As much as we adore following along with our favorite celebrity couples, we can totally understand why someone famous would want to date outside of the Hollywood bubble. After all, there can be a lot of pressure put on relationships when both people live in the limelight — you can pretty much kiss any semblance of privacy you ever thought you had out the window. And for the same reason some of us wouldn't want to date a coworker, we're sure some actors and musicians don't want to date (and eventually marry) someone they work with, either.
In the end, it doesn't matter what your plans are when it comes to love — it just happens. And for these celebrities, falling in love with someone who is considered a "regular" person worked out pretty well. Whether they were childhood sweethearts, they met in a totally casual way, or have an adorable meet-cute story that has nothing to do with fame, these couples are still going strong today, despite the fact that one of them is a celebrity and the other isn't.
Read on for celebrities who married someone outside of Hollywood. Some of their love stories are just too sweet.
Ariana Grande & Dalton Gomez
In May 2021, Ariana Grande tied the knot with Dalton Gomez, a real estate agent — and according to what a source told Us Weekly, that's actually how they met.
"Ariana was looking for a home outside of Los Angeles to be her getaway house, and her team found Dalton to help," the source said. "When she saw him, she immediately thought he was cute and very good-looking, and she asked her team to set up an in-person meeting with him. Ariana fell very hard for Dalton shortly after they met."
George Clooney & Amal Alamuddin
Though George Clooney is probably one of the most famous actors alive, his wife wasn't in the spotlight until after they were dating. George met Amal Alamuddin, a human rights lawyer, when she stopped by his home in Lake Como, Italy, with a mutual friend who was visiting.
"I got a call from my agent who said, 'I met this woman who is coming to your house, who you're going to marry,'" George said during an appearance on David Letterman's Netflix series. "It really worked out that way."
Thomas Rhett & Lauren Akins
Thomas Rhett and his wife, Lauren Akins, met long before he was ever a famous country singer. They were friends going all the way back to childhood, they dated as teenagers, and the rest is history — he even sings about their love story in his single "Die a Happy Man."
Lisa Kudrow & Michel Stern
Friends star Lisa Kudrow's husband, Michel Stern, isn't a fellow actor — he's actually in advertising. But she first met him when he was dating her roommate and instantly had a crush, though they didn't get together until they ran into each other years later at a birthday party.
Meryl Streep & Don Gummer
Meryl Streep and Don Gummer are both artistic in their own way, but Don is an actual artist — a sculptor, to be exact. According to a biography written about Meryl (via People), the couple met when Don let Meryl borrow his apartment after her late partner, John Cazale, died from cancer. While she was living there, Don and Meryl wrote each other letters and ended up falling in love, marrying six months later.
Paul Rudd & Julie Yaeger
Paul Rudd does a pretty good job of keeping his personal life private, and the fact that he's married to someone outside of the Hollywood bubble might have a little something to do with that. In an interview with Nylon Guys, Paul said he met Julie Yaeger when she was working at his publicist's office and offered to drop off his luggage at a friend's house so he wouldn't be late to an audition. Good deeds pay off!
Amy Schumer & Chris Fischer
Amy Schumer met her husband, Chris Fischer, thanks to his non-Hollywood profession. Since Chris is a professional chef, he ended up cooking for Amy when she was on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, and they hit it off right away. Now they're married and parents to a young son, Gene.
Dolly Parton & Carl Dean
Dolly Parton's husband is so far outside of the realm of celebrities that many people don't even realize that the legendary country singer is married in the first place. As she told The New York Times (via Insider), Carl Dean met Dolly outside a laundromat in Nashville in 1964, and they were married two years later.
Jordan Fisher & Ellie Woods
To All the Boys I've Loved Before 2 star Jordan Fisher and his wife, Ellie Woods, were childhood sweethearts who continued dating into adulthood, only to end up walking down the aisle in a wedding at Disney World in 2020. Now that's the definition of living happily ever after.
Wanda Sykes & Alex Niedbalski
Wanda Sykes was on a ferry to New York's Fire Island when she met her wife, Alex (who sold granite countertops at the time), and something struck her when she spotted Alex talking to a woman and her baby on the boat.
"Something really said to me — like, audibly — 'Wow, that's what you need, Wanda,'" she told The Guardian.
Matt Damon & Luciana Barroso
Matt Damon's wife, Luciana Barroso, was a bartender when they first met while he was filming Stuck on You.
"I literally saw her across a crowded room and eight years and four kids later, that's my life," he told Ellen DeGeneres of their first meeting. "I don't know how else our paths would have crossed if that didn't happen."
Patrick Dempsey & Jillian Fink
When Patrick Dempsey first met his wife, Jillian Fink, it was because she was his hairstylist — and she actually did his hair for three years before they started dating!
"I was shocked. But at the same time, I was happy because he was so cute," Jillian told People of seeing him when he came in to her salon to get a haircut.
Ellen Pompeo & Chris Ivery
Patrick isn't the only Grey's Anatomy star who married a non-celebrity. Ellen Pompeo met her music producer husband, Chris Ivery, at the grocery store, believe it or not — and it was just a few months before she filmed the pilot for the series that would shoot her to stardom.
Kevin & Danielle Jonas
Kevin Jonas met his wife, Danielle Deleasa — who was a hairstylist at the time — while they were both on separate vacations with their families in the Bahamas.
"I cyberstalked her after we met and cyberstalked to see what flight she was going to be on coming home, and then I called her the minute she landed. That might have been a little overboard, but I just went for it," Kevin told Glamour.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Justin Mikita
Jesse Tyler Ferguson actually met his husband, Justin Mikita, a lawyer, at the gym — though he has admitted in the past that sometimes they tell people a different version of their meet-cute story.
"I met my husband at the gym, but we always tell people it was through some mutual friends," he told Us Weekly in 2014.
Reese Witherspoon & Jim Toth
Though Reese's first marriage was to fellow actor Ryan Phillippe, the second time around, she opted for a man who lives his life out of the spotlight: Jim Toth, a talent agent. They met at a party when Jim rescued Reese after a drunk man was hitting on her.
"Jim came over and said, 'Please excuse my friend. He's just broken up with someone.' Jim was a really good friend, pulling him out of that situation. That's just kind of who he is, a really good person," she told Elle.
Jon Bon Jovi & Dorothea Hurley
Falling in love with his wife before becoming famous probably had something to do with the fact that Jon Bon Jovi ended up with someone out of the Hollywood bubble.
"I met my future wife in 1980 in high school. We were in the same class. Dorothea was going out with one of those guys who joined the service," he told The Purist. "He left town, and hey, you know the five-second rule when you drop a piece of toast on the ground? I gave him three weeks. We started dating, and that was the end of that."
