Celebrity Couples Who Met While They Were Still In School
According to Brandon Gaille Marketing, about 25 percent of people in the U.S. today end up marrying someone they met in school. That means a quarter of Americans will tie the knot with one of their fellow classmates. Celebrity relationships tend to be one of the hot topics in pop culture, but there are a good number of famous people who married their high school or college sweethearts. Some of these Hollywood stars stayed married to their first loves, while others decided to part ways after fame. Read on to find out which celebrities ended up with their school-day classmates.
Ali Hewson Consoled Bono During A Difficult Time
When Bono was 13 and Ali Hewson was 12, they met while attending the same school in Ireland. He knew that he was going to pursue her immediately, but she decided to keep her distance even though she secretly admired him. Soon after Bono's mother passed away, and Hewson took care of Bono during his difficult time.
The two married on August 21, 1982, in an Irish church and are still married to this day. They have four kids and Hewson has mentioned that it was tough almost raising them alone when Bono was on tour. During their spare time, the couple gets involved in a lot of activism and their fair-trade fashion line.
Savannah James May Be More Business-Savvy Than LeBron
Savannah (Brinson) James met her husband LeBron while they both were high school students at Buchtel Community Learning Center in Akron, Ohio. Around the time the pair graduated they welcomed their first child together and subsequently had two more children.
He finally proposed to her at a New Year's Eve party in 2011 and the two tied the knot on September 14, 2013, in San Diego, California. Even though LeBron is the big star Savannah still participates in some business ventures of her own. She started a furniture line called Home Court, a mentorship program aimed at helping young women, and a juice store.
Ron Howard Got In Trouble When He Was Dating Cheryl
Ron Howard is best known for his child acting roles on iconic sitcoms such as The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days and also for directing many of today's top blockbusters. He met Cheryl (Alley) Howard when the two were students at John Burroughs High School. Howard actually got in trouble with her parents for staying over at her house too much.
The couple now has four children and multiple grandchildren together. One of their daughters is actress Bryce Dallas Howard, known for roles in Jurassic World, The Help, and Gold.
Snoop Dogg And His Wife Had Another Famous Classmate
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., or Snoop Dogg, is one of the most influential rappers and media personalities of his generation. He met his wife Shante (Taylor) Broadus while they were students at Polytechnic High School in Long Beach, California. Actress Cameron Diaz was also in their class.
Snoop Dogg married Shante on June 12, 1997, and they had three children born in 1994, 1997, and 1999. Snoop Dogg filed for divorce from her about seven years later, but the two reconciled and renewed their vows on January 12, 2008. They are still going strong today.
Jon Bon Jovi's Wife Dated His Best Friend
During Dorothea Hurley's high school days she was focused on being a junior karate champion. She just so happened to attend the same high school as John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (Jon Bon Jovi), but was actually dating his best friend the whole time. Their high school friendship continued on to adulthood and they ended up falling in love with each other.
While Bon Jovi was on a tour stop in 1989, he and Hurley snuck off to Las Vegas to elope. After three decades they have four children and even operate a restaurant chain together.
Jeff Daniels And His Wife Had To Make A Big Family Decision
Jeff Daniels grew up in Chelsea, Michigan, and knew he had the acting bug after participating in local theater programs. He's now an established actor with major film, television, and stage credits. Daniels met Kathleen Treado when they were attending the same high school and got married shortly after graduating in 1979.
The couple knew that it would be best to raise their three children out of the spotlight, so in the mid-1980s they moved back to Chelsea and still reside there today. Daniels stated that life in Michigan is slower and it makes him appreciate acting a lot more.
Joey Fatone's On-And-Off Again Relationship
Joey Fatone spent his early adult years performing in the popular boy band N'SYNC alongside members including Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass. Kelly Baldwin met Fatone when the two were in high school in 1993. Since Fatone joined N'SYNC a couple years later their relationship remained off-and-on for a while.
They got married in Long Island, New York on September 9, 2004 and have two daughters, Briahna and Kloey. In June of 2019, it was announced that they had filed for divorce and gone their separate ways.
Hollywood Brought Stephen And Ayesha Curry Together Again
When NBA all-star Stephen Curry met Ayesha (Alexander) Curry in a church youth group in Charlotte, North Carolina he immediately knew they were a perfect match. They were just 14 and 15-years-old at the time, so things didn't get serious until early adulthood. Ayesha moved to Hollywood to pursue acting and happened to meet up with Stephen, who was there to attend an awards show.
After that moment they were ready to tie the knot and got married on July 30, 2011. The Currys currently have two daughters and a son and reside in Alamo, California.
LL Cool J And Simone Smith Can Thank Her Cousin For This
LL Cool J, or James Todd Smith, is known for his iconic rapping career, a few acting roles, and for being a media personality. He started rapping at the age of nine and has earned numerous Grammy Awards.
He and his wife Simone Smith met for the first time at ages 17 and 19, respectively, because he was best friends with her cousin. Then, they dated for eight years and finally got married in 1995. The couple has four children named Najee, Italia, Samaria, and Nina.
Mariano Rivera And His Wife Are Elementary School Sweethearts
Mariano Rivera had quite a successful Major League Baseball career. He spent 19 seasons pitching for the New York Yankees and earned several accolades such as being a 13-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion. Rivera and his wife Clara have known each other since they were in elementary school.
The two of them got married in their early 20s on November 9, 1991, and have three sons named Mariano III, Jafet, and Jaziel.
Elizabeth Banks Got More Than A Degree From College
The way Elizabeth Banks met her husband seems like fate. Banks is best known for her acting roles in many popular movies and TV shows and she has even broken out into directing. She and husband Max Handelman met on her first day of college at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1992.
Handelman is a sportswriter and producer and has collaborated with Banks on numerous projects. After a decade of dating, he unexpectedly proposed to her. The two have welcomed two sons via surrogate.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus And Brad Hall Bonded Over Their Love Of Comedy
The acting career of Julia Louis-Dreyfus has gone on for many decades and she's still as relevant as ever. Her roles on shows such as Seinfeld and Veep have earned her record-breaking numbers of prestigious awards and Hollywood stardom. The one man who has stayed by her side the whole time is her husband Brad Hall.
When the two of them were students at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, they met in Hall's comedy troupe called The Practical Theater. They also performed together on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1984. Louis-Dreyfus and Hall got married in 1987 and have two sons named Henry and Charles.
Kate And Andy Spade Came From Famous Families
Kate Spade had one of the most iconic fashion businesses in the world that still continues to flourish long after her passing. She met Andy Spade when the two of them were attending Arizona State University, and they got married in 1994. They have one daughter named Frances Beatrix Spade, born in February of 2005.
Each of them also has a famous relative. Andy Spade is the older brother of actor and comedian David Spade and Kate (Brosnahan) Spade was the aunt to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Rachel Brosnahan.
Thomas Rhett And Lauren Akin's Adorable Love Story
Some couples are lucky enough to meet in high school, but country singer Thomas Rhett met his wife Lauren (Gregory) Akins in first grade in Valdosta, Georgia. They first attempted to date when they were 15, but they ended up seeing other people. While they were in college the two started a more serious relationship and got married in 2012.
The couple has two daughters, one of whom was adopted from Uganda, and they announced that they will be welcoming their third daughter very soon. Also, their unique relationship story has been the main inspiration for a lot of Rhett's music.
Mark Zuckerberg And Priscilla Chan's Odd Meeting Place
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met his now-wife Priscilla Chan around the time he created one of the top social media sites in the world. The two were standing in line at a frat party in 2003 while they were students at Harvard University. They started dating soon after.
Zuckerberg and Chan got married on May 19, 2012, which was actually the day after Facebook's stock market launch. They're parents to two daughters named Maxima and August. Together they started the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative where they pledged to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares, which is equivalent to $45 billion.
Acting Brought Rainn Wilson To His True Love
Rainn Wilson played one of the most famous roles on television from 2005 to 2013 as Dwight Schrute on NBC's The Office. His acting didn't stop there as he's had numerous other acting credits in projects such as Super, Juno, and The Rocker.
He met short story writer Holiday Reinhorn when the two of them were taking an acting class at the University of Washington in the mid-1980s. They got married a few years later in 1995 on the Kalama River in Washington and have one son named Walter, born in 2004.
How Samuel L. Jackson And LaTanya Richardson Keep Their Marriage Strong
Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson have one of the longest-lasting marriages in Hollywood history. The couple met in 1974 while she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and he was attending the all-male Morehouse College in the same city.
Jackson and Richardson got married six years later and have one daughter named Zoe born in 1982. Most probably know Jackson for his major film roles, but Richardson is also an established actress. She's appeared in some films and was even nominated for her Broadway performance in A Raisin in the Sun.
Stephen And Tabitha King Had Quite A College Experience
Stephen King is one of the most prolific authors of his generation. The majority of his works are in the horror genre and many of them have been turned into famous films and TV shows. King met his wife Tabitha when she was working in the library while they were students at the University of Maine in Orono.
The year 1970 was monumental for the Kings because they graduated from college, got married, and had their first son. Tabitha also has a successful writing career and their sons dabble in writing as well. Their daughter works as a minister in Plantation, Florida.
Robin Thicke And Paula Patton Fell In Love On The Dance Floor
It almost seemed like it was love at first sight when a then-14-year-old Robin Thicke asked 16-year-old Paula Patton to dance at a hip-hop club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. He said he sang Stevie Wonder's "Jungle Fever" to her while they danced the night away.
The singer and actress tied the knot on June 11, 2005, which was about 14 years after they first met. They share a son named Julian Fuego born on April 7, 2010. As with over half of marriages, things didn't work out in the end and they finalized their divorce on March 20, 2015.
Heather Morris Had No Idea She Went To The Same School As Her Husband
Heather Morris has been working in Hollywood for quite a while. She started as a back-up dancer for famous artists including Beyoncé and competing on So You Think You Can Dance. Most of her fans mainly know her for playing Brittany S. Pierce on Glee.
She started dating her now-husband Taylor Hubbell when he was playing college baseball. He messaged her on Myspace and she had no idea they had gone to the same high school in Arizona. They were married on May 16, 2015, and have two sons born in 2013 and 2016.
Football Isn't The Only Love For Eli Manning
Playing in the NFL was always something that Eli Manning was destined to do. His father Archie and brother Peyton were also some of the most famous quarterbacks in football history, which makes them a family of NFL MVPs. He met Abby McGrew during their college days at the University of Mississippi in the early 2000s.
Manning proposed in 2007 and shortly after they had a private wedding ceremony in San José del Cabo, Mexico on April 19, 2008. Manning continued the tradition of having a big family because he and McGrew are the parents of three daughters and a son.
Solange Knowles Was Married Before She Graduated High School
Even though Solange Knowles' marriage to her high school sweetheart didn't work out in the end, it still gave her a lot of needed perspective on life. Knowles met Daniel Smith when the two were young teens. They got married when they were only 17 and 19-years-old on February 27, 2004, and had their son the same year.
After his birth, the new family moved to Moscow, Idaho where Smith was attending college. A few years later the couple filed for divorce and Knowles and their son moved to Los Angeles to be closer to their family.
Kendrick Lamar Is Still In Love With His High School Sweetheart
Kendrick Lamar has transformed the hip-hop genre with millions of fans around the world and numerous awards. Since he's usually in the spotlight he tries to keep his private life hidden from the media. He and Whitney Alford fell in love when they were students at Centennial High School in Compton, California.
Their relationship lasted well into adulthood and he announced that they were engaged in April 2015. The two of them are also new parents after Alford gave birth in 2019. Before Lamar made their relationship public, fans noticed that Alford's vocals appeared in the background of his hit song "King Kunta."
CC Sabathia's Wife Caught His Eye In High School
Carsten Charles "CC" Sabathia Jr.'s passion for baseball ran deep after spending 19 seasons playing in the major leagues for the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Yankees. He was named an All-Star six times and won the Warren Spahn Award three times.
He met his wife Amber when they were students at Vallejo High School in California and got married soon after they graduated. Together the two of them have two sons, Carsten Charles III and Carter, and two daughters, Jaeden Arie and Cyia.
Angela Bassett And Courtney B. Vance's Relationship Began With A Lot Of Drama
It may be common to have a long-lasting Hollywood marriage with just one partner in the spotlight, but Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance have proven that two celebrities can make it work after all these years. The two met while earning their master's degrees at the Yale School of Drama in the early 1980s.
Bassett and Vance got married in 1997 and have even worked together in some acting projects. On January 27, 2006, they became the parents of twins via surrogate: a son Slater and a daughter Bronwyn.
Tyler Posey And Seana Gorlick Were Middle School Sweethearts
Teen Wolf actor Tyler Posey and makeup artist Seana Gorlick began dating when they were in middle school. They stayed together for 11 years and Posey proposed to her on a romantic 12-day Hawaiian getaway. Unfortunately, the couple decided to end their engagement in 2014.
They were heartbroken that things weren't going to work out between them, but knew it was the best decision to make. He told People that 2014 was one of the hardest years for him because of the called-off engagement to Gorlick and losing his mom to cancer.
Timothy Olyphant And Alexis Knief Found Love In Southern California
Timothy Olyphant made his claim to fame in an Off-Broadway play in 1995 and has been acting in theater, film, and TV shows ever since. Some of his most popular credits include Justified, Go, A Perfect Getaway, and The Crazies. Olyphant met his wife when they were students at the University of Southern Calfornia (USC).
They got married within a year after graduating and have three children born in 1999, 2001, and 2003. It was rumored that they got divorced when he was seen without a wedding ring, but that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Zadie Smith And Nick Laird Make The Perfect Literary Team
Authors Zadie Smith met Nick Laird when they were majoring in English at Cambridge University and he has the distinction of being the first publisher of her work. He worked as an editor of a literary magazine and had never met Smith, but after she submitted a story he thought it was one of the best things he ever read.
Soon they became best friends and eventually married in 2004. He even edited one of her most famous works called White Teeth. The two will often ask each other for advice on their writing and Laird bragged that collaborating has brought them closer together.
Rick And Kathy Hilton Went To School With A Pop Star
Power couple Rick and Kathy Hilton have a long history together. They both met at the age of 15 when they were attending the same private Los Angeles high school and got married a couple of years after they graduated. Since they went to one of the most elite high schools in the country they had some famous classmates. Michael Jackson was actually Kathy's best high school friend.
They are a part of one of the wealthiest families in the world, so they have been in the public eye for decades. They have four children, including the famous socialite Paris Hilton.
Anthony Mackie's Wife Used To Steal His Lunch Money
If Anthony Mackie's name doesn't instantly ring a bell you may not be aware of all of his many acting credits. Over the years he's had roles in major motion pictures including The Hurt Locker, the Avengers franchise, and The Adjustment Bureau. He and his wife Sheletta Chapital have quite an intense love story.
They met when they were only seven at the same elementary school and Mackie revealed that she used to pick on him so that he would give her his lunch money. About two decades later they reconnected at a concert and got married in 2015. They are also the parents to three children.
School Was Sweet For Vernon Wells And His Wife Charlene Valenti
Vernon Wells, best known for his prowess on the baseball diamond, is another on this list who met his future wife while they were just kids in school together. He played for the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the New York Yankees.
Wells and Charlene Valenti ended up getting married in 2001, and have two sons. The family lives in Westlake, Texas, which is not far from Vernon and Charlene's hometown of Arlington, Texas.
Hall-Of-Famer Jarome Iginla Married His High School Sweetie
The former NHL player didn't have to wait long to meet the love of his life. Jarome Iginla and his now-wife, Kara, started dating when they were in 8th grade together. They continued to date for nearly a decade before Jarome finally proposed to Kara over the Christmas holiday in 2001.
Since their 2003 marriage, they've had three children together. Their daughter Jade Grace was born in 2004 and their sons Tij (2006) and Joe (2008), came after her.
Russell Wilson Was Married To Ashton Meem Wilson Before Ciara
Although Russell Wilson might be best-known for his current marriage to singer Ciara, the NFL player actually married his high school sweetheart before that. His first wife, Ashton Meem, described their first meeting in an interview. "We met briefly in high school. Then again at a summer party and after that started seeing each other."
The two got hitched in 2012, but it wasn't to last. They divorced just two years later, and Ashton has publicly supported Russell's new relationship.
Eminem And Kim Scott Were Very Young When They Met
Kimberly Scott met the future-rapper Eminem (he was just known as Marshall Mathers in those days) when she was just 13 years old! The future spouses met at a house party after Kim and her twin sister ran away from home to escape problems there. The sisters actually ended up living with Eminem and his mother for a while. Kim was immediately smitten with Eminem.
Following the birth of their daughter, Hailie Jade Mathers, in 2005, Eminem and Kim went on to have a tumultuous, off-and-on relationship but tied the knot in 1999. Although the two didn't end up staying married, they are still a part of each other's lives as they co-parent Hailie together.
Mike And Jana Mussina Have Gone The Distance
Hall-of Famer Mike Mussina, known to fans as "Moose," was a starting pitcher in the MLB. He and his high school sweetheart, Jana McKissick, tied the knot in 1997.
The two of them enjoy living in a small town and taking in the peace and quiet that goes along with it. The Mussinas have two sons together, Brycen and Peyton. Mike was just inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame in 2019, something the whole family undoubtedly celebrated together.
