Rekindle Your Feelings for the Duos Who Broke Up & Got Back Together
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Originally appeared on E! Online
Who doesn't love a do-over?
Of course, when it comes to relationships, the question of whether to try again (and risk the chance of getting the same result) isn't to be taken lightly. Yet at the same time, with all the off-and-on dating in Hollywood, it obviously isn't always taken heavily.
But breaking up, be it for a few months or 17 years, can also be just what the relationship doctor—a licensed professional, your bestie, your mom—ordered.
Justin Timberlake wasn't quick to walk away from Jessica Biel after almost four years of dating in 2011. But he couldn't stop the feeling and swiftly realized the error of his ways, re-wooing the actress and meeting her at the altar in October 2012.
"I answer to a higher power now," Timberlake quipped to reporters a week before their wedding in Italy. "We have a couple of rules in our relationship. The first rule is that I make her feel like she's getting everything. The second rule is that I actually do let her have her way in everything. And, so far, it's working."
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In May, Biel described balancing careers and two kids as an ongoing challenge, but one she and her husband of 11 years are still up for, noting on The View, "It's always a work in progress, right?"
Rob Gronkowski's longtime girlfriend Camille Kostek recently revealed that they quietly took a timeout awhile back, which proved to be the right play. After doing a little separate soul-searching, she told Page Six, they were able to "get back together and heal in different ways, and learn and grow through the years."
And the pace at which it's been going with the now-retired NFL star has suited the 32-year-old model, who was 21 when she met the former New England Patriot.
"If we were to be married sooner, it would have been over by now," Kostek said. "But we've been able to do our thing individually" and she is "very happy now."
Though even filing to end a marriage doesn't necessarily mean that the union has to end, as the many reams of paper used to dismiss divorce petitions can attest to.
Patrick Dempsey's wife Jillian Dempsey filed for divorce in 2015, but that ended up being the impetus for the parents of three to go back to the drawing board and work up a new plan.
"We decided it was time to get in there and work on our individual issues and our issues as a couple," the Grey's Anatomy alum told People a year later. "I wasn't prepared to give up on her and she wasn't either. We were both committed. We both wanted to fight."
Needing time and space to do the work separately, Nelly and Ashanti broke up in 2013 after 10 years of dating off-and-on and playing coy about their relationship status throughout. But you didn't just dream that the artists are now engaged and expecting a child together.
Just saying, he better always be there when she calls.
But even Judge Judy Sheindlin didn't have all the answers once—once—and needed a recess, divorcing Jerry Sheindlin in 1990. They both successfully appealed, however, and remarried in 1991.
"Jerry just celebrated his 90th birthday and I still like to look at him when he walks in the room," she told E! News' Courtney Lopez in January. "That's a key."
Point being, love is grand, but it can get grander after some time off. (And, if it doesn't, there's no shame in trying.) Read on to see more celebrity couples who broke up and got back together:
Ben Affleck & Jennifer Lopez
No one had the resurrection of Bennifer on their bingo card heading into 2021.
But the couple who so splashily dated before calling off their engagement in September 2003 (though they didn't confirm their split until January 2004) had other ideas.
Ben and J.Lo saw their previous commitment and raised it a marriage, tying the knot in Las Vegas on July 16, 2022, and celebrating with a big bash in Georgia a month later.
Reports surfaced in May 2024 that they may not be living happily ever after, but for now their recoupling remains the granddaddy of back-togetherness.
Justin Timberlake & Jessica Biel
When they saw each other at the 2007 Golden Globes, their "love connection" was palpable, according to Jessica's 7th Heaven costar Beverley Mitchell. "I was like, 'OK, this is happening.'"
After several years together, however, they released a joint statement in March 2011 confirming their mututal decison "to part ways."
But it was clear they still had feelings for each other.
Soon enough, the pair reconciled and tied the knot in October 2012. They welcomed son Silas on April 8, 2015, and his brother Phineas in July 2020.
"We have similar values," Jessica told Marie Claire in 2017. "We believe in loyalty, honesty. We like to have fun. We like a lot of the same things. Also, in the business, we're all very career-oriented, and you have to be a little selfish. I understand that about my peers—about being focused and driven—and if you can find that and someone who shares the same values as you, it's like, 'Score!'"
Prince William & Kate Middleton
As reports of an imminent engagement started to make the rounds in the U.K. in early 2007, William broke up with his college sweetheart after four years together.
That June, however, he invited Kate to a costume party at his barracks in Dorset (his first military posting was with the Blues and Royals of the British Army's Household Cavalry) and apparently her sexy nurse outfit was the shot in the arm the future king needed.
A few years later, William proposed with the 12-carat Ceylon sapphire ring that belonged to his late mother, Princess Diana, and the couple's engagement was announced Nov. 16, 2010.
When looking back at their brief split, William said in their first joint interview, "We were both very young. We were both finding ourselves and being different characters. It was very much trying to find our own way and we were growing up so it was just a bit of space, and it worked out for the better."
Kate admitted she "wasn't very happy about it" at the time, but ultimately it made her "a stronger person."
Pink & Carey Hart
The singer and the motocross racer started dating in 2001 after meeting at the Summer X Games. They married in 2006, but two years later ended up taking an 11-month break.
"We were working all the time; there was so much time between our visits," Pink explained their rationale to Redbook. "Carey would see me for five days and be gone for six weeks. We'd try to fix everything in those five days—you just can't do that."
The lusty pair reunited when Pink made Carey a photo album of old cards and pictures, showed him her unsigned divorce papers and wore his favorite pair of lingerie in a hotel suite in Las Vegas.
They welcomed daughter Willow June 2, 2011, and son Jameson Dec. 26, 2016.
Chrissy Teigen & John Legend
Even these two had some ups and downs before taking their vows on Sept. 14, 2013.
After meeting on the set of Legend's "Stereo" music video in 2006, the pair quickly coupled up, but a year later the singer started feeling overwhelmed.
"I was really stressed and busy," he told The Guardian in 2017 of that almost-pivotal time. "I was just like: 'I'd just be happier single right now,' and she was like: 'No.'"
So that was cleared up in the course of a day.
They've since become parents to Luna (April 17, 2016), Miles (May 16, 2018), Esti (Jan. 13, 2023) and Wren (June 19, 2023, via surrogate).
NeNe & Gregg Leakes
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star had been with Gregg since 1996, but filed for divorce in 2011.
"I always felt like you have to teach people how to treat you and I felt like at that time that Gregg wasn't treating me the way I felt I should be treated," she shared on Uncensored in 2018. "It was me teaching Gregg a lesson."
Gregg clearly got the message, as the pair remarried in 2013, letting the cameras in for I Dream of NeNe: The Wedding, and they were together until his death from cancer in 2021.
Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard
The Frozen star and the Armchair Expert host first hit it off at a friend's birthday party in 2007, but within a few months, their relationship took a turn.
"He sat me down and said, 'I can't have this right now. I think you're wonderful, but I am still dating other people.' And then I, like, liquefied and fell to the ground, but I felt incredibly respected that he had the balls to tell me we weren't in the same place," Kristen later told Pop Sugar.
But after only four days, the actress' phone rang with a remorseful Dax begging her to take him back.
They married in 2013, on some day or other, and are parents to daughters Lincoln and Delta.
Adam Levine & Behati Prinsloo
The Maroon 5 singer dated Behati for almost a year, but in 2013 The Voice judge had seemingly moved on with model Nina Agdal.
But after just a couple of months, Adam was back with Behati and he brought a ring with him.
"Famous last words: "I'll never get married,'" he said on The Tonight Show in October 2013. "You know, I still don't think you have to get married, unless you meet someone that makes you want to marry them. And then you marry them and it's wonderful."
Adam and Behati share daughters Dusty Rose (Sept. 21, 2016), Gio Grace (Feb. 15, 2018) and a son born in 2023 whose name they've yet to disclose.
Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos
The very hot-for-each-other All My Children costars briefly cooled off in 1996, but quickly reconnected at a taping of what was then Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.
"It was their Mother's Day special. They were pre-taping it, and one of the dreams of one of the mothers was to meet Mark and me. We were her favorite characters on All My Children," Kelly recalled on Betches' Comments by Celebs. "She wanted to meet us, and I think we drove out a new car or pushed out a new pool table or something. She got a present from her kids and we brought it out to her. It all is so connected."
The next day, May 1, 1996, they eloped in Las Vegas and went on to have sons Michael (June 2, 1997) and Joaquin (Feb. 24, 2003) and daughter Lola (June 16, 2001). They also now share a talk show, Live With Kelly and Mark.
Justin Bieber & Hailey Bieber
The longtime friends met in 2009 when Hailey's dad Stephen Baldwin introduced his daughter to Canadian heartthrob backstage at The Today Show.
Seven years after their first meetup, they went Instagram official, Justin posting a pic of them sharing a kiss. But that only lasted a few months, and they went their separate ways.
In May 2018, however, the model and the "Sorry" singer reunited with a vengeance: They got engaged that July and married in September.
In an interview with The Times UK, Hailey reflected on their surprising trajectory. "I met him when I was really young and he was one of my best friends...at a certain point in time that turned into something else, but that just happens when you're 18, 19," she said. "We went through a long period of time when we weren't friends...We've moved past that."
In May 2024, they revealed Hailey was pregnant with their first child together.
Gabrielle Union & Dwayne Wade
The Breaking In actress and the NBA player made their red carpet debut in July 2010, but by the start of 2013, they needed some time apart.
"It was because of distance and scheduling," Gabrielle told Glamour. "I finished filming the show, then I flew to Vegas right away to start shooting Think Like a Man Too. I couldn't take time off, and I missed some quality togetherness we desperately needed."
Within a few months, however, the all-star pair had made up, and by the end of the year, Dwyane was ready to bring it on. They got married on Aug. 30, 2014.
Nick & Vanessa Lachey
The 98 Degrees singer and the TRL host met in 2006 on the set of Nick's music video for his marital-breakup lament "What's Left of Me," with Vanessa playing the role of heartbreaker.
They started dating, but split in June 2009.
"We're trying to figure things out," Nick told Us Weekly. I don't pretend to know what the future holds, but everything's good. Vanessa's a good girl, and I care about her a lot."
They found their way back to each other by October 2009 and married on July 15, 2011. They're parents to sons Camden (September 2012) and Phoenix (December 2016) and daughter Brooklyn (January 2015).
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