10 Celebrity Romances You Never Realized Started On A Movie Set

Celebrity

10 Celebrity Romances You Never Realized Started On A Movie Set

For some people, it can be difficult to find a partner.

Unless you want to settle, it can be challenging to find someone who you click with, especially if you think the relationship has the potential to be long term.

Even celebrities, who seem to have it all, struggle in the love department. As a public figure, it's probably challenging to figure out if someone likes you for you, or for your fame and fortune.

So, it's not uncommon for actors to date their fellow stars who have to deal with the same dating dilemma. While they often meet and mingle at Award shows or other high-profile events, a great deal of introductions are made on the TV show or movie sets.

With that in mind, Hollywood reporters regularly spot A-listers together looking intimate outside of their acting roles. While some of these couples eventually hit splitsville, a good chunk have been in it for the long haul.

Interested to see which stars fell in love on screen and in real life? Here are the top 10 celebrities you didn't know met on set.

1. Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck

Frequently dubbed "Bennifer" by the media, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck had been known as one of Hollywood's most beloved "it" couples. They established their friendship after starring in 2001's Pearl Harbor but their feelings for one another didn't blossom until they were on set of 2003's Daredevil.

"We met on Pearl Harbor, which people hate, but we fell in love on Daredevil," Affleck said in an interview with Playboy. "By the way, she won most of the fights in the movie, which was a pretty good predictor of what would happen down the road "” my wife, holding swords and beating the living sh*t out of me."

Sadly, Affleck and Garner announced their intention to divorce in June 2015, before officially filing the legal documents two years later. While it was speculated their split was due to to Affleck's infidelity with their children's nanny, Garner refuted the claims.

"We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation. Bad judgment? Yes. It's not great for your kids for [a nanny] to disappear from their lives," she told Vanity Fair.

Even though their marriage fell apart, they've often been seen in the media successfully co-parenting their precious children, Violet, Seraphina, and Samuel together.  

2. Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger

While fans weren't rooting for Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger's characters to end up together in 2005's iconic film, Brokeback Mountain, they did love the pair's off-screen romance.

"Our initial meeting, the circumstances of how we first met, were cosmic or something," Williams said in a 2012 interview with GQ.

During their courtship, the couple welcomed their daughter, Matilda, into the world, who became the pride and joy of both her parents.

However, the couple went their separate ways in 2007, due to Ledger's alleged drug abuse.  

Heartbreak would further follow in 2008 shortly after Ledger finished filming his most memorable role as the Joker in the Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Ledger passed away after suffering from a cardiac arrest, leaving Williams and their daughter devastated.

In 2011, she spoke to Marie Claire about how she's still struggling with Ledger's death.

"Very obviously for me and for her, there's a hole in our life," Williams said. "Of course, the natural inclination is to want to fill it and make it disappear, but what I've come to recently is that it's impossible."

"Nothing will fit in that hole because what we want back, we can't get, which is this one person. I'm not going to rush anything and scamper around like a mad person and make myself crazy," she added. "I'm trying to be respectful of the absence. I'm not trying to fill it up. It is what it is."

3. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Aside from her legendary film roles, Elizabeth Taylor was known for her turbulent love life. While she was married a whopping eight times, she was most famously linked to fellow actor Richard Burton, whom she even wed twice.

Despite the fact they were both married at the time, the couple began their affair the set of 1963's Cleopatra, divorced their spouses, and tied the knot the following year.

"I lust after your smell...and your round belly and the exquisite softness of the inside of your thighs and your baby-bottom and your giving lips and the half-hostile look in your eyes when you're deep in rut with your little Welsh stallion," Burton wrote in a love letter to Taylor.

Their relationship would be anything but peaceful, and the couple would divorce in 1974 due to Taylor's frequent tantrum's and Burton's dependence on alcohol.

However, despite their rift, it wouldn't be the end of their on-again off-again romance, as Taylor and Burton would marry again in 1975 - only to divorce less than a year later.

The former couple stayed close until Burton passed away in 1984, with Taylor even claiming he wrote her one last love letter asking her to give their relationship another chance.

"Attentive, loving "” that was Richard," Taylor said in Furious Love, a biography about her relationship with Burton. "From those first moments in Rome we were always madly and powerfully in love. We had more time but not enough."

4. Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig

As one of Hollywood's most private couples, fans were shocked when Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig announced they had wed in 2011 in a private ceremony only attended by the couple's two children from their previous relationships.

While Weisz and Craig had been friends for years, they fell in love on the set of the psychological thriller Dream House, where they played husband and wife living in a home, haunted by ghosts. While they were in relationships at the time, it wouldn't be long for the pair to set their sights on one another, and started to plan their united future.  

Even though she's had plenty of steady relationships, Weisz said she didn't think she would ever get married until she began a relationship with Craig.

"It's very personal, it's very private. I don't think mine's particularly exceptional apart from that we're both in the public eye," she said in an interview with the Evening Standard. "But I never thought I would get married. It was not an ambition of mine. It was the opposite.'

"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," she added.

The couple are still going strong, and Weisz recently announced they would be expanding their brood, as they are expecting their first child together later this year.

"I'll be showing soon," Weisz told the New York Times. "Daniel and I are so happy. We're going to have a little human. We can't wait to meet him or her. It's all such a mystery."

5. Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow

Everyone knows Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie infamously got together while starring in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but few know he also met his ex-girlfriend, Gwyneth Paltrow, on set as well.

The duo had met while filming 1995's Seven, about two detectives hunting down a serial killer who committed murders based on the seven deadly sins.

Pitt and Paltrow dated for three years and were even engaged at one point, but broke up after Paltrow realized she wasn't ready for marriage.

"I definitely fell in love with him. He was so gorgeous and sweet and, I mean, he was Brad Pitt, you know?" she said in an interview with Howard Stern.

"I honestly do think I was too young and I didn't know what I was doing. I mean, I was 22 when we met and it's taken me until 40 to get my head out of my ass. You can't make a decision when you're 22 years old," she added.

6. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are one of those celebrity couples that makes you believe in everlasting love. The pair met in 1985 after co-starring in the film Volunteers, and despite the fact that Hanks was already married at the time, he said when he met Wilson he immediately felt sparks.

"Rita and I just looked at each other and "” kaboing "” that was that. I asked Rita if it was the real thing for her, and it just couldn't be denied," Hanks said in an interview with GQ.

The couple tied the knot in 1988 before they reunited on the big screen again for the 90s classic, You Got Mail.

At the end of the month, the couple - who share two sons, Chester (who is a musician under the name Chet Haze), and Truman - will be celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary, and according to PEOPLE, the couple's relationship is as strong as ever.

"They say it must be hard work. No it's not," Hanks said. "Every now and again you know, you gotta get over some stuff but life is one damn thing after another and it's actually more pleasant to be able to go home with someone you like to spend time with in order to get with it."

7. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

The true definition of "relationship goals," Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell may just be one of Tinseltown's most iconic couples.  

Hawn and Russell's love story first began after they met on set of The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1968, but Hawn never pursued a romance due to their five year age gap.

However, fate would bring them back together when they were cast opposite of each other for 1983's Swing Shift, and it wouldn't be long until they officially got together.

"I was 21 and he was 16 and I thought he was adorable but he was much too young," Hawn explained in a 2012 interview with Desert Island Discs on Radio 4. "And then years later we met up again and I liked him and I remembered that I liked him very much when I first met him. But we both said we would never go out with another actor so it just shows you never can tell."

Russell, on the other hand, said their romance began after he blurted out a terrible pickup line.

"I was severely hungover... and I didn't know Goldie at all outside of having worked with her many years before," Kurt Russell said in an interview with Conan O'Brien. "I just didn't know in my mind what I was going to see. [Goldie] had a great body, and so the first that came out was 'Man, you got a great figure.' And it kind of came out quickly and it could've been wrong and she said, 'Why thank you.'"

While the couple never married, Hawn's children, Oliver and Kate Hudson, have said they see Russell as their true father. Along with having a son, Boston, from a previous relationship, Russell shares son Wyatt, with his partner of 35 years.

After three and a half decades together, Hawn said the secret to their longstanding relationship is dedication and hard work.

"I think if two people want to make it work, you make it work but if one doesn't, then you're sunk," Hawn said.

"I don't know if it's been hard work, but that's all I wanted out of life "“ a good relationship, a healthy family of mind and body and I feel very honored that this happened. But you do have to put your time in," she added.

8. Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin

Like half of marriages today, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's relationship wouldn't stand the test of time.

The couple met while filming the 1991 romantic comedy, The Marrying Man. The couple wed three years later and welcomed their daughter, Ireland Basinger-Baldwin, into the world before divorcing in 2002.

They went through a nasty court battle that centered around the custody of their then seven-year-old daughter, where Baldwin was ordered to attend anger therapy, parenting school, and was only allowed a 90-minute phone call with Ireland a day.

Baldwin would receive mass media backlash in 2007 after a voicemail he sent to his daughter was leaked. In it, he called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig" for not answering his phone call.

Since then, Baldwin's relationship with both his daughter and Basinger would improve, even calling his ex-wife, "one of the most beautiful women that ever lived."

"Ireland's mother is obviously one of the most beautiful women that ever lived - and even divorce doesn't muddy my view of that,' Baldwin told Access Hollywood, adding she's an excellent role model to their daughter. "The good news is my daughter is someone who somewhat understands... it's hard at that age to have that wisdom that beauty comes and goes."

9. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan-Tatum

One of the greatest Hollywood romances of the 21st century was between Channing Tatum and his wife, Jenna Dewan-Tatum. The couple met on the set of the 2005 dancing flick, Step Up, and married four years later. They welcomed their daughter, Everly, into the world in 2013, and the trio seemed liked the perfect family.

"I knew our connection was really powerful, but I wasn't sure what our relationship was going to be," Tatum wrote in an article for Cosmopolitan last year. "Then one day, Jenna just blurted out that she knew exactly what she wanted in life and she didn't have to look for it anymore because it was me."

However, in a move that broke everyone's hearts, earlier this month, Tatum announced that he and his wife were headed towards a divorce.

"We have lovingly chosen to separate as a couple. We feel deeply in love so many years ago and have had a magical journey together," Tatum wrote on his Instagram page.  

"Absolutely nothing has changed about how much we love one another, but love is a beautiful adventure that is taking us on different paths for now," he added. "There are no secrets or salacious events at the root of our decision -- just two best-friends [sic] realizing it's time to take some space and help each other live the most joyous, fulfilled lives as possible. We are still a family and will always be loving dedicated parents to Everly. We won't be commenting beyond this, and we thank you all in advance for respecting our family's privacy."

10. Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan

Dubbed the "least scandalous couple" in the industry, Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan are one of those couples you just know are meant to be.

While Fox and Pollan played boyfriend and girlfriend on Family Ties, their real life romance only began once they began working together on the 1987 movie Bright Lights, Big City.

After raising four kids and dealing with Fox's battle with Parkinson's disease, the couple proved they could withstand anything that life throws their way. And to think, it all started with Fox saying a less than complimentary remark.

"One day, she came back from lunch with bad breath and I said 'Whoa, scampi for lunch?' and she said 'You are the rudest son of a bitch I have ever met in my life' and I was immediately attracted to her like 'Who is this woman?!'"

As Fox just underwent surgery on his spine, there's no doubt Pollan is at his side during his recovery.

Were you surprised any of these couples met on set?

Maya has been working at Shared for a year. She just begrudgingly spent $200 on a gym membership. Contact her at maya@shared.com