David and Victoria Beckham

Victoria and David Beckham met at a charity soccer game in 1997, when she was at the height of her fame with the Spice Girls and he was an unknown soccer player. Victoria was in a lounge for the players of Manchester United, the team David played for, when she spotted her future husband. She wrote about the experience, which she considered love at first sight, for British Vogue.
 “And, yes, love at first sight does exist. It will happen to you in the Manchester United players’ lounge—although you will get a little drunk, so exact details are hazy,” she wrote. “While the other football players stand at the bar drinking with their mates, you will see David standing aside with his family. (He’s not even in the first team at this stage—you are the famous one.) And he has such a cute smile. You, too, are close to your family, and you will think how similar he feels to you. He’s going to ask for your number. (He still has the London-to-Manchester plane ticket on which you wrote it.)”

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend

The way Chrissy Teigen and John Legend fell in love isn’t your typical love story. The two met in 2007 when Teigen starred as Legend’s love interest in the music video for his song “Stereo.” Their first encounter was when Teigen visited Legend’s dressing room.

“I walked into John’s dressing room to meet him, and he was ironing in his underwear,” Teigen told Cosmopolitan. “I said, ‘You do your own ironing!?’ He said, ‘Of course I do.’ I gave him a hug.”

After the shoot, the two went to Legend’s hotel room and ate In-N-Out burgers before sleeping together. “I’m not going to lie. We hooked up,” Teigen said.

According to Legend, though, it wasn’t love at first sight. After their rendezvous, he went on tour. The two stayed in touch, but it wasn’t until a while later, when they were on the phone together, that Legend realized what a catch he had.

“I just started to fall in love with how engaging and witty and funny she is,” he told “Entertainment Tonight.” “That’s when I really started to know that this was the kind of person I wanted to be around a lot. Once we started spending more time together between tour stops and all this other stuff, we realized we had such a connection.”

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen

Gisele Bündchen was single for a year and wasn’t looking for a serious relationship when she met her now-husband, Tom Brady. In an interview with Vanity Fair, the model revealed that the two were set up on a date. Immediately, she was smitten, despite her hesitance to jump into a serious relationship—something she had been in nearly her entire adult life. As she says, though, you don’t get to choose when you fall in love.

“I knew right way—the first time I saw him. We met through a friend. The moment I saw him, he smiled and I was like, ‘That is the most beautiful, charismatic smile I’ve ever seen!'” Bündchen said. “We sat and talked for three hours. I had to go home for Christmas, but I didn’t want to leave. You know that feeling of, like, you can’t get enough? From the first day we met, we’ve never spent one day without speaking to each other.””I’d been single for a year, and I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I’d always been in serious relationships, but you learn a lot about yourself when you’re by yourself, and I was enjoying that process. But you don’t choose.”

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively played love interests in 2011’s “Green Lantern,” but they didn’t start dating until a year later. The two, who had been close friends for that year, developed feelings for each other when they were on a double date with other people. Though Reynolds admitted in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that it was “weird” transitioning out of the friend zone, we’re sure he’s glad that the two made that leap.

“We were buddies then. I remember it was funny because for about a year after ‘Green Lantern’ had come and gone and all that stuff, we were both single,” Reynolds said. “We went on a double date. She was on a date with another guy, and I was on a date with another girl.

“That was the most awkward date from their perspective probably because we were just like fireworks coming across. It was weird at first, but we were buddies for a long time. I think it’s the best way to have a relationship is to start as friends.”

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s relationship might be royal, but the way they met was quite ordinary. The two were introduced to each other through mutual friend Violet von Westenholz, who was a childhood friend of Harry’s and a former coworker of Markle’s from when they did PR together for Ralph Lauren.

Westenholz—who is the daughter of a British baron who is a close friend of Prince Charles—introduced Markle to Harry after he complained to her about his trouble finding the “perfect girl,” according to E! News.

Markle and Harry confirmed the rumors in an interview with BBC, in which they revealed that they were set up on a blind date.

“It was definitely a setup,” Markle said. “It was a blind date. I didn’t know much about him and so the only thing I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was … ‘Was he nice?'”

Harry added, “We were introduced actually by a mutual friend. It was literally through her and then we met once and then twice on back-to-back dates in London, last July. Then it was I think about three, maybe four weeks later that I managed to persuade her to come and join me in Botswana. And we—we camped out with each other under the stars, we spent—she came and joined me for five days out there, which was absolutely fantastic.”

Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey

Though nightclubs might have a bad reputation for setting couples up, the location was where Matthew McConaughey met his wife Camila Alves. According to an interview with People, McConaughey—who was “happily single” at the time and wasn’t looking for love—was sipping margaritas with his friends, including buddy Lance Armstrong, when a woman stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Out of the corner of my eye, this sort of aqua-green figure went floating across the frame about 20 feet in front of me,” McConaughey told People. “My eye went up, and I remember what came out of my mouth. I didn’t say, ‘Who is that?’ I went, ‘What is that?’ As l was trying to get that’s attention across the room, I went in my head, ‘This is not the kind of woman you call over across the room, McConaughey. Get your ass out of your chair and go get her.’ Which I did.”

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian met Kanye West through her ex-boyfriend Ray J. Around 2002 or 2003, West was recording a song with Brandy, Ray J’s sister, when Kardashian introduced herself, which led to them shooting a music video together. Though it wasn’t love at first sight: West didn’t even know Kardashian’s name.

“He was recording a song with Brandy, and I was her friend. I vividly remember hanging out with him, and then they did a video together, so I’d see him a few times,” Kardashian said in an interview with Ryan Seacrest. “He was asking his friends, ‘Who is this Kim Kardajan?’ He didn’t know what my name was.”

As many fans know, Kimye didn’t happen immediately. It was years later, when Kardashian was going through her divorce with Kris Humphries, that the two sparked a romantic relationship.

“Right before I got married to Kris Humphries, [Kanye and I] were talking, and I just went a different direction,” she said. “I think I had to go through that to figure out what I wanted. After my breakup, I was feeling really low and down and he said, ‘Just come to Paris and see my fashion show.’ He jokes that he put on this whole fashion show just to get a date with me. So I went there and I stayed with him, and that’s where we started dating. I swear from the moment I landed, I fell madly in love with him, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, why didn’t I do this sooner?’ Like, this is what real life is like—love and fun and real support.”

Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake

In true Hollywood fashion, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel met at the 20007 Golden Globe Awards. Biel’s “7th Heaven” costar Beverly Mitchell, who was there when the two came face-to-face, recalled the adorable moment in an interview with “Access Hollywood.”

“It was so cute because they were like—it’s that moment like, ‘I like you, I think you like me,'” she said. “It was very, very sweet. They were definitely flirting. They were really cute.”

Not too long after, Timberlake asked Biel out by ringing her up—a chivalrous act he learned from his stepdad and grandfather.

“I did it the old-fashioned way—by telephone,” Timberlake said at a press conference. “That’s something I learned from both my stepdad and my grandfather—that there is a thing called chivalry, and it doesn’t have to die with the birth of the internet. The way I see it, if you’re asking a girl out on a date, it’s only right to do it in a way that she can hear your voice. I had to be pretty persistent in order to get her to say yes. But I have a fair amount of tenacity, and if I want something I stick to it. And in the end, she agreed.”

Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber

Two years before they made their relationship red-carpet official, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber met through their representation. Bieber, who had his eye on Gomez, asked his manager, Scooter Braun, to introduce him to her. Braun called up Gomez’s mom, who was her manager at the time, and set the introduction up. “Actually, his manager called my mom, who’s my manager,” Gomez said in an interview with David Letterman.

The two developed a fast friendship, but it wasn’t until a while later that their amicable relationship evolved into something more. “He’s been in my life for so long, and it’s just nice to have someone that understands what you’re going through,” Gomez said.

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan

Like many celebrity couples, Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan fell in love while playing love interests. The two were shooting 2006’s “Step Up” when their onscreen romance blended in with real life. When they started flirting, Dewan was adamant with Tatum that their relationship had to be serious and more than a fling if he wanted to keep her.

“I said, ‘Well look, if you want to date other people and be free that’s totally fine. But we’re not gonna hang out and watch movies,’” Dewan said in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres. “‘You have to figure out what you want because I want a relationship.’”

So Tatum convinced her of his seriousness by showing up at her hotel room half-naked. “He said he had the chance to be free and he couldn’t stop thinking about me,” she said. “He’s in a sombrero, underwear, and Ugg boots and said, ‘Let’s do this.’”
However, the couple couldn’t keep their IRL romance a secret for long. Soon after, Dewan had to confess to the crew that Tatum was staying with her in her hotel room.  “It’s even worse because the next morning he was in my room and I go to set because I had an earlier call time,” she said. “I’m getting hair and makeup done and an hour goes by and the production assistants go, ‘We can’t find Channing. We don’t know where he is. He’s not in his room. We’ve banged on his door and called his room.’ And I called a PA over and said, ‘He’s in my room.’”

George Clooney and Amal Amaluddin

When George Clooney met his now-wife Amal Amaluddin, he was instantly smitten. “I thought she was beautiful, and I thought she was funny and obviously smart,” Clooney told The Hollywood Reporter. “[She] probably thought I was old.”

The two met when they crossed paths in Lake Cuomo in July 2013, where Clooney was staying. Amaluddin was just passing through with a friend on her way to Cannes, France. The two started off as friends, sending each other funny pictures, but eventually their relationship grew.

“She sent some pictures from when she was here, and we were writing each other, emailing, talking, mostly about what was going on in each other’s lives,” Clooney said. “And over a period of time, it became clear we were more than just friends.”

Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi

From the moment the couple met, Portia de Rossi knew she was in love with Ellen DeGeneres. But she couldn’t immediately admit to her feelings due to being closeted at the time and fearing for her career if she came out.

“[I knew Ellen was the one] when I first laid eyes on her, but it took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her because I was on ‘Ally McBeal’ at the time, and I was not living as an openly gay person,” she said in an interview with Oprah Winfrey. “I was closeted and very, very afraid that if I talked about being gay, it would be the end of my career, so I wasn’t about to date the most famous lesbian in the world.”

It wasn’t until years later when the two met again did De Rossi muster the confidence to come out and know that DeGeneres was the woman she had to be with for the rest of her life.
“I just walked over to say hello to her, and I couldn’t believe it, but she turned around and it was like an arrow was shot through my heart,” she said. “I felt weak at the knees, and I was overwhelmed with how I felt, but then it took me about 10 months to get the courage up to actually do anything about it.”

Colton Haynes and Jeff Leatham

Colton Haynes and Jeff Leatham were supposed to meet on a blind date set up by a mutual friend four years before they married, but the actor backed out because he wasn’t at the right place in his life.

“Jeff & I were supposed to meet 4 yrs ago through a set up date from our dear friend @valvogt,” Haynes wrote on Instagram. “I wasn’t in a very good place at the time & we lived in different places so we both decided not to meet (but we did do a little bit of internet stalking and I loved what I saw :)…”

The two didn’t meet face-to-face until years later when they stumbled upon each other at an airport in Paris. After Leatham carried Haynes’s bags onto their same flight, the two began passing love notes to each other, which was the start of their relationship.

“Flash to yrs later when we happened to randomly run into each other at the airport lounge in Paris where Jeff hit me with his bag & said “Hey punk…aren’t you Colton?” & after 10 seconds of literal love at first mtg…I responded “Hi Jeff” and couldn’t find words to say cause I was dumbstruck.

“So after he physically accosted me lol he then carried my bags to the plane where we sat just 3 rows away from each other.

“After passing post it notes back and forth & sending Champagne love letters…Jeff asked me to come cuddle with him on the plane & from that day on…my life has forever been changed.”

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian met at the Cavalieri Hotel in Rome on May 12, 2015. Williams was there to play in the Italian Open, while Ohanian, Reddit’s cofounder, was there for the Festival of Media Global conference. Williams was lounging at a table by the pool when Ohanian sat down near her. Irked that he didn’t sit at the plethora of other empty tables, Williams nudged her friend to make him leave by saying there was a rat at the table.

“This big guy comes and he just plops down at the table next to us, and I’m like, ‘Huh! All these tables and he’s sitting here?'” Williams told Vanity Fair. “We were trying to get him to move and get out of there. He kind of refuses and he looks at us. And he’s like, ‘Is there really a rat here?’”

The rest of the conversation went like this:
“No, we just don’t want you sitting there. We’re going to use that table.”
“I’m from Brooklyn. I see rats all the time.”
“Oh, you’re not afraid of rats?”
“No.”
After sparking up a romance that night, the stars fell in love, and two years later they were married.

Prince William and Kate Middleton

Despite the extravagant worldwide-televised wedding, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s love story is quite ordinary. They met in college in 2001 at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where they were living in the same residency hall studying art history. But before Middleton added Duchess to her name, she was actually a typical twentysomething looking for a job.

After college, around the time William and Kate were dating, she picked up a job as an accessories buyer for the British retailer Jigsaw. After a while, the now-duchess left Jigsaw and began dabbling in other career paths, like photography, marketing, and event planning, before eventually marrying William in 2011.