TV Show Couples You Didn't Realize Happened In Real Life

Sara Gilbert and Johnny Galecki dated in real life at the same time they played teen couple Darlene and David on Roseanne in the early 90s. "I thought he was super cute and I had a total crush on him," Gilbert said on The Talk (via the New York Daily News) in 2013. "And we started dating and he would come over and we would, like, make out, and then I would start to get depressed." Eventually, she came out, but cleared it with Galecki first. "I called him and I just said, 'Is it okay–I'm thinking of talking about this. The story sort of starts with you. And I've got to say I made out with you and got depressed, which is kind of a bummer."

Thankfully, Galecki was a good sport. "[He said], 'Of course. I love you and I think it's really important and I'm so proud of you...If you want, I will be there and I will hold your hand.' It was so sweet, and this story really makes Johnny look good."

Jennifer Garner played Scott Foley's on-screen girlfriend in Felicity, and she was his off-screen wife briefly, too. People reports the pair married in 2000 and divorced in 2003, around the time she met Ben Affleck. Foley told TV Guide the breakup was nobody's fault. "Jennifer became a huge celebrity. She became a huge star, and she deserved everything she got. There was no other relationship, there was no infidelity, nothing. People get divorced, you know? Through no one's fault and everyone's fault." 

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys play a KGB-set up couple on The Americans, but it didn't take any government intervention to get them together in real life. The couple hooked up in 2013 and are now expecting their first baby.

Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens starred as a teen dream couple in Disney's High School Musical (2006) TV movie, and their romance extended into real life too. The on-screen Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez stayed together for the two subsequent sequels, but split in 2010. Hudgens and Efron didn't last much longer than their characters. Hudgens told Shape their conflicting schedules contributed to the breakup once they stopped filming together constantly. "Long distance relationships are hard no matter what," she said. But there's no bitterness. She added, "We grew up together. It was nice to have someone to share all those experiences with."

Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray began dating while co-starring on One Tree Hill in 2003 and even tied the knot in 2005. Unfortunately, the union was short-lived. They filed for an annulment only five months later amid rumors that he'd cheated on her with Paris Hilton while filming House Of Wax (2005).

Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato co-starred in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010), and their brief yet tumultuous romance behind-the-scenes was probably more dramatic than either TV movie ever could be. They dated right around the time the sequel was set to hit the Disney Channel and broke up only months later. Jonas told Us Weekly, "Demi and I knew going into our romantic relationship that it may not be an easy one. I realize over the time we have shared together that I feel I care more about our friendship right now. It was my choice to breakup, but I love her as a friend. She's been there for me when I needed her. I will continue to be her friend and be there for her." Except, well, he wasn't.

Alexis Bledel's Rory Gilmore fell for Milo Ventimiglia's bad boy Jess Mariano on and off screen. People reports that the couple dated for three and a half years from 2002 to 2006 and had even talked about marriage. The pair will soon reunite (maybe!) on the Gilmore Girls reboot.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Jerry Ferrara dated on Entourage and in real life. They were a hot item from October 2008 to December 2009 but generally kept the relationship under wraps.

Kit Harington and Rose Leslie were an item on screen as Jon Snow and Ygritte on Game of Thrones (2011-) before taking their real-life romance off the set. TMZ first reported on the pair's potential off-screen coupling in the summer of 2012, and they clearly went the distance: People reported in September 2017 that the couple was engaged.

Though Leslie has been quiet about the romance, Harington gushed to L'Uomo Vogue (via People) that shooting scenes with her in Iceland were his favorite moments of the entire series "because the country is beautiful, because the Northern Lights are magical, and because it was there that I fell in love. If you're already attracted to someone, and then they play your love interest in the show, it becomes very easy to fall in love."

Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley's relationship as Catherine and Heathcliff was doomed in 2009's TV series of Wuthering Heights, but their real-life romance has a much happier ending: The Sun reported that after dating for five years, Hardy and Riley married in July 2014. They welcomed their first child, son Louis, in October 2015.

Gossip Girl queen bee Blair Waldorf, played by Leighton Meester, had a fling with college student and socialite Carter Baizen, played by Sebastian Stan. Though Baizen only appeared in 11 episodes of the series, Stan went on to date Meester in real life for two years, from 2010 to 2012. Us Weekly reported that the split was amicable. Meester is now happily married to Adam Brody, with whom she shares daughter Arlo.

During an "off-again" period with Nichols in late 2008 to 2009, E! News reported that Bush dated another One Tree Hill love interest: James Lafferty, who played Nathan Scott on the show. Interestingly, it was her ex, Murray, who supposedly spilled the beans on her third in-house romance, explaining that he and Bush were amicable and professional on set because they'd each moved on: "She's got James, and James and I are friends," he said.

Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson were almost too cute as nerdy Seth Cohen and snobby Summer Roberts on The O.C. (2003-12). The on-screen couple eventually tied the knot, but despite being just as adorable in real life as they were on TV, People reported that Brody and Bilson split in 2006 after three years together.

Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna married in 1997 after dating for five years. They co-starred in Veronica Mars (2004-07) as Aaron and Lynn Echolls, the parents of the titular character's nemesis, Logan Echolls. Thankfully, their real-life relationship has been much happier than their on-screen marriage, which was rife with abuse, addiction, infidelity, and ended with (spoiler alert!) Lynn's suicide.

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer found love when starring as Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton in True Blood. Though Stackhouse and Compton's romance comes to a, well, bloody end, Paquin and Moyer went on to marry in 2010 and are parents to twins. 

Moyer told Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2015 (via People): "We met screen testing for the show. We were both single at the time, and there was just this kind of spark... I didn't see her for three months, and she had gone from having dark hair to this beautiful blond, and I had gone from being blond to this dark vampire. By day three or four—oh, this is going to sound so syrupy—but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. It was within seconds, really, and it just became a thing."

Madam Secretary (2014-) stars Tea Leoni and Tim Daly play a married couple on screen (Leoni's the titular Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord and Daly is her on-screen professor husband Henry). In April 2015, the co-stars went public as a real-life couple for the first time at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, People reported. 

Co-star Geoffrey Arend admitted the cast had heard rumors that Daly and Leoni were more than just colleagues, but noted, "Nobody really knew [they were dating]. You don't want to go to your boss and be like, 'Hey, so who are you dating?' So now I think we're all really protective."