Celebrities Who Tied The Knot With Non-Famous People

Whether they're incredibly talented or impossibly gorgeous (or both), odds are a celebrity has some certain special quality that makes them stand out in a crowd. The "it" factor, if you will. And when two major celebrities join forces and form a power couple, such as Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, or Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn? That "it" factor blasts through the stratosphere.

On the flip side, there are the celebrities who find love with non-celebrities — or, as some might put it, they pull a "Notting Hill." Hey, if a charming bookshop owner (Hugh Grant) and a charming A-list movie star (Julia Roberts) can't make it in this wild world, who can?

And in a case of life imitating art, Julia Roberts married Danny Moder, a camera operator-turned-cinematographer. As it happens, there are exceptions, and every once in a while, a Cinderella story emerges, and a celebrity ties the knot with a non-famous person. Some of the most prominent stars in their chosen fields have found love outside of Tinseltown, and many may surprise you. 

Anne Hathaway's career has seen her transition from a breakout performance in "The Princess Diaries" to claiming an Academy Award for playing Fantine in "Les Misérables." She's built an impressive career in a relatively short amount of time, and over the years, she's been reportedly linked to actors like Hugh Dancy and Topher Grace. Hathaway has also dated outside her profession, having connected with a restaurateur and a real estate developer, but she only tied the knot once with Adam Shulman, a jewelry designer who is all about creating pieces that are both sustainable and stunning.

Hathaway met Shulman through mutual friends in 2008. Hathaway told Harper's Bazaar UK (via People), "I knew from the second I met him that he was the love of my life." Still, she was getting over a nasty breakup at the time, and despite her reservations, she gave him a shot. In September 2012, they married following an 11-month engagement.

While Shulman isn't a celebrity like his wife, he has some acting credits to his name. Still, his primary profession is designing jewelry, and he's been incredibly successful. In addition to creating jewelry for his brand, James Banks Design, Shulman created the engagement ring he gave to Hathaway, which RingsPo estimated to have cost $150,000. 

Wanda Sykes has entertained the masses for decades, and her unique style of comedy continues to land her movie and TV roles. She didn't start out as a comic, having previously worked as a contractor for the National Security Agency. While still working at the NSA, Sykes began doing stand-up in 1987. Not before long, she was a full-blown comedy star performing in a plethora of films and television series.

Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall for eight years, but the couple divorced in 1998. Ten years later, Sykes came out as a lesbian at a rally opposing California Proposition 8, but a month before that happened, she married Alexandra Niedbalski, a French interior designer. Sykes first crossed paths with Niebalski on a ferry ride in 2006, but their romance did not begin until someone recommended Niebalski help Sykes with updating her kitchen.

Initially, Sykes wished to keep her wife's name and occupation out of the press, telling Advocate, "She's not in show business. I want her to have as much of her private life as she can." That reluctance somewhat dissolved when Sykes came out in 2008. The following year, Niedbalski gave birth to the couple's fraternal twins. 

Paul Rudd's career has gone from playing a quiet, reserved guy on "Friends" to becoming Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His charm and personality have helped him land roles in numerous high-profile series and films, including "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and more. Rudd, People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2021, has gotten a lot of attention for his youthful appearance — and he is well aware. As he said in the Chicago Tribune, "I'm 80 years old on the inside. In here, pure darkness — and a little moisturizer."

Rudd met the woman he would marry not on the set of one of his movies, but in his publicist's office. Julie Yaeger worked as a publicist in the early 1990s, and she met Rudd shortly after his breakout performance in "Clueless" in 1995. In 2003, they got married and have been together ever since.

Rudd told Marie Claire UK, "She was the first person I met in New York. We started talking, and there was a maturity with her — she had experienced some tragedy in her life; I had too, and the impression I got was, wow, this is a woman. This isn't a girl." Yaeger may have started as a publicist, but she soon expanded her resume to include producing and screenwriting. She collaborated with her husband on "Fun Mom Dinner," having written the screenplay. 

Jennifer Lawrence may have gotten her start on the small screen, but she quickly became a dominating force in feature films. Thanks to actioners like "The Hunger Games" and "X-Men: First Class," as well as dramas like "Winter's Bone," she wasted no time becoming a major A-list star. A of this writing, Lawrence has been nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one for her performance in "Silver Linings Playbook." She continues to land high-profile, critically acclaimed roles.

Lawrence has dated several high-profile men in her industry, including actor Nicholas Hoult and director Darren Aronofsky. In the end, she found love outside the film industry when she paired off with Cooke Maroney in 2018. Maroney is an art gallery dealer, and the two met through a mutual friend, Laura Simpson. Initially, the couple kept the relationship quiet, but news eventually broke, and the following February, they got engaged. They married in 2019, and in 2022, Lawrence gave birth to their son, Cy, who is named after painter Cy Twombly. As of this writing, Maroney is Director-At-Large of the Gladstone Gallery.

Art has always been a part of Maroney's life. Not only was his father the head of American paintings for Christie's and Sotheby's, but he studied art at NYU. Maroney is truly outside of the public eye and doesn't use social media, ensuring their marriage remains private.

John Cena began his professional career as a wrestler with his in-ring debut in 2000. He continued wrestling for several years, amassing numerous accolades in the squared circle as his celebrity grew. WWE Studios financed Cena's first acting gig in "The Marine," and proved that he's a force to be reckoned with on the silver screen, too. He's played prominent roles in several franchises, including the "Fast and Furious," the DC Extended Universe, and "Transformers." 

Cena was married to his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth Huberdeau, from 2009 to 2012. Their marriage ended in divorce, and after that, he began dating Nikki Bella, a fellow wrestler, for six years. They nearly got hitched, but the wedding was called off a month before the scheduled date. Cena's relationship with Bella ended in 2018, and the following year, he met electrical engineer Shay Shariatzadeh at a restaurant while filming "Playing with Fire" in Vancouver, Canada.

Shariatzadeh was working as a product manager at a software company and previously worked at Motorola Solutions. The couple married in secret in Tampa, Florida, so they didn't have a huge wedding ceremony... at least, not right away. In 2022, the couple held another ceremony, as reported by TMZ. It's unclear how large the gala was, but it likely served to celebrate their nuptials among family and friends. 

John Oliver started in television, but it wasn't until he joined the team on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" that he gained fame. He appeared on the series for over a decade, ending his time with hosting duties, having worked as the "Senior British Person/Correspondent" on over 350 episodes and written nearly 1,000. Over the years, he's voiced numerous characters in movies like "The Smurfs," its sequel, and "The Lion King." Since leaving "The Daily Show," he's headlined his own series on HBO, "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

Oliver is certainly famous, and he's become a significant player in his field, but unlike most of the people on this list, he hasn't dated other celebrities. Instead, he's spent most of his professional life with one woman: Kate Norley. Oliver and Norley met at the 2008 Republican National Convention, which he was covering for "The Daily Show." Norley, a former Army medic and Iraq war veteran, was campaigning with Vets for Freedom.

According to the Daily Beast, after an issue with Oliver's work visa landed him in trouble at the event, Norley was one of the veterans who helped him out of a jam. While it's probably safe to say neither Norley nor Oliver expected to meet their future spouse that day, fate had other plans. The pair dated for two years and got engaged. Oliver and Norley made it official in October 2011 via a private ceremony.

While her career kicked off in the 1980s, it wasn't until she was cast as Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City" that Cynthia Nixon gained international fame. She's spent her career appearing in numerous television series and feature films, as well as a myriad of stage performances. Outside of television, that's kept her incredibly busy over the years, and she's used her celebrity as a platform for social and political change.

Nixon has a history of dating outside the entertainment industry. For about 15 years, she was with a schoolteacher named Danny Mozes. In 2004, about a year after she split from Mozes, Nixon began dating Christine Marinoni, an LGBTQ+ rights and education activist who worked for the New York City Department of Education. She also co-founded the Alliance for Quality Education.

Nearly a decade after they met through the Alliance for Quality of Education, Nixon and Marinoni got engaged in 2009 and prepared for a long wait while fighting to legalize their right to marry. Nixon and Marinoni married in May 2012 following New York's legalization of same-sex marriage. Years later, Nixon ran against Marinoni's former boss, Bill de Blasio, in a failed bid for Mayor of New York City.