TBT: George Clooney Watched Stacy Keibler on 'Dancing with the Stars' Before They Dated

And he used it as a pick-up line.

Who: Two-time Oscar-winning actor George Clooney, 61, and former WWE wrestler, dancer, and model Stacy Keibler, 42.

How They Met: Five years before they dated, George and Stacy met at an Oscars party in 2006. And much to the WWE star’s surprise, the Oscar winner already knew who she was. “It’s so funny,” she previously told People. “George Clooney came up to me, and he was like, ‘You’re so great. You should win.’ And I said, ‘You watch Dancing with the Stars?’”

While the flirty icebreaker didn’t develop into a full-fledged romance right away, the two did reconnect in the summer of 2011, shortly after George broke up with his then-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis. Rumors of a romance between George and Stacy began to heat up when the former dancer was spotted at the actor’s Lake Como villa that July, and for the next couple of months, they continued to be seen together.

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By September they were officially a couple, but Stacy admitted that she wasn’t “searching for a boyfriend” at the time and was just “living in the moment.” 

Why We Loved Them: They never met a red carpet they didn’t like. Over the course of two years, they attended nearly 20 red-carpet events together — from the Oscars and Golden Globes to charity galas and movie premieres.

And we could always count on them to deliver cute tidbits about their relationship while doing so. Like the time George joked about their height difference at The Descendants premiere, revealing that Keibler “can kick my ass.” He added, “She can take me two out of three falls.”

When They Peaked: As if meeting the parents isn’t nerve-wracking enough, Stacy met George’s dad Nick Clooney and mom Nina Bruce Warren on the red carpet of all places while at the Los Angeles premiere of The Descendants in November 2011.

The Breakup: Just when the world thought Clooney might actually be ready to settle down, news broke that he and Keibler ended their relationship in July 2013 following two years of dating. As for the reason, it reportedly came down to Clooney’s inability to commit.

“Stacy called it quits. She wants to have children and a family someday. She knows where George stands on that,” a source close to the couple told People exclusively at the time. “They talked, and they quietly stopped being a couple several weeks ago.”

The source added that Clooney and Keibler were still in touch despite the split. “They talk every day,” the insider shared. “They were friends before they started dating, and they’ll be friends after. It was a friendly [breakup].”

Where They Are Now: Several months after his breakup with Stacy, George met his wife Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin) through a mutual friend. Less than a year later, they were engaged, and within months, they married in Venice, Italy. In 2017, the couple welcomed twins, Alexander and Ella.

Clooney has kept his acting career active with leading roles in movies, such as Hail, Caesar!, The Monuments Men, and Money Monster — and this month, he will star alongside Julia Roberts in the romantic comedy Ticket to Paradise.  

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Keibler moved on from Clooney rather quickly with tech entrepreneur Jared Pobre. After meeting in 2013, they married the following year and share three children together — Ava Grace, 8, Bodhi Brooks, 4, and Isabella Grace, 2.

Quitting her career in the entertainment industry altogether, Stacy moved to Wyoming and is focused on being a mom, as well the co-founder of the men’s skincare brand Caldera + Lab.

#TBT: Check in every Thursday as we throw it back to some of our favorite celebrity couples of all time.

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