Celebrity Couples Who Are Happily Unmarried
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We often hear about Hollywood marriages that last five minutes in the tabloid headlines, but many successful couples have stuck together through thick and thin without making a big day out of it. They didn’t bother with a fancy gown and a celebrity wedding planner with picture-perfect photos to be sold to an entertainment magazine. Nope, they are rewriting what it means to have a partnership without all of the legal complications.
Just ask OGs like Oprah Winfrey and Goldie Hawn. They have this coupledom-without-a-marriage-license thing down pat. Do you ever hear of any personal drama between them and their significant others? (You know, Stedman Graham and Kurt Russell, no big deal.) But a lot of younger couples are finding that same bliss and starting a family without ever walking down that aisle, like Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling.
Oprah, for one, has no regrets about canceling her wedding to Graham over two decades ago. “Both he and I now say, ‘If we had married, we would not be together,'” she explained to The Independent. “No question about it — we would not stay married, because of what that would have meant to him, and I would have had my own ideas about it.” So take a little life lesson from the talk show queen, marriage isn’t for everyone, so you do you, my friends.
Find out who else is keeping their love blossoming without all of the wedding day fanfare, some of the names might surprise you — including the British comedian who has Goldie and Oprah beat when it comes to his long-term relationship.
A version of this article was originally published on July 2021.
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Courteney Cox & Johnny McDaid
After splitting from first husband David Arquette in 2010, Courteney Cox first started dating Irish musician Johnny McDaid in 2013.
The Snow Patrol frontman proposed, with the help of Cox’s daughter, in 2014 but the couple called off the engagement and briefly split the following year. However, they have been back together (without a ring) since 2016.
During a red carpet appearance in 2018, McDaid told People that the word husband is just “a label” while Cox confirmed that she feels married to the musician, despite never officially tying the knot. “I’m married in my heart,” she said.
Rooney Mara & Joaquin Phoenix
Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix met on the set of Her in 2012 but didn’t start dating until four years later when they reunited on screen again for Mary Magdelene. Engagement rumors have swirled since Mara started wearing a hefty diamond ring in 2019, but the couple have never officially confirmed their relationship status.
The couple secretly welcomed a son, named after Phoenix’s late brother River, in 2020 and are expecting their second baby in 2024.
Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell
When you think of unmarried Hollywood couples, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn are probably the first names to come to mind. But as Hawn told People in 2020, they’ve never needed a legally-binding union because they have always had the “the will to stay together” for the past four decades because there is still “the joy and the excitement” in their partnership — and their love story is written exactly the way they want.
Kate Hudson & Danny Fujikawa
Like mother, like daughter? Kate Hudson has been married before, just like her mom, Goldie Hawn, but we think she might be following in her mother (and “stepfather” Kurt Russell’s) footsteps by keeping things without any legal paperwork with boyfriend Danny Fujikawa. They’ve happily been coupled up since 2017 and welcomed daughter Rani Rose in 2018 — and still have no plans to marry right now.
Matthew Rutler & Christina Aguilera
Matthew Rutler and Christina Aguilera met while he was a production assistant working on the set of Burlesque, and sparks flew immediately. They got engaged back in 2014 and welcomed a daughter, making their blended family complete. Despite being engaged for quite some time, they’re in no rush to get married.
Aguilera actually revealed a fear of getting married again in her 2018 album, specifically on the track “Unless It’s With You.” She sang, “I don’t want no white picket fence / Dozen roses and a wedding dress / ’cause I don’t want to get married, unless it’s with you.”
Winona Ryder & Scott Mackinley Hahn
Winona Ryder and Scott Mackinley Hahn have been one of the most low-key couples in Hollywood, with many not even knowing that the pair have been together since 2011. They seem as happy as can be, and Ryder has said on multiple occasions that marriage isn’t a must-have for her life plan.
She said back in 2016: “Marriage? I don’t know. I’d rather never have been married than been divorced a few times. Not that there’s anything wrong with divorce, but I don’t think I could do it if that was a possibility. When your parents are madly in love for 45 years, your standards are really high.”
Matthew Rhys & Keri Russell
Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell’s romance started on their Emmy-winning show. The two first started acting opposite each other in 2013 on The Americans, dating soon after in 2014. In 2016, they added to their brood by welcoming their first child together, a half-brother for Russell’s older son and daughter from her first mariage.
Zoe Kazan & Paul Dano
Ruby Sparks co-stars Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano have been happily together since 2007, when they were both in their early twenties. The pair later welcomed their daughter, Alma Bay, in 2018 and a son, in 2022.
Oprah Winfrey & Steadman Graham
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham started dating the first year The Oprah Winfrey Show aired nationally: 1986. A brief engagement in 1992 had them flirting with a wedding, but they decided that they didn’t need a piece of paper to strengthen their bound — and they have 35 years under their belt to prove it.
Sarah Paulson & Holland Taylor
Together since 2015, Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor are enjoying their high-powered acting careers and their high-profile relationship together. Even though they met 14 years prior to dating, it was Twitter that brought them together after working on a PSA for women’s reproductive rights. Holland slid into Paulson’s DMs and that’s how a love match was made.
Diane Kruger & Norman Reedus
Diane Kruger and Norman Reedus met on set of the 2015 movie Sky, but Kruger was still dating Joshua Jackson at the time. After their relationship ended, Kruger and Reedus hooked up sometime between 2016 and early 2017 (the timeline is a little fuzzy). But the “opposites attract” couple is in it for the long haul even without a wedding in sight — they welcomed daughter in November 2018, her first and his second child.
Eva Mendes & Ryan Gosling
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling met on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011 and rumors heated up right away. The couple has been together ever since and share two daughters, Esmeralda, born in 2014, and Amada, born in 2016.
Mendes has referred to Gosling as her husband in the past and we wouldn’t be surprised if these two private lovebirds had a secret wedding along the way but so far there is no confirmation that they tied the knot.
Rose Byrne & Bobby Cannavale
Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale have been happily together since 2012 and engaged since 2016 but they are in no rush to tie the knot. The couple share two sons, Rocco, born in 2016, and Rafael, born in 2017.
In a 2021 interview, Byrne revealed that marriage is on the cards but the couple are in no rush. “I keep going, ‘Let’s get around to it, let’s do it,'” Byrne said. “And then, you know, you have a baby, and then, oh, there’s another baby. It was kind of like that for us. I love weddings, and I know people [for whom] it’s an important thing, and I respect that totally. I guess for us it’s just been, we didn’t do it, we’ll do it, then — no! Pandemic.”
Paloma Jiménez & Vin Diesel
Paloma Jiménez has been by Fast & Furious actor Vin Diesel’s side since 2007, though the model keeps a low profile and only occasionally walks the red carpet with her partner.
The parents-of-three welcomed their first daughter, Hania Riley Sinclair, who is also known as Similce, in 2008. They welcomed their second child, son Vincent Sinclair, in 2010, and another daughter, Pauline Sinclair, in 2015, naming her after Paul Walker.
Maya Rudolph & Paul Thomas Anderson
Actress and comedian Maya Rudolph and famed director Paul Thomas Anderson are the ultimate power couple thanks to their equally successful but totally separate careers.
The Loot star and Boogie Nights have been dating since 2001 and share four kids, Pearl, Lucille, Jack and Minnie, who were born in 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2013.
In a 2018 interview, Rudolph said that despite not being married, she does refer to Anderson as her husband. “People know what that means. It means he’s the father of my child, and I live with him, and we are a couple, and we are not going anywhere,” she said.
Sam Rockwell & Leslie Bibb
Sam Rockwell and Leslie Bibb had their first date in 2007 and have been madly in love ever since. The couple never married or had kids but from co-starring in mega hit movies to loved up red carpet appearances, they’ve certainly proved that they don’t need anything apart from each other.
Jason Statham & Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Jason Statham and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley were first linked in 2009 and got engaged in 2016. Despite never marrying, the couple sealed the deal by welcoming a son in 2017 and a daughter in 2022.
Enrique Iglesias & Anna Kournikova
We all witnessed the steamy start to global superstar Enrique Iglesias and professional tennis Anna Kournikova’s romance when they met on set of his 2001 “Escape” music video. After seven years together, and plenty of engagement rumors. Kournikova emphatically revealed that she had no plans to ever marry Iglesias, or anyone for that matter!
The couple secretly welcomed twins in 2017, a boy and a girl named Nicholas and Lucy, and later announced the birth of their third child, Mary, in 2020.
Jane Fallon & Ricky Gervais
College sweethearts Jane Fallon and Ricky Gervais have been together since 1982 but decided early on that they had no plans to marry or ever have kids.
“We’re not married because neither of [us] are fussed,” Fallon told the Daily Mail in 2018. “I think if one of us really cared then we would probably do it but it’s not really been anything that either of us have ever really needed.”
