didn’t want to get in the way of her roommate’s love and wouldn’t even allow herself to flirt with him. Talk about restraint.
The two didn’t meet again until years later, after Stern was single, at a party thrown by that former roommate, of all people. Ever since that party, Kudrow has described the two of them as being “inseparable,” and they have 25 years of marriage together to prove it.
Two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks still remembers the first time he ever saw Rita Wilson. According to the Forrest Gump star, he was at a friends’ house when he saw Wilson playing the role of Pat Conway on The Brady Bunch. Truly, the young actor couldn’t have had the slightest inkling that the woman he was looking at would one day be his wife.
As fate would have it, Hanks and Wilson did get a chance to meet while working on the 1985 film, Volunteers. A year later and the two Hollywood stars decided to go public with their relationship. Seemingly not wanting to waste any more time, they were married a year after going public, entering together into the decade that would define Hanks’ career.
Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn’s relationship started out rather unexpectedly. The celebrity couple met in 1966 while working on the set of the Disney film, The One and Only, Genuine Original Family Band. However, there were some complications. At the time, Hawn was 21 and Russell was 16. Not only that, but the two had decided early on that they didn’t want to date other actors. Seems like it just wasn’t meant to be.
But, it seemed like the universe had other plans for this Hollywood couple. As chance would have it, they met again in 1983 while filming Swing Shift. This time, Hawn couldn’t resist a date with the now age-appropriate Russell. Although the two have vowed not to get married, their 37 year-strong relationship is a testament to the adage: love conquers all.
NEXT: The way these ’90s celebrity couples met are truly adorable.
Tabloids might have one believe that Denzel and Pauletta Washington met on the set of the TV movie, Wilma. But to hear it from the man himself in an Oprah Magazine interview, “I had talked at [a] party about going to see a play. I went to see the play, and at intermission the lights came up and she was sitting [there]. She said she just happened to go see the play…I’m getting in trouble as I speak!”
Since then, the couple have gone on to become one of Hollywood’s longest-lasting couples. How? Well again, according to the Philadelphia star himself, “I just think that you have to work at it. Not give up on each other. It’s a commitment. It’s not all the honeymoon, it doesn’t last forever, so you work at it. And hopefully you’re good friends first, that might help!”
When Colin Firth was describing Cartagena, Colombia to Ellen DeGeneres, he characterized it as, “a staggeringly beautiful city and full of staggeringly beautiful people.” Yet among all these “staggering” beauties, one woman stood out to Firth. While standing on the steps of an old church, he spied her in a crowd, “and that was it. It was a bolt to the heart.”
In spite of his fame during the 1990s (when they met) thanks to his work on films like Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary, Giuggioli had no idea who Firth was! She didn’t believe him when he informed her that in Britain he was viewed as a “heartthrob.” Seems like Firth had to rely on personality rather than fame, but whatever he did worked, and the two have been married for 23 years.
After having starred in leading roles in such iconic films as Batman Returns, Scarface, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one might imagine that a night out with Michelle Pfeiffer would involve a fancy dinner at an upscale LA restaurant. But her first date with TV writer David E. Kelley couldn’t have been more opposite.
Rather than picking a fancy restaurant, Kelley took the famous movie star to a bowling alley, where apparently both pins and sparks were flying. That one date turned into two, and the rest is history. Even after more than a quarter century of dating, Kelley isn’t shy about doting over her husband, frequently posting pictures of the two of them together on social media.
What do you get when one model who dominated the runway during the 1990s marries another model who was the Pepsi spokesman of the same decade? You get a flowery romance, an intimate wedding, and two kids who inherited those runway genes to become models themselves. This ’90s celebrity couple is one for the books.
When the picturesque duo celebrated their 21-year anniversary, Gerber shared an Instagram post to commemorate the day. He wrote, “I didn’t just choose the most beautiful girl in the world, I chose the girl that made my world more beautiful. Happy anniversary my Angel!” Sounds like relationship goals to us.
After 24 years of marriage, one might think that Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos would know all the secret tricks to keeping a marriage alive. But when asked about it in USA Today, Consuelos simply remarked, “I’m an incredibly slow learner, so I feel like I’m just getting it. Like, ‘Oh, this is what you’re supposed to do,’ or, ‘OK, sometimes yes means no. After 23 years, I’m just learning that — so no, I don’t think I could give anybody advice.”
Nevertheless, the two are known as a romantic force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. They aren’t shy about their love for each other either, often flirting via Instagram posts and have even admitted in interviews of their family’s displeasure with their excessive PDA.
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have been married for 32 years, and in spite of children and a combined total of 105 acting credits between them, the two seem to have managed to make it work. In fact, both have been interviewed on multiple occasions asking what their secret is to keeping a successful marriage.
Their secret, according to Bacon, is simple: don’t listen to celebrities about marriage! Yes, the irony of this advice is not lost on us either, but these two have been very open about the details of their marriage. It has had its share of difficulties, but the celebrity couple has said they know where to draw the line on fights before saying something irreparable, and it seems to have worked for them.
When thinking of love at first sight, many people generally assume that both parties are falling in love with each other with just one glance. For John Travolta and Kelly Preston though, that wasn’t the case — well, it was for Travolta, but when Preston was asked if she felt the same she sheepishly replied, “kinda.”
That said, the famed actor was able to charm the young actress anyways. On New Year’s Eve at the swanky Palace Hotel in Gstaad, Switzerland, Travolta got down on one knee and Preston said yes. Nine months later, the two were married in a decision that hasn’t changed in 29 years.
Hollywood royals Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas don’t just have a loving relationship. This silver screen power couple are one of the few who have both earned Oscars for their on-screen work. Off-screen, they share a son and a daughter, not to mention 20 years of marriage and even the same September 25 birthday between them.
The two met in 1996 while attending a film festival in the seaside city of Deauville, France. Sparks flew while the two were in this romantic setting, and after a mutual friend introduced the two of them during dinner, it seemed like fate would do the rest of the work. It certainly did, and this celebrity couple has gone on to celebrate 19 years of marriage.
Before Seinfeld, and even prior to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ stint on Saturday Night Live, her and SNL actor-writer Brad Hall were students at Northwestern University. While there, Dreyfus auditioned for a play produced by Hall and immediately she knew that he was ‘the one,’ adding, “There were a couple of moments, some of which I will not share, but I would say that I knew almost immediately. It’s really the truth.”
The two were married when Dreyfus was 26 and Hall was 29. Little did they know that, as they entered the ’90s, the next decade was going to be one of the most fruitful of their lives. Dreyfus gained worldwide recognition for her work on Seinfeld, while Hall wrote the screenplay for the film Bye Bye Love.
Sting and Trudie Styler don’t seem to be the type to just jump into things. This is at least based on their relationship: apparently after meeting on a film studio the two dated for ten years before finally making it official at the altar.
Since then, this celebrity couple have constantly considered each other the “light in each other’s lives,” even after 28 years. In an interview with People, Sting doubled down on that statement saying, “When she comes into a room, she lights a room up for me and I think the same applies for her.” At a time when divorce rates are on the rise, this couple’s relationship provides a breath of fresh air.
Sources: Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Fox News
