Lady Gaga's Dating History: From Taylor Kinney to Michael Polansky

VINCENZO PINTO/AFP

Lady Gaga has had her share of highly publicized relationships.

The Grammy-winning singer — who has been in the spotlight ever since she released her 2008 album The Fame — has been open about the negative effect her stardom has had on her most serious relationships, including her engagements to actor Taylor Kinney and talent agent Christian Carino.

In her 2017 documentary, Gaga: Five Foot Two, the singer shared that her relationships seem to end every time she hits a career milestone. "It's like a turnover," she explained. "My love life has just imploded."

Gaga has also opened up about being unhappy while single. "I was actually having a lot of trouble with it, I did not like being single," she shared in a March 2020 interview on The Kyle & Jackie O Show. "I felt like my career had kind of taken over everything and that my personal life was something that I didn't get to have as much time to pursue and have control over and I got very sad."

From her engagements with Kinney and Carino to her current relationship with businessman Michael Polansky, here's a look back at Lady Gaga's dating history.

Lüc Carl

Cindy Ord/Getty

Gaga dated bartender and musician Lüc Carl, who she met in New York City in 2005, on and off for five years, just as the singer started to gain popularity.

The couple rekindled their romance briefly in July 2010, before calling it quits again later that year. "I've really never loved anyone like I loved him. Or like I love him," she told Rolling Stone of Carl in 2009. "That relationship really shaped me. I sort of resolved that if you can't have the guy of your dreams, there are other ways to give love." Gaga admitted that her relationship with Carl inspired much of her early music.

Matthew Williams

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis

The singer dated fashion designer Matthew "Dada" Williams — who worked as the creative director of her Haus of Gaga creative team from 2008 until 2010 — from 2009 to 2010. The pair split to focus on their creative partnership.

"Dada is quite brilliant and we were crazy lovers, but I stopped it when we discovered what a strong creative connection we had," she told The Evening Standard in 2010. "I didn't want it just to be about careless love."

Williams is currently the creative director of the French fashion house Givenchy.

Taylor Kinney

John Shearer/Getty

Gaga and Kinney met on the set of her "Yoü and I" music video in 2011, in which Kinney played her love interest. The singer and the Chicago Fire actor were spotted in California over Labor Day weekend in 2011, but kept their relationship fairly private until 2013 when Gaga discussed Kinney on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "Having your lover be your best friend is the best thing ever," she said of The Vampire Diaries alum. The pair made their red carpet debut in 2014 at the 71st annual Golden Globe Awards.

In October 2014, Gaga shed some more light on her relationship with Kinney: "He's the first man that I have dated that, when I sing onstage, he cries," she told U.K.'s The Times. "That means more to me than anything."

Kinney proposed to Gaga on Valentine's Day 2015 at her family's N.Y.C. restaurant. A year later, Gaga showed off her custom heart-shaped engagement ring at the 88th Academy Awards as she walked the red carpet with Kinney. "With the love of my life," she captioned an Instagram photo of the pair at the event.

In July 2016, after months of rumors, Gaga officially announced that she and Kinney had called off their engagement. "She's working on an album, he's working on his show, they aren't in the same state, it was just hard," a source told PEOPLE at the time.

Gaga also released a statement about the split. "Taylor and I have always believed we are soulmates. Just like all couples we have ups and downs, and we have been taking a break," she said. "We are both ambitious artists, hoping to work through long-distance and complicated schedules to continue the simple love we have always shared. Please root us on. We're just like everybody else and we really love each other."

Gaga's 2016 hit song, "Million Reasons," was rumored to be about Kinney, but the singer later told Howard Stern that it was about "all the men in her life." In her 2017 documentary, she also shared that she and Kinney had been fighting more than usual before their split.

Christian Carino

Michael Kovac/Getty

Gaga and talent agent Christian Carino were first spotted together at a Kings of Leon concert in January 2017. The following month, the couple were pictured in Houston ahead of the 2017 Super Bowl, where the singer performed at the halftime show.

In September 2017, Gaga told fans at her concert at N.Y.C.'s Citi Field that she was "in love" with Carino. By November, rumors swirled that the couple had gotten engaged.

Carino accompanied Gaga to the Venice Film Festival premiere of her film with Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born, in August 2018. That October, Gaga called Carino her "fiancé" during a speech at ELLE's Women in Hollywood gala, confirming engagement rumors.

The pair continued to attend events together, including the 76th annual Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 6, 2019. Later that month, they made their last public appearance together at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In February 2019, a source confirmed to PEOPLE that the couple had ended their engagement: "It just didn't work out. Relationships sometimes end. There's no long dramatic story."

Gaga seemingly addressed the split for the first time while performing in Las Vegas in June 2019. "So, last time I sang this song, I had a ring on my finger," she said before singing "Someone to Watch Over Me."

Daniel Horton

Gaga was spotted kissing her monitor engineer Daniel Horton while on a brunch date at Granville restaurant in Studio City, California, in July 2019. The pair were seen again a month later at the Pasadena Daydream Music Festival in California.

In October 2019, Gaga announced their split by calling herself "a single lady" in an Instagram Story.

Michael Polansky

Lady Gaga Instagram

Gaga was first spotted kissing businessman Michael Polansky at a New Year's Eve party in Las Vegas as they rang in 2020. A few weeks later, the couple made their relationship Instagram official after spending a PDA-packed weekend together in Miami for Super Bowl LIV.

Later that month, Gaga posted a sweet Valentine's Day tribute to Polansky, before declaring her "STUPID love" for him in a later post in March. The pair quarantined together through the COVID-19 pandemic, and in April 2020, Gaga called him "the love of my life" in a virtual interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

In November 2021, Gaga told The Hollywood Reporter that Polansky and her dogs are her "whole life" after her dog walker was attacked. Later that month, a source told PEOPLE that the pair "don't seem rushed about getting engaged," and that they "almost act like a married couple already."

On Jan. 20, 2021, the couple made a rare public appearance at President Joe Biden's inauguration in Washington D.C. Their next public appearance came over a year later, in March 2022, when they attended the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards.