The Newest Celebrity Couples Of 2021
Ah yes, the thrilling rush of new love... there's nothing on Earth that quite compares to that smiling-for-no-reason whilst walking-on-sunshine feeling in the beginning of a relationship. Alas, for many people, the coronavirus pandemic has made finding romance that much harder as health experts urge citizens to quarantine and socially distance themselves as much as possible — not exactly an ideal environment for dating.
Nevertheless, people are still coupling up and falling in love, proving that even a potentially deadly virus is no match for the human heart. And while the stress of the pandemic has led to the demise of countless couples, others are determined to find their other half in the shiny new year. In fact, a few lucky celebrities have already locked down dates for Valentine's Day (fingers crossed these couples last until February 14th in the fickle town called Hollywood). Let us break down the newest celebrity couples of 2021.
Michael B. Jordan and Lori Harvey made it Instagram official
Michael B. Jordan is officially taken! (No one would judge you for watching Black Panther on repeat while crying into a pan of brownies over the news.) The actor/producer/director appears to be serious about model/designer/former equestrian Lori Harvey.
Before hitting it off with Steve Harvey's stepdaughter, Jordan kept his romantic life private, confessing to GQ magazine in 2018, "I'm very . . . advanced in a lot of areas of life . . . My personal life is not. I don't really know what dating is." As for Harvey's past relationships, she was engaged for a short time in 2017 to Dutch football player Memphis Depay and dated rapper Future in 2019. Photos of the model and the Creed actor first popped up on TMZ the day before Thanksgiving 2020, when the two were spotted in Lori's hometown of Atlanta. This sparked a lot of chatter about whether or not they were an item.
On January 10, 2021, the lovebirds made it Instagram official. And when Lori celebrated her 24th birthday some days later, she showed off the white roses Jordan gave her in an Instagram Story (via People). Oh, and as People pointed out, they revealed their nicknames for one another, too: Lori is Turtle and Jordan is Nugget. And then, The Shade Room shared photos of their PDA-filled vacation in St. Barts. Hmmm...pet names, public displays of affection, meeting the parents — Turtle and Nugget are all in.
Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles reportedly hit it off at work
Jaws dropped when Page Six posted pictures of Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles holding hands in early January 2021 at a wedding. Even some of the most dedicated celebrity gossip followers had no idea that Wilde split from longtime fiancé Jason Sudeikis in 2020. Obsessed One Direction fans may take issue with Styles dating the actor/director, but we think they make a pretty adorable pair (no offense, Ted Lasso).
The two reportedly connected after Wilde cast Styles in her movie Don't Worry Darling. When Vogue interviewed Styles in December of 2020, Wilde told the magazine that the pop star-turned-actor ended up on her radar after she saw him in Dunkirk. She also praised Styles' Vogue cover and photo shoot (in which the fashion-forward star wore skirts and dresses) and defended him when conservative commentator Candace Owens tweeted, "bring back manly men." In response to Owens' post, Wilde tweeted, "You're pathetic."
Mutual respect and friendship apparently turned into something deeper while the pair spent long hours on set. A source told Us Weekly that the former 1D singer called Wilde his "girlfriend" at his manager's wedding. Some skeptics dismissed the unlikely pair as a PR relationship, but another source insisted to ET that the wedding photo was "absolutely not leaked or staged for some sort of promotional reason." As for mixing work and play? The same anonymous source says that the "two are doing just fine balancing their relationship and their professional responsibilities."
Cody Simpson and Marloes Stevens go for the gold
While celebrity triple threats are impressive and all, there aren't many people who could boast about being a pop star, songwriter, actor, model, poet, and potential Olympic swimmer. Australian musician Cody Simpson is all of these things and still somehow finds the time to date (the pharmaceutical industry really needs to figure out how to bottle that kind of energy). Simpson, whose past girlfriends include Gigi Hadid and Miley Cyrus, began dating model Marloes Stevens in 2020.
Aside from her Instagram page, Stevens doesn't have much of an online presence and appears to keep her private life, well, fairly private. The public became aware of Simpson's new girlfriend when his mom posted a video and a picture of the pair on Instagram around Christmas. The video features Simpson's family FaceTiming with the laughing couple, and the photo shows Simpson gazing adoringly at Stevens as she smiles with her arm around the pop star.
Stevens and Simpson continued to make us all jealous with their young/hot/rich lives when they posted pics on a sailboat for Simpson's birthday. The model shared extra pictures that showed the pair hiking, horseback riding, getting pedicures, and holding hands. She wrote, "Happy birthday to my favorite human. . . 24 looks good on you." A few weeks after the birthday boat date, the couple posted almost identical shots from a very steamy photo shoot in which Stevens is straddling Simpson. Love is in the air, indeed.
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker go way back
Would you ever date someone who said they lusted after one of your siblings? Apparently, for Kourtney Kardashian, the answer isn't "ewwwww" but "sure." Travis Barker met Kim Kardashian back when he had a thing with Paris Hilton, and in 2015 he told Us Weekly that he would just stare at the, um, "eye candy" that is Kim. The former Blink-182 rocker eventually became close with the entire Kardashian family and was often seen out with Kourtney but denied that the two were an item.
Fast-forward to 2021, and it looks like they are a thing after all! They have not publicly confirmed their relationship, but there sure have been a bunch of signs that indicate something's going on. A source told People that Kourtney and Barker had "been dating for about a month or two" around the time when they both posted photos from Kris Jenner's infinity pool at her Palm Springs home. And as Us Weekly pointed, Barker "dropped several flirty comments beneath Kourtney's Instagram posts." Oh, and an insider told Us Weekly that the two "are officially a couple ... Travis is very smitten with Kourtney and has been for a while."
Yes, Barker is apparently "smitten" with you, Kourtney, like an old-timey, romantic gentleman. So there's no need to bring up the fact that he called your sister "eye candy" whenever you have your first fight. Genius move, Barker anonymous insider. Genius.
Brian Austin Green danced into Sharna Burgess' heart
Former 90210 star and '90s heartthrob Brian Austin Green split with wife Megan Fox in 2019, and the Jennifer's Body star officially filed for divorce in 2020. Fox started a new romance with Machine Gun Kelly, and they wasted no time going public; on a September 2020 episode of the Give Them Lala... With Randall podcast, Fox called MGK her "twin flame." Then a few days before New Year's, the Daily Mail published pictures of Green at LAX with his new flame: Sharna Burgess, a professional ballroom dancer on Dancing with the Stars.
Weeks before the couple's vacation, Burgess told Us Weekly she was seeing someone new but wouldn't name the "mystery man." Of course the mystery man was revealed after the Daily Mail pics were published, and Burgess made the relationship Instagram official on Jan. 11, 2021 by posting a picture of the couple kissing in Hawaii.
Green proved to his ex Megan Fox that two could play the "gushing about my new boo" game when he told the hosts of Access Daily that Burgess is "sweet and caring and compassionate and fun to be around." The Masked Singer contestant further opened up to KTLA about how the two formed a connection during a pandemic, saying, "I think it helps people talk a little bit more and connect a little bit more because . . . You don't have places to go and other distractions."
Jodie Comer and James Burke keep it private
Jodie Comer achieved fame, rave reviews, and an Emmy for playing Villanelle, a witty assassin with a killer wardrobe, on the series Killing Eve. The Liverpool native then had the unenviable task of trying to keep her personal life private while being elevated to "it girl" status. When Comer began quietly dating non-celebrity James Burke in 2020, her diehard fans were determined to find out more about the American.
As Newsweek noted, speculation regarding her beau's political affiliations started to make the internet rounds. The outlet pointed out that after "rumors she is dating a Trump supporter spread on Twitter," there was "intense backlash." Comer touched on the controversy in a November 2020 interview with Net-A-Porter. "All this false information came out about him ... People took these tweets as truth," she said. "That was the biggest time my life has been kind of blown up and publicized in that way."
While we may not know much about Burke or his political affiliations, we do know that Comer is crazy about him. She told the Sunday Times Style (via Daily Mail), "I would never want to speak badly about people in my past, but yes, this relationship feels very different." Comer went on to call Burke her first real love saying, "When you actually feel it, you're like, 'Ahhh, so this is what it feels like!' And it was special." While Villanelle would totally gag over the star's bubbly effusions, we're loving Jodie Comer in love.
Justin Hartley moved on with Sofia Pernas
Justin Hartley's relationships prove that sometimes, life really does imitate art — or in this case, cheesy soap operas. Try to keep up here: Hartley met his first wife, Lindsay Korman, when they starred in Passions together. When Korman worked on All My Children, Hartley met her co-star Chrishell Stause. After Korman and Hartley divorced in 2012, Hartley married Stause. Then, the This Is Us star "blindsided" Stause by filing for divorce in 2019. The next year, Hartley began dating Sofia Pernas, another former co-star from The Young and the Restless.
Although they've been friends for years, E! News spilled the beans in May 2020 that the two were reportedly an item. The couple waited until New Year's Eve to go public with their romance and made it official — gee, you'll never guess how — via Instagram. But Stause was none too pleased that her ex had moved on so quickly. After the Selling Sunset star publicly claimed that Hartley ended their marriage via text message, Us Weekly noted that she liked a tweet that read, "The timing seems like he [Hartley] probably cheated on @Chrishell."
The actor seemingly hinted at his innocence in July 2020 when he told ET, "I'm a happy guy. I sleep like a baby." The blissed-out feeling is clearly mutual — Pernas posted a birthday tribute to Hartley in January after the two had gone public: "Celebrating this man . . . That smile!!! Lights up my sky."
Halsey and Alev Aydin are expecting a baby
Singer-songwriter Halsey has shared a lot with the public since her rapid rise to fame at 19, opening up about her struggles with bipolar disorder, excruciating endometriosis, and a miscarriage in interviews and on social media. And although the "Bad at Love” singer occasionally posts pictures on Instagram when she's in a serious relationship, Halsey is relatively private when it comes to talking about details regarding her love life.
Most fans first saw that Halsey was dating Turkish screenwriter Alev Aydin when she posted a series of pictures on Instagram Stories (via People) on New Year's Eve 2021. The singer wrote, "grateful for you this year and every year, sweets" and a Turkish phrase that translates to "I love you so much." More hardcore fans figured out that the two were dating when a tattoo artist posted pictures of Halsey and Aydin getting matching ink that read "seeds" in June of 2020. The artist told People magazine, "They got the tattoos in each other's handwriting, which is a pretty intimate thing to do."
Eagle-eyed Halsey fans may have known that the singer was dating someone new, but her pregnancy announcement at the end of January took everyone by surprise. Halsey shared the news with a series of Instagram pics from a beautiful maternity photo shoot. According to People, Aydin wrote,"Heart so full, I love you, sweetness." The singer responded, "I love you!!!!! And I love this mini human already!" Aw.