John Corbett and Wife Bo Derek’s Relationship Timeline: How They Met and Beyond

John Corbett and Bo Derek's Relationship Timeline
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While John Corbett’s Sex and the City character, Aidan Shaw, has an on-again, off-again romance with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), his real-life relationship with wife Bo Derek is steady and supportive.

The duo met when Corbett told his friend Norby Walters, a Hollywood agent, that he needed a date to an Oscars party. During a joint appearance on Today in 2015, Corbett noted that he found the actress “intimidating” at first. Derek, however knew she liked the And Just Like That actor “instantly.”

Keep scrolling for a look at Corbett and Derek’s love story over the years:

2002

The twosome were introduced by a mutual friend after Corbett expressed his need for a date to an Oscars party. Prior to meeting Corbett, Bo was married to actor and director John Derek from 1976 until he died of congestive heart failure at age 71 in 1998.

During a 2020 interview with Fox News, Bo described her first husband’s death as “an enormous loss,” saying, “The air just gets sucked out of the room when you lose your partner. So, I wallowed in that for a while.”

Bo added that she “didn’t expect to end up with anyone again.” However, that changed when she met Corbett.

“It was just an attraction, a comfort,” she said of the their initial bond. “He makes me laugh all the time. He’s full of life, full of joy. I became attracted to him and I still am. We take things day by day and I think we are still there.”

John Corbett and Bo Derek's Relationship Timeline
John Corbett and Bo Derek at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 24, 2002. Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock

2015

The private pair shed more light on their romance during a joint appearance on Today in July. Bo described their dynamic as a “day to day relationship” before sharing that she “hadn’t dated in five years” when she met Corbett.

“I kept saying to my friends, ‘I’ll wait until the sparks and all that get going,’ and it finally happened,” she said.

2016

The couple attended the New York City premiere of Corbett’s film My Big Greek Wedding 2, walking the carpet hand in hand at the March event.

2017

Bo and Corbett showed off their dance moves on the red carpet at a party for the Golden Nymph Award nominees at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in June.

“Fun in Monte Carlo. Yep, I'm a born dancer!” Bo captioned an Instagram clip from the playful moment.

2018

Bo shared a photo of her longtime love snuggling their newly adopted dog in June. “His name is Luka!” she captioned the sweet Instagram snap.

2019

John Corbett and Bo Derek's Relationship Timeline
John Corbett and Bo Derek attend the WildAid Gala in Los Angeles on November 9, 2019. David Buchan/Shutterstock

Bo exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about her and Corbett’s unconventional date nights.

“My gosh, we don’t have typical,” the model said in February. “We’re always traveling, so our date nights are usually where we meet up in someplace else.” She added that although she and Corbett “travel a lot,” their home is their “sanctuary.”

2020

During a September interview with Entertainment Tonight, Bo shared the key to long-term romance.

“You have to be in love: really, deeply, in love,” she told the outlet. “We were such opposites in so many ways when we started out that we took this relationship one day at a time and it just happens to be 19 years later, we're still together and we're gonna go for one more day!”

2021

During an August 2021 appearance on The Talk, Corbett revealed that he and Bo quietly tied the knot “around Christmastime” in 2020.

“We’re pretty private people, we didn't make an announcement. All our friends and family knew but this is the first time either one of us has said anything publicly about it because really we haven't had an opportunity,” he told cohost Jerry O’Connell.