Forging a romantic connection with a potential partner can be thrilling and nerve-wracking all at once. After all, how can you truly know whether the spark means genuine compatibility?
Fortunately, experts in the field of love, dating and relationships have advice for those unsure whether they are experiencing the start of a lasting connection.
To find out what those looking for love should know about compatibility, the idea of “the one” and dating in general, we spoke to Nikki Lewis and Greta Tufvesson, the founders of The Bevy, a bespoke matchmaking service in New York City.
According to the co-founders, who pair potential partners without using pictures or last names, the most important step in finding love is going into it with an open mind.
If you are relying on dating apps or blind dates, this means refraining from researching a date before meeting for the first time.
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“A good rule of thumb is to have an open mind before even going on a first date,” Tufvesson told us. “Don’t judge or create preconceived notions of who this person is based on a Google search or gossip.”
Understanding what you should be looking for in terms of a romantic partner is also integral – as compatibility doesn’t mean finding someone who is the same as you.
“Compatibility is not about how similar you are, but more about how you complement each other,” Tufvesson explained. “Do you share fundamental goals and visions? If you’re just looking to date someone who is exactly like you, you put yourself at risk of boredom.”
In addition to keeping an open mind, Tufvesson suggests being willing to “learn about someone’s differences, and work towards a similar vision of what you want your life to look like”.
When you do find someone with whom you can have a lasting connection, Lewis said the relationship will have certain attributes, such as shared trust, “clear and honest communication,” patience, understanding, and lastly, fun.
“It takes a lot to make a relationship work and last, but if these fundamentals are in place then you’re in a good spot,” she said, adding: “Make sure you have a deeper connection that cultivates long-lasting happiness – like intellectual stimulation, empathy and respect.”
Alternatively, if you feel that you may not be compatible with a partner, there are certain signs you should look out for.
For example, if you notice that your relationship is sucking energy from you, it is likely because you are not a good fit for one another.
“Real connections give you energy,” Lewis explained. “If you don’t feel joy, excitement, or inspiration from your significant other, then it’s time to move on.”
It is also important to be wary of relationships that are based on “superficiality,” as these relationships can “feel good in the beginning, but can also be harmful,” according to Lewis.
If you do realise the person you thought was your soulmate isn’t for you, the good news is, despite what we’re taught in movies, “the one,” or the specific person you are meant to be with, doesn’t actually exist.
1/35 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – Mr & Mrs Smith (2005)
Who can forget the passionate fight scenes in Mr & Mrs Smith, as the onscreen spy couple who are contracted to kill one another? It was on this film set that Pitt and Jolie met and reportedly fell in love – though they both deny that there was any overlap between their relationship and Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston. The couple dubbed “Brangelina” shared six children together, got married in 2015 but separated in 2016.
Getty Images
2/35 Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1994)
The couple met auditioning for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1994, got married in 1997, and have been together ever since. They have two children together, Willow and Jaden.
Getty Images
3/35 Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn – Woman of the Year (1942)
Tracey famously remained married throughout his 25-year love affair with Hepburn, whom he met when filming Woman of the Year in 1942. “I’m a bit tall for you, Mr Tracy,” Hepburn observed. “Don’t worry,” a producer standing by responded. “He’ll cut you down to size.” They starred in nine movies together, struggling to upstage one another every time, but it was not until after Tracy’s wife died in 1983 that Hepburn publicly acknowledged her relationship with her Hollywood co-star.
Getty Images / Stringer
4/35 Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart – Twilight (2008)
The world went mad for Robert Pattinson. What can be more seductive than a good-looking vampire who then dates his co-star in real life? Pattinson and Stewart’s on-off relationship dominated the headlines after they met on the set of Twilight in 2008 while playing lovers Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. It all came to a head when paparazzi photos caught Stewart kissing her married Snow White director Rupert Saunders in 2012. Pattinson and Stewart briefly reconciled, but then split up for good in 2013.
Getty Images
5/35 Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky – Mother! (2017)
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence’s relationship with Darren Aronofsky took off when they met on set of his film Mother! in which Lawrence was cast in the lead role opposite Javier Bardem. But a year later, they broke up, with Lawrence citing the stresses of having a working relationship as the cause of the break-up. “We’d be on the tour together [and] I’d come back to the hotel and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is a movie. He comes back from the tour and that’s all he wants to talk about.” “I get it,” she continued. “It’s his baby. He wrote it. He conceived it. He directed it. So I was doing double duty of trying to be a supportive partner while also being like ‘Can I please for the love of God not think about Mother! for one second?’”
Rex
6/35 Freida Pinto and Dev Patel – Slumgdog Millionaire (2008)
The couple who fell in love on the set of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire in 2008 and embarked on a six-year relationship after rising to fame together. They both went as far as to describe one another as “soul mates”, while Slumdog co-star Anil Kapoor said the couple shared “magic chemistry”, but sadly, they didn’t last. Pinto admitted that she was having an early “mid-life crisis” and needed to learn how to love herself.
7/35 Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz – Dream House (2010)
Although Weisz and the Bond star had known each other for years, their romance reportedly started on the Canadian film set of the thriller Dream House, in which they play a married couple in a haunted house. Although the couple at first denied it, Weisz then split from her partner of nine years, Darren Aronofsky, while Craig split from his fiancée of seven years, Satsuki Mitchell, an American film producer. In 2011, they tied the knot, and they had their first child together in 2018, when Weisz was 48.
Getty Images
8/35 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – Cleopatra (1963)
The turbulent relationship between Taylor and Burton is one of the most infamous in Hollywood history. It all started on set of the epic Hollywood movie Cleopatra, when they played the lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher and Burton to Sybil Williams but they tied the knot in 1964, divorced in 1974, then married again in 1975 and divorced in 1976. That’s a lot of wedding presents and lawyer bills.
Getty
9/35 Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder – Edward Scissorhands (1990)
The Hollywood stars famously dated between 1989 and 1993, after meeting on the set of Edward Scissorhands. Depp was so in love with his onscreen love interest while filming the Tim Burton film that he got the tattoo “Winona Forever”. When the two split up in 1993, he had the tattoo changed to “Wino Forever”. Apparently Hairspray director John Waters, was ordained as a minister just to officiate their wedding, but he talked them out of it, as Ryder, then aged 19, was so young.
10/35 Mia Goth and Shia Lebeouf – Nymphomaniac (2012)
Goth, a then-unknown British actor, met Hollywood star Lebeouf on the set of Lars von Trier’s sexually provocative film Nymphomaniac. Eventually, the couple had a “commitment ceremony” in 2016 at an Elvis Presley-themed chapel in Las Vegas and promised to adopt one another’s hound dogs. The wedding was live-streamed and picked up by TMZ (apparently unbeknown to Shia). Lebeouf went on to date FKA twigs, whom he met on the film set of his own film Honey Boy.
Getty Images
11/35 Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz – Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008)
This Hollywood couple got together on set of the Woody Allen film. Bardem played the artist Juan Antonio, who is attracted to both Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), while still married to his unstable ex-wife, played by Cruz. They first met while shooting Jamon Jamon in 1992, but the path of true love was a long one. They were married in 2010 and have two children together, Leo and Luna.
12/35 Liam Hemworth and Miley Cyrus – The Last Song (2010)
Hemsworth and Cyrus first fell in love while shooting the coming-of-age teen romance, which was directed by Nicholas Sparks. Cyrus played the rebellious teenager Ronnie who falls in love with Hemsworth’s beach volleyball player Will. After a three-year, on-off relationship, they got engaged in 2012, but separated in 2013. Then, in 2016 they got back together again. Finally it all seemed rosy when they got married in 2018. However, this year they split up, and Cyrus is now dating musician Cody Simpson.
AFP/Getty Images
13/35 Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart – To Have and Have Not (1944)
When Bacall and Bogart met on the set of To Have and Have Not, she was 19 and he was 45, and with his third wife. But the on-set chemistry was instant. The sultry Bacall was making her film debut as Bogart’s love interest – a role that catapulted her to stardom. The pair began a romantic relationship a few weeks into filming it and never looked back She continued to star with Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). They married in 1945 and stayed together until his death of esophageal cancer in 1957.
14/35 Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Apparently it was love at first sight for Ledger, who met Williams on set of the Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain. The central gay romance in the film was between Ledger’s Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist. But Williams played Ledger’s character’s long-time fiancée Alma Beers. In real-life, the couple, who split-up in 2007, had a child together. Ledger tragically died of an accidental overdose in 2008.
Getty / Evan Agostini
15/35 Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin – True Blood (2014)
It was also love at first sight for Moyer, who met Paquin during a screen test for the hit HBO vampire show. “By day three or four – oh, this is going to sound so syrupy – but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her,” said Moyer. “It was within seconds, really, and it just became a thing.” They married in 2010 and had twins, Charlie and Poppy, in 2012.
Getty Images for EJAF
16/35 Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams – The Notebook (2004)
As much a part of cinematic lore as Burton and Taylor, Gosling and McAdams initially got off to a rocky start when filming The Notebook – so much so that Gosling wanted to read an off-camera scene with a different actress. They managed to get through the film, and became one of Hollywood’s favourite real-life couples for the next three years – until they split in 2007.
Warner Bros
17/35 Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied – Black Swan (2010)
Portman fell in love with her French dancer husband on the set of the twisted Darren Aronofsky thriller Black Swan in 2009, which he choreographed and danced in. They got married two years later and have two children. Just after giving birth to her first child with him, she dedicated her Best Actress Oscar for the film to her “beautiful love, Benjamin, who has now given me my most important role in my life”.
Getty
18/35 Kit Harington and Rose Leslie – Game of Thrones (2012)
Harrington and Leslie went from on-screen couple to real-life husband and wife. The former Game of Thrones co-stars reportedly fell in love on the set of the show’s second season in 2012. Leslie played Ygritte, a wilding who falls in love with Harrington’s character Jon Snow. Harrington said: “I met my wife in this show, so in that way it gave me my future family and my life from here on in.” The couple were on-off until they got engaged in 2017 and married the following year in Scotland.
AFP/Getty Images
19/35 Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Branagh allegedly had an affair with Bonham Carter while acting alongside her in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which he directed. Their union famously ended his six-year marriage to Emma Thompson. After Branagh’s divorce from Thompson in 1995, the couple had a public romance until 1999.
Channel 4
20/35 Lauren Morelli and Samira Wiley – Orange is the New Black (2014)
Writer Samira Wiley and actor Lauren Morelli met on the set of Orange is the New Black in 2014, when they began dating. They were married in 2017.
Getty Images
21/35 Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell – Swing Shift (1984)
One of Hollywood’s longest-standing couples – they have been together now for over 35 years – fell in love on the set of Swing Shift in 1984. Although they met in 1966 on set of a Disney movie, it was during the filming of this World War II romance film that Russell said to her, “Man, you’ve got a great figure.” Not the most romantic of sentences, but it did the trick. The couple have vowed not to marry, but they have a son together, as well as Hawn’s two children from her marriage to Bill Hudson. Hawn said: “I like waking up every day and seeing that he is there and knowing that I have a choice. There is really no reason to marry.”
Getty
22/35 Clark Gable and Carole Lombard – Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1924)
While their first encounter was on the set of 1924’s Ben Hur, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard weren’t formally introduced until 1931. They married eight years later and tried to live a simple life, away from Hollywood, on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Tragically, Lombard was killed in a plane crash in 1942. Her faithful dachshund, Commissioner, didn’t leave Gable’s side after her death.
George Hurrell, Courtesy of the Kobal Collection
23/35 Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck – Daredevil (2003)
Love is complicated. Garner and Affleck met while filming 2003’s Daredevil and shortly afterwards started dating publically in 2004 after Affleck had split from Jennifer Lopez. They had three children together and then, after rumours of Affleck’s affair emerged, the couple split in 2015 and divorced in 2018. But apparently they still share a “special relationship”and enjoy co-parenting their kids.
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24/35 Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev – The Vampire Diaries (2009)
Dobrev played Elena Gilbert, a young orphan who falls in love with vampire Damon Salvatore, played by Somerhalder, in the supernatural teen drama. Soon, rumours of a real-life romance between them surfaced, which excited fans greatly, and it was confirmed by the couple in 2011. Sadly, they split up in 2013. Bizarrely, considering the vampire theme, Somerhalder went on to marry Twilight actress Nikki Reed in 2015.
25/35 Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds – The Green Lantern (2011)
The now-married couple met while filming the superhero movie The Green Lantern in 2010. Reynolds was married at the time to Scarlett Johannson and Lively was dating her Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley. They claimed not to have started dating until 2011, when Reynold’s divorce to Johannson was finalised. They have just had their third child together.
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26/35 Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan – Step Up (2006)
They were the golden couple after meeting on set of the dance movie Step Up in 2006, where sparks started flying as early as the audition. But after nearly nine years of marriage, they announced their split in 2018. Their joint statement said: “We fell deeply in love so many years ago and have had a magical journey together. Absolutely nothing has changed about how much we love one another, but love is a beautiful adventure that is taking us on different paths for now.”
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27/35 Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel – The Apartment (1996)
The former Italian model turned actor who shot to fame in The Matrix Reloaded and The Passion of Christ met French actor Vincent Cassel on the set of Gilles Mimouni’s film, The Apartment. Cassell plays a recently engaged man who sees a former girlfriend (played by Belluci), and becomes obsessed with meeting her again. The former couple had a 14-year marriage and two daughters, before announcing their divorce in 2013.
Studio Canal
28/35 Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier – Fire Over England (1937)
One of the most legendary Hollywood love stories began when Laurence Olivier saw Vivien Leigh in the 1935 play The Mask of Virtue. Olivier stopped to congratulate the rising star, and the pair – both married at the time – took an immediate liking to one another. They began an affair, keeping it secret from the public, and eventually married in 1940 after receiving divorces from their previous partners. However, Leigh’s developing mental illness and Olivier’s rising stardom caused tension between the couple, and they divorced in 1960.
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29/35 Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy – Evening (2006)
Claire Danes, who is best known for playing Carrie Mathison in Homeland, fell in love with English actor Hugh Dancy while filming the ensemble drama Evening in 2006. They got married three years later in France. In a 2014 interview, Danes said of her husband: “He is a gentleman. Downton Abbey-esque? I guess. He was raised well, went to great schools, he’s a clever guy and he makes me giggle… I scored. I lucked out, big-time!”
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30/35 Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow – Seven (1994)
These two actors began dating in 1994 after meeting each other on the set of David Fincher’s Seven. Pitt played a detective who had recently moved to New York City with his wife Tracy (played by Paltrow) to track down a serial killer. Two years later, Pitt proposed to Paltrow, but their engagement was called off in 1997.
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31/35 Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes – The Place Beyond the Pines (2011)
The famously private couple got together during filming for The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011, and have since had two children together.
Getty Images / Sonia Recchia
32/35 Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman – Days of Thunder (1990)
The couple fell in love during the casting of Days of Thunder. Kidman said: “He basically swept me off my feet. I fell madly, passionately in love.” They got married in 1990, adopted two children and then divorced in 2001. The reasons for the split are not clear but his commitment to Scientology may have been a factor, and Kidman has admitted that she felt as though she was living in his shadow.
AFP/Getty Images
33/35 Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield – The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Emma Stone Andrew Garfield began dating on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 and dated for four years. They remain good friends.
GETTY
34/35 Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn – The Break-Up (2005)
After her divorce from Brad Pitt, Aniston started dating Vince Vaughn while they filmed The Break-Up together in 2005. Their own breakup happened a year later. She then met her future husband Justin Theroux while on set of Wanderlust in 2011. They married in 2015, but divorced last year.
35/35 Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender – The Light Between Oceans (2016)
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are staunchly private about their relationship. What we do know is that they met on the set of Derek Cianfrance’s romantic drama, and Fassbender described their chemistry as “immediate” – “I said early on, ‘This girl frightens me.’ She’s so fierce and brave… it kind of bowled me over.” They married in a private ceremony in Spain in 2017, and now reside in Lisbon, Portugal.
Getty
1/35 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – Mr & Mrs Smith (2005)
Who can forget the passionate fight scenes in Mr & Mrs Smith, as the onscreen spy couple who are contracted to kill one another? It was on this film set that Pitt and Jolie met and reportedly fell in love – though they both deny that there was any overlap between their relationship and Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston. The couple dubbed “Brangelina” shared six children together, got married in 2015 but separated in 2016.
Getty Images
2/35 Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1994)
The couple met auditioning for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1994, got married in 1997, and have been together ever since. They have two children together, Willow and Jaden.
Getty Images
3/35 Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn – Woman of the Year (1942)
Tracey famously remained married throughout his 25-year love affair with Hepburn, whom he met when filming Woman of the Year in 1942. “I’m a bit tall for you, Mr Tracy,” Hepburn observed. “Don’t worry,” a producer standing by responded. “He’ll cut you down to size.” They starred in nine movies together, struggling to upstage one another every time, but it was not until after Tracy’s wife died in 1983 that Hepburn publicly acknowledged her relationship with her Hollywood co-star.
Getty Images / Stringer
4/35 Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart – Twilight (2008)
The world went mad for Robert Pattinson. What can be more seductive than a good-looking vampire who then dates his co-star in real life? Pattinson and Stewart’s on-off relationship dominated the headlines after they met on the set of Twilight in 2008 while playing lovers Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. It all came to a head when paparazzi photos caught Stewart kissing her married Snow White director Rupert Saunders in 2012. Pattinson and Stewart briefly reconciled, but then split up for good in 2013.
Getty Images
5/35 Jennifer Lawrence and Darren Aronofsky – Mother! (2017)
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence’s relationship with Darren Aronofsky took off when they met on set of his film Mother! in which Lawrence was cast in the lead role opposite Javier Bardem. But a year later, they broke up, with Lawrence citing the stresses of having a working relationship as the cause of the break-up. “We’d be on the tour together [and] I’d come back to the hotel and the last thing I want to talk about or think about is a movie. He comes back from the tour and that’s all he wants to talk about.” “I get it,” she continued. “It’s his baby. He wrote it. He conceived it. He directed it. So I was doing double duty of trying to be a supportive partner while also being like ‘Can I please for the love of God not think about Mother! for one second?’”
Rex
6/35 Freida Pinto and Dev Patel – Slumgdog Millionaire (2008)
The couple who fell in love on the set of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire in 2008 and embarked on a six-year relationship after rising to fame together. They both went as far as to describe one another as “soul mates”, while Slumdog co-star Anil Kapoor said the couple shared “magic chemistry”, but sadly, they didn’t last. Pinto admitted that she was having an early “mid-life crisis” and needed to learn how to love herself.
7/35 Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz – Dream House (2010)
Although Weisz and the Bond star had known each other for years, their romance reportedly started on the Canadian film set of the thriller Dream House, in which they play a married couple in a haunted house. Although the couple at first denied it, Weisz then split from her partner of nine years, Darren Aronofsky, while Craig split from his fiancée of seven years, Satsuki Mitchell, an American film producer. In 2011, they tied the knot, and they had their first child together in 2018, when Weisz was 48.
Getty Images
8/35 Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – Cleopatra (1963)
The turbulent relationship between Taylor and Burton is one of the most infamous in Hollywood history. It all started on set of the epic Hollywood movie Cleopatra, when they played the lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher and Burton to Sybil Williams but they tied the knot in 1964, divorced in 1974, then married again in 1975 and divorced in 1976. That’s a lot of wedding presents and lawyer bills.
Getty
9/35 Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder – Edward Scissorhands (1990)
The Hollywood stars famously dated between 1989 and 1993, after meeting on the set of Edward Scissorhands. Depp was so in love with his onscreen love interest while filming the Tim Burton film that he got the tattoo “Winona Forever”. When the two split up in 1993, he had the tattoo changed to “Wino Forever”. Apparently Hairspray director John Waters, was ordained as a minister just to officiate their wedding, but he talked them out of it, as Ryder, then aged 19, was so young.
10/35 Mia Goth and Shia Lebeouf – Nymphomaniac (2012)
Goth, a then-unknown British actor, met Hollywood star Lebeouf on the set of Lars von Trier’s sexually provocative film Nymphomaniac. Eventually, the couple had a “commitment ceremony” in 2016 at an Elvis Presley-themed chapel in Las Vegas and promised to adopt one another’s hound dogs. The wedding was live-streamed and picked up by TMZ (apparently unbeknown to Shia). Lebeouf went on to date FKA twigs, whom he met on the film set of his own film Honey Boy.
Getty Images
11/35 Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz – Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008)
This Hollywood couple got together on set of the Woody Allen film. Bardem played the artist Juan Antonio, who is attracted to both Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), while still married to his unstable ex-wife, played by Cruz. They first met while shooting Jamon Jamon in 1992, but the path of true love was a long one. They were married in 2010 and have two children together, Leo and Luna.
12/35 Liam Hemworth and Miley Cyrus – The Last Song (2010)
Hemsworth and Cyrus first fell in love while shooting the coming-of-age teen romance, which was directed by Nicholas Sparks. Cyrus played the rebellious teenager Ronnie who falls in love with Hemsworth’s beach volleyball player Will. After a three-year, on-off relationship, they got engaged in 2012, but separated in 2013. Then, in 2016 they got back together again. Finally it all seemed rosy when they got married in 2018. However, this year they split up, and Cyrus is now dating musician Cody Simpson.
AFP/Getty Images
13/35 Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart – To Have and Have Not (1944)
When Bacall and Bogart met on the set of To Have and Have Not, she was 19 and he was 45, and with his third wife. But the on-set chemistry was instant. The sultry Bacall was making her film debut as Bogart’s love interest – a role that catapulted her to stardom. The pair began a romantic relationship a few weeks into filming it and never looked back She continued to star with Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). They married in 1945 and stayed together until his death of esophageal cancer in 1957.
14/35 Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Apparently it was love at first sight for Ledger, who met Williams on set of the Oscar-winning film Brokeback Mountain. The central gay romance in the film was between Ledger’s Ennis Del Mar and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jack Twist. But Williams played Ledger’s character’s long-time fiancée Alma Beers. In real-life, the couple, who split-up in 2007, had a child together. Ledger tragically died of an accidental overdose in 2008.
Getty / Evan Agostini
15/35 Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin – True Blood (2014)
It was also love at first sight for Moyer, who met Paquin during a screen test for the hit HBO vampire show. “By day three or four – oh, this is going to sound so syrupy – but I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her,” said Moyer. “It was within seconds, really, and it just became a thing.” They married in 2010 and had twins, Charlie and Poppy, in 2012.
Getty Images for EJAF
16/35 Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams – The Notebook (2004)
As much a part of cinematic lore as Burton and Taylor, Gosling and McAdams initially got off to a rocky start when filming The Notebook – so much so that Gosling wanted to read an off-camera scene with a different actress. They managed to get through the film, and became one of Hollywood’s favourite real-life couples for the next three years – until they split in 2007.
Warner Bros
17/35 Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied – Black Swan (2010)
Portman fell in love with her French dancer husband on the set of the twisted Darren Aronofsky thriller Black Swan in 2009, which he choreographed and danced in. They got married two years later and have two children. Just after giving birth to her first child with him, she dedicated her Best Actress Oscar for the film to her “beautiful love, Benjamin, who has now given me my most important role in my life”.
Getty
18/35 Kit Harington and Rose Leslie – Game of Thrones (2012)
Harrington and Leslie went from on-screen couple to real-life husband and wife. The former Game of Thrones co-stars reportedly fell in love on the set of the show’s second season in 2012. Leslie played Ygritte, a wilding who falls in love with Harrington’s character Jon Snow. Harrington said: “I met my wife in this show, so in that way it gave me my future family and my life from here on in.” The couple were on-off until they got engaged in 2017 and married the following year in Scotland.
AFP/Getty Images
19/35 Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh – Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Branagh allegedly had an affair with Bonham Carter while acting alongside her in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which he directed. Their union famously ended his six-year marriage to Emma Thompson. After Branagh’s divorce from Thompson in 1995, the couple had a public romance until 1999.
Channel 4
20/35 Lauren Morelli and Samira Wiley – Orange is the New Black (2014)
Writer Samira Wiley and actor Lauren Morelli met on the set of Orange is the New Black in 2014, when they began dating. They were married in 2017.
Getty Images
21/35 Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell – Swing Shift (1984)
One of Hollywood’s longest-standing couples – they have been together now for over 35 years – fell in love on the set of Swing Shift in 1984. Although they met in 1966 on set of a Disney movie, it was during the filming of this World War II romance film that Russell said to her, “Man, you’ve got a great figure.” Not the most romantic of sentences, but it did the trick. The couple have vowed not to marry, but they have a son together, as well as Hawn’s two children from her marriage to Bill Hudson. Hawn said: “I like waking up every day and seeing that he is there and knowing that I have a choice. There is really no reason to marry.”
Getty
22/35 Clark Gable and Carole Lombard – Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1924)
While their first encounter was on the set of 1924’s Ben Hur, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard weren’t formally introduced until 1931. They married eight years later and tried to live a simple life, away from Hollywood, on a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Tragically, Lombard was killed in a plane crash in 1942. Her faithful dachshund, Commissioner, didn’t leave Gable’s side after her death.
George Hurrell, Courtesy of the Kobal Collection
23/35 Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck – Daredevil (2003)
Love is complicated. Garner and Affleck met while filming 2003’s Daredevil and shortly afterwards started dating publically in 2004 after Affleck had split from Jennifer Lopez. They had three children together and then, after rumours of Affleck’s affair emerged, the couple split in 2015 and divorced in 2018. But apparently they still share a “special relationship”and enjoy co-parenting their kids.
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24/35 Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev – The Vampire Diaries (2009)
Dobrev played Elena Gilbert, a young orphan who falls in love with vampire Damon Salvatore, played by Somerhalder, in the supernatural teen drama. Soon, rumours of a real-life romance between them surfaced, which excited fans greatly, and it was confirmed by the couple in 2011. Sadly, they split up in 2013. Bizarrely, considering the vampire theme, Somerhalder went on to marry Twilight actress Nikki Reed in 2015.
25/35 Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds – The Green Lantern (2011)
The now-married couple met while filming the superhero movie The Green Lantern in 2010. Reynolds was married at the time to Scarlett Johannson and Lively was dating her Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley. They claimed not to have started dating until 2011, when Reynold’s divorce to Johannson was finalised. They have just had their third child together.
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26/35 Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan – Step Up (2006)
They were the golden couple after meeting on set of the dance movie Step Up in 2006, where sparks started flying as early as the audition. But after nearly nine years of marriage, they announced their split in 2018. Their joint statement said: “We fell deeply in love so many years ago and have had a magical journey together. Absolutely nothing has changed about how much we love one another, but love is a beautiful adventure that is taking us on different paths for now.”
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27/35 Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel – The Apartment (1996)
The former Italian model turned actor who shot to fame in The Matrix Reloaded and The Passion of Christ met French actor Vincent Cassel on the set of Gilles Mimouni’s film, The Apartment. Cassell plays a recently engaged man who sees a former girlfriend (played by Belluci), and becomes obsessed with meeting her again. The former couple had a 14-year marriage and two daughters, before announcing their divorce in 2013.
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28/35 Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier – Fire Over England (1937)
One of the most legendary Hollywood love stories began when Laurence Olivier saw Vivien Leigh in the 1935 play The Mask of Virtue. Olivier stopped to congratulate the rising star, and the pair – both married at the time – took an immediate liking to one another. They began an affair, keeping it secret from the public, and eventually married in 1940 after receiving divorces from their previous partners. However, Leigh’s developing mental illness and Olivier’s rising stardom caused tension between the couple, and they divorced in 1960.
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29/35 Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy – Evening (2006)
Claire Danes, who is best known for playing Carrie Mathison in Homeland, fell in love with English actor Hugh Dancy while filming the ensemble drama Evening in 2006. They got married three years later in France. In a 2014 interview, Danes said of her husband: “He is a gentleman. Downton Abbey-esque? I guess. He was raised well, went to great schools, he’s a clever guy and he makes me giggle… I scored. I lucked out, big-time!”
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30/35 Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow – Seven (1994)
These two actors began dating in 1994 after meeting each other on the set of David Fincher’s Seven. Pitt played a detective who had recently moved to New York City with his wife Tracy (played by Paltrow) to track down a serial killer. Two years later, Pitt proposed to Paltrow, but their engagement was called off in 1997.
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31/35 Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes – The Place Beyond the Pines (2011)
The famously private couple got together during filming for The Place Beyond the Pines in 2011, and have since had two children together.
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32/35 Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman – Days of Thunder (1990)
The couple fell in love during the casting of Days of Thunder. Kidman said: “He basically swept me off my feet. I fell madly, passionately in love.” They got married in 1990, adopted two children and then divorced in 2001. The reasons for the split are not clear but his commitment to Scientology may have been a factor, and Kidman has admitted that she felt as though she was living in his shadow.
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33/35 Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield – The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
Emma Stone Andrew Garfield began dating on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 and dated for four years. They remain good friends.
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34/35 Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn – The Break-Up (2005)
After her divorce from Brad Pitt, Aniston started dating Vince Vaughn while they filmed The Break-Up together in 2005. Their own breakup happened a year later. She then met her future husband Justin Theroux while on set of Wanderlust in 2011. They married in 2015, but divorced last year.
35/35 Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender – The Light Between Oceans (2016)
Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are staunchly private about their relationship. What we do know is that they met on the set of Derek Cianfrance’s romantic drama, and Fassbender described their chemistry as “immediate” – “I said early on, ‘This girl frightens me.’ She’s so fierce and brave… it kind of bowled me over.” They married in a private ceremony in Spain in 2017, and now reside in Lisbon, Portugal.
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“The idea of having one and only one soulmate is an unrealistic notion,” Lewis said. “We live in a huge world. Your perfect soulmate could speak a different language and live on a different continent – but that’s not a realistic working relationship.
“So no, there isn’t just one right person out there made for you, there could be many or a few wonderful matches.”
Researchers previously found that having similarities with the person you are dating isn’t as important as most people think. Instead, finding a person who is “nice” is what matters, according to the 2019 study.
“People invest a lot in finding someone who’s compatible, but our research says that may not be the end all be all,” said Bill Chopik, associate professor of psychology and director of Michigan State University’s Close Relationships Lab. “Instead, people may want to ask: ‘Are they a nice person?’ Do they have a lot of anxiety?’ Those things matter way more than the fact that two people are introverts and end up together.”
Overall, researchers said that even among couples who share similar personalities, having a partner who is “conscientious and nice leads to higher levels of relationship satisfaction”.
