The Most Underrated Celebrity Romances
When someone asks you to name a few of Hollywood's power couples, which A-listers come to mind first? Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds? Beyonce and Jay-Z? Victoria and David Beckham? Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson? These couples have been dubbed relationship goals year after year and are talked about constantly, but isn't it time we give credit to plenty of other celebrity relationships that are just as iconic?
Why forget the romances of big-named stars like comedic duo Melissa McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone? And what about Ryan Gosling and his super secretive relationship with Eva Mendes? Are they married, or aren't they?! We should give much more credit to these star-studded romances as much as we love discussing Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher ending up together. And so, we've comprised a list of celeb couples whose romances deserve much more attention — even if their actual relationships are about as low-key and private as they come.
These underrated couples need as much praise for their long-lasting relationships as any other Hollywood couple and we're here to serve it.
Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden had a whirlwind romance
It seemed an unconventional pairing when Cameron Diaz began dating rocker Benji Madden. However, there was no denying that love was in the air. It was a whirlwind romance, with the stars dating sometime around May 2014 before announcing their engagement seven months later. In January 2015, the couple tied the knot in a super secretive ceremony.
The Good Charlotte rocker was there for Diaz when she confirmed that she had retired from acting in 2018 (her last acting role had occurred four years prior in "Annie"). However, People reported that it was with her husband's help that Diaz returned to her career. In June 2022, it was announced that she was starring in Netflix's "Back in Action" alongside Jamie Foxx. But Diaz had a good reason to step back from acting when she did. In 2019, the actor and her husband welcomed their first child together, Raddix. During an appearance on "The Jimmy Fallon Show" in 2020, Diaz gushed about being parents. "It's been heaven, Jimmy," Diaz shared. "... It's the best thing that ever happened to both Benji and I. We're just so happy."
In January, the star-studded couple celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary. Madden paid tribute to his wife with a touching Instagram post of a drawing of roses in a vase. He captioned it, "In Love, inspired, happy, and grateful. Eight years married, side by side, and now a little one for us to guide. Let's do 80 more and then forever."
Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are a match made in heaven
Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz's romance deserves a lot more attention, and not only because they are two of Hollywood's most good-looking stars. The acting pair married in July 2010, but their love story goes back to 1992 when they first met on the film set of "Jamon, Jamon." Cruz was only 16 when she starred opposite Bardem, with the actor confessing to GQ years later that there was chemistry on set. Unfortunately, the brunette bombshell was underage while her future hubby was just three years older. "There was obvious chemistry between us. I mean, it's all there on film — it's like a document of our passion," Bardem confessed. Luckily, the pair would work together again for 2008's "Vicky Christina Barcelona," which is when they made their real-life romance official.
The couple didn't wait long to have children. In 2011, Cruz gave birth to their first son, Leo. Two years later, the couple welcomed their second child, a daughter named Luna. The couple would continue to act together in films like 2017's "Loving Pablo" and 2018's "Everybody Knows." In fact, both stars were nominated for a prestigious Academy Award in 2022, with Cruz nominated for Best Actress for her performance in "Parallel Mothers" while Bardem was nominated for Best Actor for his work in "Being the Ricardos." It's rare to see a couple nominated in the same year, and that fact should convince anyone that these two are definitely one of Hollywood's power couples.
Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone are comedy gold
We really don't hear about the comedic duo and real-life married couple Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone labeled as relationship goals, but it's time that changes. The couple has worked together on multiple films, including starring opposite one another in the beloved comedy "Bridesmaids." They've also written, directed, and co-starred in films like "The Boss" and "Tammy," which were both developed by their company, On the Day Productions. Honestly, who wouldn't want to work with their partner? Especially when their other half is as funny as either one of these two?
As McCarthy told E! News, being scene partners, as well as romantic partners, isn't just a delight, it's also interwoven into the fabric of their love story. "It's ridiculous. It's like you get to go to work with your best friend. It's exactly how we met, and we became such good friends because we loved doing this together," she gushed. "To get to do it on this kind of scale and still keep telling stories ... it's a dream."
McCarthy and Falcone have a long history together, having met during a 1995 comedy class at The Groundlings in Los Angeles. They married in 2005 after dating for seven years and welcomed two children together. Proving they are one of Hollywood's absolute coolest couples, they opted to wear matching Adidas tracksuits to the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscars after-party (above).
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are super secretive
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes are notoriously private, but that doesn't mean they should go unnoticed. The couple have been together since 2011, ever since they starred together in the film "The Place Beyond the Pines," where they portrayed love interests. Over the years, the couple hasn't made many public statements about each other. However, in 2015 Gosling did gush about his other half when he told Hello!, "I know that I'm with the person I'm supposed to be with." Charmingly, he added that there is only one quality he looks for in a woman — "That she's Eva Mendes," he said. "There's nothing else I'm looking for."
The pair are so closed off to the public that as of this writing, it's still unknown whether or not the couple have tied the knot. However, in an interview with Australia's "Today" (via Daily Mail) in November 2022, Mendes referred to the actor as her husband. That same month, the star prompted additional speculation regarding her potential marital status on Instagram, when she showed off a tattoo on her inner wrist that read, "de Gosling." Getting a tattoo of your significant other's name is a pretty big leap, but does it mean that the two are secretly married? We have no idea.
What we do know about this couple is that they are parents to two children. They welcomed their first daughter Esmeralda in 2014 and another daughter, Amada, two years later.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham should be labeled a Hollywood power duo
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Jason Statham have a low-key romance similar to that of Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling. That may be why these two couples aren't up there with power couples like Beyonce and Jay-Z or John Legend and Chrissy Teigen — they like to keep their relationship under wraps and rarely share details about their lives on social media. However, when Statham and Huntington-Whiteley make a public appearance together, like when she accompanied her man to the 2019 "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" movie premiere, it was impossible to ignore the volume of sheer joy and glamour exuding from the couple.
The model and actor were first linked in 2009, before getting engaged in 2016. While they've welcomed two children together over the years, as of this writing, they're yet to get married. However, there are no signs of trouble in paradise for these two. In 2018, Huntington-Whiteley told Extra that she and Statham might wait until their children are older so that they can witness mom and dad tie the knot. "I think the time will come. We've been so focused on our work for so long, and [our children] came along, [but] we definitely talk about it. We're looking forward to that time. It's also not a huge priority for us. We're so happy," she explained. Whenever these two decide to take the next major step in their relationship, Huntington-Whiteley will undoubtedly make one stunning bride.
Julius Tennon is Viola Davis' biggest supporter
We don't hear as much about Viola Davis' marriage as we do her phenomenal acting career. However, we can't forget the man who's been by her side since 1999, her husband, Julius Tennon. The pair met on the set of the television series "City of Angels" and married in 2003. They have been each other's rock ever since and even worked together in films like "Custody," "The Woman King," and "Air." In 2017, Tennon proudly cheered his wife on when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was by her side when she virtually accepted a SAG Award for her role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" in 2021. Per TNT, in her video acceptance speech, the couple shared a sweet kiss.
In fact, Davis is no stranger to including her husband in her many acceptance speeches. In 2017, she gushed about their relationship during her backstage interview following her Golden Globe win. "I don't know what I did to deserve him walking into my life 18 years ago. I just know it worked. I just know it's a great friendship," she shared, per Variety. "I know that when I'm down, he's up, and when he's down, I'm up." And she likewise did the same when she won a 2023 Best Audio Book Grammy Award for her memoir, "Finding Me," saying to Tennon and their daughter Genesis during her acceptance speech, "You are my life and my joy, the best chapter in my book."
Zoë Saldana and Marco Perego are one hot couple
Zoë Saldana has several achievements under her belt. For starters, she's the only actor to star in four of the highest-grossing movies of all time, which include "Avatar," "Avatar: The Way of Water," "Avengers: End Game," and "Avengers: Infinity War" — all of which crossed the $2 billion mark at the global box office. While we recognize Saldana for her massive success in Hollywood, we'd also like to celebrate her thriving marriage.
The star has been married to her husband, Italian artist Marco Perego, since 2013 after a short romance that began just three months prior. The event generated lots of additional discussions when Perego took his wife's last name, with the artist becoming Marco Perego-Saldana, with the actor becoming Zoë Saldana-Perego. The "Star Trek" star defended her husband's decision to go against conventional norms when she told InStyle (via Us Weekly), "I tried to talk him out of it. I told him, 'If you use my last name, you're going to be emasculated by your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world.'" Saldana's husband apparently replied, "Ah, Zoe, I don't give a s***."
The actor and her husband are also very busy parents and share three sons together, Zen Anton and twin boys Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio.
Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley's marriage is thriving
Margot Robbie has worked with several A-list male actors like Brad Pitt in "Babylon," Will Smith in "Suicide Squad," and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Wolf of Wall Street." But despite working with such a collective group of talented and good-looking men, the most important man in Robbie's life is her husband, Tom Ackerley.
Robbie and Ackerley met on the set of the 2013 film "Suite Francaise," with the actor in a supporting role while Ackerley was working as an assistant director. The two quickly bonded, with Robbie recalling to Vogue three years later, "I was the ultimate single gal. The idea of relationships made me want to vomit. And then this crept up on me." In 2016, the pair secretly wed in Australia, even though fans never even knew of their engagement — talk about being pros at keeping a relationship under wraps! Though we rarely hear Robbie or Ackerley dish on their romance, these two appear to be solid, with Ackerley by his wife's side during some of her red-carpet moments, including the 2020 Golden Globes.
Besides their happy marriage, Robbie and Ackerley own a production company called LuckyChap Entertainment which has produced many of Robbie's best-known films like "I, Tonya" and "Birds of Prey."
Norman Reedus and Diane Kruger's low-key love story
Dianne Kruger met "The Walking Dead" star Norman Reedus on the set of their 2015 film "Sky" which also happened to co-star her then-boyfriend of 10 years, Joshua Jackson. However, it was Reedus who portrayed her love interest. Kruger and Jackson called it quits on their years-long romance the following year, and in 2017, Kruger went public with her new partner — none other than the zombie killer himself, Daryl Dixon, aka Norman Reedus. But don't feel bad for Jackson, who also is on this list, since he's found love again, too.
As of this writing, Kruger and Reedus have remained together ever since. In July 2022, Kruger even shared a black-and-white selfie with Reedus on Instagram to mark their anniversary. Unlike most couples on this list, the German actor posts a fair share of photos with Reedus and the daughter they welcomed together in 2018, but they continue to be pros at going under the radar. By the way, is anyone else seeing a pattern here? Because it seems like not talking about your romantic life seems to be the key to a successful one in Hollywood.
What we do know is that a wedding is seemingly still pending for these two love birds after Reedus proposed to Kruger in August 2021. We can't wait to see what the "Troy" actor will wear on their big day.
Why aren't we talking about Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha?
Kerry Washington and her husband, Nnamdi Asomugha, are one of Hollywood's sweetest couples. They met in 2009 when the former NFL player attended Washington's Broadway show, "Race," and it was love at first sight. Washington described the moment she met her future husband to Marie Claire (via Daily Mail), saying, "The last time I did theater, it completely transformed my life. That's where I met my husband."
Washington has been an enormous support system for her man. After ending his professional NFL career, he made his acting debut in 2008 with "The Game" and has continued to rack up acting credits. In 2022, Washington praised Asomugha's work in Netflix's "The Good Nurse," telling ET, "I'm really proud of him, I think he's doing amazing work." It just so happened to be the same time her Netflix movie "The School for Good and Evil" premiered, too. A couple with two movie premieres at the same time? Now that's #couplegoals.
Washington and Asomugha have also kept much of their marriage out of the public eye. They have been married for over a decade, with the couple secretly tying the knot in June 2013. When discussing what the plan was for celebrating their milestone anniversary, Washington also wanted to keep that a secret. She told ET, "I do have an incredible husband. Do you remember how secret my wedding was? How private and secretive it was? That's how the anniversary is gonna be too!"
Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig fell in love on a film set
We love to hear about actors falling in love on set. And that's exactly what seemed to happen with A-listers Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig after working on their thriller "Dream House," where they starred as husband and wife in 2010. The couple didn't waste any time taking their romance to the next level and secretly married in June 2011. Their whirlwind romance may have shocked Weisz after revealing to the Evening Standard in 2018 that she never saw herself getting married. "It was not an ambition of mine. It was the opposite," she shared. "I couldn't relate to romantic comedies — marriage seems to be the whole point of them. Then it just happened, happily, at a more mature moment."
The couple rarely talks about one another in the press. Weisz had an excellent reason for shunning away from discussing their love life when she told More (via People) that her husband was simply too big a celebrity to do so. "It would be a betrayal," she said. "You have to protect your marriage ... When you're young, you tell your girlfriends everything. One of the great pleasures of not being an adolescent is that you don't have to share everything. When you're married, that door closes. The audience goes, and you're in your own life." In 2018, the couple also welcomed a baby daughter to the world.
Joshua Jackson and Jodie Turner-Smith are turning heads
If you follow Joshua Jackson on Instagram, then you likely know how devoted he is to his wife — the model, and actor Jodie Turner-Smith. These two began dating in 2018 and secretly tied the knot the following year. They've stunned on-lookers with their red carpet looks (okay ... Turner-Smith, more so), including turning heads in Gucci ensembles at the 2022 Met Gala and absolutely crushing it in crushed velvet at the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty (above).
To prove how great of a hubby Jackson is, he penned the sweetest message to her when marking her first Mother's Day after the couple welcomed a daughter together in April 2020. He shared on Instagram, "Thank you for the depth of grace you have found since our daughter arrived. The commitment that you make look so effortless but I know is anything but. Thank you for making me a father. For trusting me enough to embark on this journey together."
And clearly, Turner-Smith is just as obsessed with the former "Dawson's Creek" star. Talking about her life with Jackson to Net-A-Porter in September 2020, she said, "I'm really in love with my husband. That might be weird for people, but I'm doing a pretty good job of not shouting that from the rooftops as much as I would like to."
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. have been couple goals since the '90s
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. were the ultimate '90s couple after meeting on the set of the slasher film "I Know What You Did Last Summer." They surpassed over two decades of marriage when they wed in 2002, which is definitely something to celebrate. But the way we see it, this Hollywood couple isn't nearly getting the attention they deserve.
According to Prinze Jr., the secret to their marital success is that the two stars are actually total opposites. Of course, they do say opposites attract, right? "Sarah and I are night and day, and it's why we've always been a good couple and had a good relationship because everything I don't enjoy, she's really good at, and everything she doesn't enjoy, I'm really good at," he told People in 2019. Naturally, that includes cooking dinner — which is great, considering that Prinze Jr. is a legit chef and cookbook author and his wife hates cooking.
The couple marked their 20th wedding anniversary in 2022, and both stars posted sweet messages to one another on Instagram. On her Instagram Stories, Gellar shared a clip of her then-future husband's interview with radio host Howard Stern who asked, "So you're going to marry Sarah Michelle Gellar, even though you know that won't last?" Prinze Jr. replied, "Oh, absolutely, it will last." Gellar jokingly tagged Stern in her story and wrote, "What do you think? I think you owe us."
Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost are Hollywood's sweetest couple
Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost have a sweet romance that's totally underrated. They were first linked in 2017, the same year Johansson split from her husband, Romain Dauriac. However, their friendship goes way back after the "Black Widow" actor hosted "Saturday Night Live" for the first time in 2006 when Jost was working as a writer. She's since hosted the show six times!
The couple made their public debut in December 2017 after attending the American Museum of Natural History Museum Gala in New York City. Jost would go on to support Johansson during her many Marvel movie premieres. After announcing their engagement in May 2019, Johansson gave a shout-out to her fiance when she hosted "SNL" for the sixth time. "This place means so much to me. I have so many friends here, and I met the love of my life here," she gushed right before kissing Jost. That October, the couple married in a small ceremony amid the coronavirus pandemic.
2021 was a big year for the couple after they welcomed their first child together. Their son, Cosmo, was born in August, making Johansson a mom of two. She was already a mother to her daughter Rose, who she welcomed in 2014 with Dauriac.