They say that the best way to meet someone is through friends. And if your friends’ friends just so happen to be very famous and good looking, even better. The celebrity couples ahead all met because they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance or set up on a blind date. Some knew it was love at first sight…others needed a little time to get there. Either way, it just proves, hey, it could happen to you.
This article originally appeared on Marie Claire.
J & J had a mutual friend that made the intro which led to their love. The pair met in 2007, fresh out of other relationships (Biel with Chris Evans and Timberlake with Cameron Diaz), and so were not looking for anything serious.
“There was nothing starry about the way we got together,” shared Timberlake. “It was very un-Hollywood-esque, in fact. We met and got talking. Afterwards I asked my friend if I could call her and ask her out. My friend called Jessica and Jessica said yes, and so I called her. I did it the old fashioned way—by telephone.”
Harry and Meghan were set up by a mutual friend (most likely Violet von Westenholz, a childhood friend of Harry’s who works in PR for Ralph Lauren).
“It was definitely a set-up. It was a blind date,” Meghan has said of their first date. “I didn’t know much about him and so the only thing I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was…I had one question…I said ‘Is he nice?'”
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Ellie Goulding admitted to setting the singer and DJ up. The pair dated for more than a year before splitting in 2016.
“I did play matchmaker. That’s true,” she told The Sun. “Calvin is a really great mate and he’s so fantastic, and Taylor is such a cool person who I love. I thought, They’re both really awesome and both really tall, they’ll be brilliant together!“
This infamously short-lived relationship can be traced back to Gwyneth Paltrow. The Oscar-winner introduced Gyllenhaal and Swift at a dinner party at her London home. The speck of a relationship is rumored to have been the inspiration for two of Swift’s songs: “All Too Well” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
The actors were introduced by Blunt’s Devil Wears Prada costar, Anne Hathaway. For Krasinski, it was love at first sight.
“It was one of those things where I wasn’t really looking for a relationship and I was thinking I’m going to take my time in L.A.Then I met her and I was so nervous. I was like, Oh god, I think I’m going to fall in love with her. As I shook her hand I went, ‘I like you.'”
Emily Blunt later played Cupid herself, introducing her sister Felicity to her The Devil Wears Prada costar Stanley Tucci. Sparks flew between the pair at Blunt and Krasinski’s wedding, and they tied their own knot in 2012.
The pair were set up back in 2006 and the blind date could not have started off worse.
“I didn’t know it was a date,” the actress told Latina. “I thought I was going to an event, and then there was one person at it. I was set up by friends to think I was going to an event, because they knew I wouldn’t go on a date! I was angry. And he didn’t know, because he thought I knew he was coming just to meet me. I started out really badly, but, as you can see, it ended happy.”
The details here are a little murky but the actors definitely met in 2007 via Tropic Thunder, which Theroux co-write, either through mutual friends Robert Downey Jr. or Ben Stiller, though they didn’t start dating then. Aniston and Theroux reconnected in 2010 and had a long love affair before calling it quits in early 2018 after two years of marriage.
“He and Jen fell in a real, legit fashion,” Downey told Details. “And he was willing from the jump to make sacrifices.”
Everyone is desperate to set Aniston up, it seems. In 1998, her and Pitt’s agents set them up on a blind date that led to a seven-year relationship.
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The model and quarterback met through a mutual friend who decided to play matchmaker.
“This friend told me he knew a girl version of me,” the NFL player told Details back in 2009.
The sparks that flew were mutual. “I knew Tom was the one straightaway. I could see it in his eyes that he was a man with integrity who believes in the same things I do,” Gisele told Vogue.
This couple’s two-year relationship was initiated via a special introduction by Sienna Miller and her then-beau Tom Sturridge. The three actors attended an FKA Twigs concert together, and Sturridge made sure to get Pattinson backstage access to meet the singer.
Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick have dated off and on for years and have three children together. None of that would have happened if it weren’t for Girls Gone Wildcreator Joe Francis, who told InTouch that he’s responsible for the couple meeting.
“I introduced Kourtney and Scott at my house in Mexico,” he said. “Scott came as the guest of a friend of mine, and they met in my master bedroom.” Well then.
The couple were introduced by a mutual friend at the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2008. The two have been married since 2012 and have a son together, so I guess you could say things worked out nicely. Though Hathaway has said she only married Shulman because she “couldn’t get Emily [Blunt].”
These two were set up by Grammy-winning artist Ed Sheeran of all people. “My housemate [Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid] who I’ve lived with for a year, I introduced him to Courteney Cox. They started dating and [are] crazy about each other,” Sheeran told Yahoo.
The pair got engaged in 2014. Despite splitting briefly, they are back on and it’s rumored Jennifer Aniston will be maid of honor at the wedding. We love a happy ending!
Nicole Richie is behind this pairing. The reality star, who is married to Madden’s brother, Joel, took credit for the couple during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live.
“I approve of anything that’s going to make Benji happy,” she said. “I’m going to take responsibility for everything!”
The couple were set up by Dennings’ Two Broke Girls costar Beth Behrs, who had been friends with Groban for years.
“I always wanted to find him the right girl. At the time, Kat was in a relationship, so I couldn’t. Then they happened to both be single for once at the same time,” Behrs told People. Timing really is everything. Unfortunately, things fell apart, and they called it quits in July 2016.
Vergara’s Modern Family costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson introduced the couple at a party, and later gave Manganiello Vergara’s phone number to help move things along. The genetically-blessed couple has been married since 2015.
The reality star and basketball player have a very pushy friend to thank for their love (and adorable daughter, True).
“I was put on a blind date with Tristan and that’s how [we met],” Khloé explained during the Keeping Up With the Kardashians 10th anniversary special. “Brandon Jennings, who is a basketball player and a friend of mine and Malika [Haqq]’s, was like, ‘You’re such a good girl, I want to introduce you to someone.’ I was at the Bel-Air hotel, and [Tristan] came to the dinner. I didn’t want to go on a blind date, so Brandon kind of ambushed the blind date. We just connected.”
The beautiful Aussies met through their dialect coach, who knew they would hit it off. She was right—the couple married in 2010.
“It was like a blind date,” Pataky explained during an appearance on El Hormiguero. “We had never seen each other before. It was our dialect coach, the person who helped us both with the accent. So, this lady started to talk to each other about each other. Finally, she insisted so much that I thought, Okay, let’s meet.”
Jack Antonoff’s sister, Rachel, and comedian Mike Birbiglia set the couple up.
“It was a blind date by modern standards. I mean, I used the internet,” Antonoff explained to Vulture. “[On the date] I told Lena everything about my whole life, because when you really like someone, you want them to know everything about you.” The pair split in early 2018 after five years together.
The supermodel has her agent, Michael Gruber, to thank for connecting her with her husband, Rande Gerber. When Gruber was getting married, he suggested that Crawford and Gerber be each other’s dates to his big day.
“We decided to meet the night before and get to know each other,” Gerber told People. “I was surprised at how cool and down-to-earth she was.”
Okay, so these two didn’t meet because of friends—they originally met on the set of Green Lantern—but they did fall in love because of friends. Blake and Ryan were so meant to be they realized they had to be together while on a double date…with other people.
“That was like the most awkward date for the respective parties because we were just like fireworks coming across [the table],” Reynolds shared with Entertainment Weekly.
Sorry, not sorry.
Sansa Stark may not have been so lucky in love, but Turner’s real life love story came about when she asked Hailee Steinfield for the 411 on Jonas after the two singers collaborated on the DNCE hit “Rock Bottom.” Steinfield slid Turner the digits, and well…the rest is history!
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Trainor credits the good taste of her friend Chloë Grace Moretz for helping her find love with actor Daryl Sabara.
“[Chloë] is a friend of mine, and day one of meeting her, I was like, ‘You know anybody that I could date?'” she said on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix series. “And she’s like, ‘I know the nicest guy in the world, Daryl, and you should meet him!'”
Morgan’s close friend and Supernatural star Jensen Ackles is to thank for this pair; Ackles and his wife arranged a casual blind double date with Burton in 2009. A few tequila shotslater, it was love. The couple is now married with children.
The pair actually met for the first time when Conrad was in high school; Tell was a singer and guitarist for the band Something Corporate, and LC was a fangirl attending the group’s concert.
Fast forward to 2014, when the couple caught a vibe on their Valentine’s Day blind date. “I met my husband when I was 16 and sitting onstage at one of his concerts. Ten years later we were set up on a blind date,” she wrote on her blog. Conrad and Tell are now happily married with one child (and another on the way).
