Romance on the Set



A couple falls in love while working on a movie or TV show or album or tour together (sometimes another work), possibly even getting married and/or having kids. Seems to have a high breakup rate, but there are some long-lasting relationships that started this way.

What is actually being filmed is largely irrelevant. They're often a couple onscreen as well—when you spend all day pretending to be in love with someone, you may end up Becoming the Mask. However, it doesn't always happen that way. The point of the trope is that behind the scenes the two fall for each other.

The Muse is a Sub-Trope, which is about a male movie director falling in love with his lead actress. Cast Incest is another subtrope, namely the first type where the couple met while playing relatives, which adds a level of Squick before further thought reveals that it's no different from any other role.

In live theatre circles, the phenomenon is known as a "showmance."

Compare Actor Shipping, where the fans want this to happen.

Film

 * Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz on the set of Dream House. This led to Weisz's breakup with Darren Aronofsky and Craig's breaking off his engagement. Weisz and Craig married a few months later.
 * Director Tim Burton met his current partner Helena Bonham Carter during the filming of the 2001 Planet of the Apes. They currently live in England with a son and a daughter.
 * Prior to her relationship with Burton, Helena Bonham Carter was in a relationship with Kenneth Branagh, with whom she became involved during the filming of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
 * Shown in the picture, Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal fell in love while filming The Fountainhead. But Cooper was married at the time (and divorce was not so easy then), so this was doomed from the start.
 * Tom Hanks met Rita Wilson while filming Bosom Buddies, but they fell in love while filming Volunteers.
 * Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez started dating while filming Gigli and the film was rewritten to take advantage of that. Didn't turn out well for the relationship or the movie.
 * Affleck had better luck with Jennifer Garner while filming Daredevil. As of 2017 they're divorced, but they stayed married for a decade (which is a very long time by Hollywood standards) and remain amicable for the sake of their three children.
 * Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward fell in love while filming The Long Hot Summer. They married soon after and remained so until Newman's death in 2008. They are still cited today as one of the rare examples of a Hollywood marriage that actually lasts.
 * The two leads of Space Mutiny, the alleged sci-fi pastiche which worked so well that Mystery Science Theater 3000 did an episode about it, are still married after falling in love while filming it.
 * Charlie Chaplin appears to have had affairs with or married several of his co-stars.
 * Angelina Jolie with Jonny Lee Miller on Hackers, with Billy Bob Thornton on Pushing Tin, and with Brad Pitt on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The last one was particularly scandalous, as Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time.
 * Brad Pitt himself has a history of dating co-stars.
 * Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux on the set of Wanderlust, which effectively ended Justin's relationship with his long-term girlfriend.
 * Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during Cleopatra. Popular opinion says their relationship killed all of the on-screen chemistry.
 * Paul Hogan met his wife on the set of Crocodile Dundee. She was his co-star, Linda Kozlowski. His wife at the time (Noeleen Hogan) was not pleased.
 * Paul and Linda are still Happily Married to this day though.
 * John Travolta and Kelly Preston got married a few years after filming The Experts.
 * Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunder.
 * Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, in Bull Durham.
 * Warren Beatty and Annette Bening married shortly after Bugsy.
 * Beatty had previously dated co-stars, including Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass), Goldie Hawn (Shampoo), Diane Keaton (Reds) and Madonna (Dick Tracy).
 * According to the DVD commentary of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, not only did the actors playing the parents end up getting married, but Matthew Broderick was dating Jennifer Grey while the movie was being filmed.
 * Humphrey Bogart and a 19-year-old Lauren Bacall, To Have And Have Not. They called each other by their nicknames from the film in Real Life from then on, as well. (For example, Bogart called Bacall "Slim".)
 * That was a romance that did last though; their marriage only ended when Bogart died of cancer.
 * Before that, Bogart met and married his costar in Marked Woman, Mayo Methot. He left her for Bacall.
 * Drew Barrymore and Tom Green from the first ~Charlie's Angels~ movie.
 * Also, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long dated for awhile after making He's Just Not That Into You. They're still good friends.
 * Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova on Once. They've since amicably split.
 * Jessica Alba met her husband Cash Warren on the set of Fantastic Four. As of this writing, they have two children together.
 * Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams in Brokeback Mountain.
 * Diane Keaton and Al Pacino met during The Godfather, but didn't start dating until a few years later. They were on-and-off through the 70s and 80s before eventually breaking up for real.
 * Scott Wolf and Alyssa Milano dated for a while after filming the Double Dragon movie.
 * Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart of the Twilight movie, much to the delight (and debate) of tabloids.
 * According to Rob, he had a crush on Kristen and getting the chance to work with her was the main reason he signed up for the movie. (And he was probably hoping to invoke this trope.)
 * David Arquette and Courteney Cox began dating while filming the first Scream movie, were engaged during the second, and were married by the third. (And now separated by the fourth, but still, that's over a decade there.)
 * Somewhere between this and The Muse are Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, who met on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
 * Ewan McGregor met his wife on the set of Kavanagh QC where she was working as a designer.
 * Peter Facinelli and Jennie Garth met on the set of the Made for TV Movie An Unfinished Affair in 1996. They got married in 2001, had three daughters, and filed for divorce in 2012. It's interesting since her character in the movie only struck up a relationship with his character to make his character's father jealous.
 * Zach Braff and Natalie Portman dated during and shortly after making Garden State together. Braff also served as Writer and Director, so it's not unreasonable to assume that he cast her hoping for this result.
 * Braff also dated Mandy Moore, who was in a handful of Scrubs episodes as his girlfriend.
 * Natalie Portman had a later romance on the set of Black Swan with the film's choreographer Benjamin Millepied. As of this writing, they're engaged and have a son together.
 * Most couples in Philippine show business end up together.
 * Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar met on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer, but didn't start dating until a few years later. They've been happily married since 2002.
 * Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe on the set Proof Of Life, which contributed to her divorce from her previous romance on two sets, Dennis Quaid.
 * Russell Crowe met his future wife on the set of The Crossing in 1990, but they didn't get together right away, and didn't get married until 2003.
 * Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy dated after filming Just Married together. He broke up with her to get with his now-ex-wife Demi Moore.
 * Jeff Bridges met his wife while filming Rancho Deluxe. The film was shot on an actual ranch where the future Mrs. Bridges was working as a maid, which makes this sort of a real live Cinderella story.
 * Vincent Price and Coral Brown, on the set of Theater of Blood. Particularly ironic, given that he electrocutes her to death in the film.
 * Ioan Gruffudd and Alice Evans met on the set of 102 Dalmatians, started dating, and are currently married.
 * Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan met while filming Step Up, and are also now married.
 * Tobey Maguire had a couple. First, he and Kirsten Dunst hooked up while filming Spider-Man. Then, he met his jewelry designer wife on the set of Sea Biscuit
 * Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, stars of the Spider-Man reboot are dating.
 * Jensen Ackles and Danneel Harris, who co-starred in Ten Inch Hero, became engaged, and eventually married.
 * Dev Patel and Freida Pinto became a couple while filming Slumdog Millionaire. Pinto was engaged to someone else at the time, but broke it off.
 * Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth have been dating since filming The Last Song.
 * Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn during Woman of the Year.
 * Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith met on the set of Two Much and later got married. Ironically, in the movie, she was his Romantic False Lead.
 * Robert Downey, Jr. met Susan Levin while filming Gothika, which she produced. The two later married in 2005.
 * Ariana Grande met her former boyfriend Graham Phillips in 13.
 * Tia Mowry met her husband while they were making Hollywood Horror.
 * Sorsha and Madmartigan in Willow hooked up in real life. Val Kilmer married Johann Walley, who added the hyphenate "Kilmer" to her name. They had two kids together but divorced after a couple of years.
 * Peter Lorre and Kaaren Verne on the set of All Through The Night, but both were married to other people at the time. They eventually got together a few years later, but that marriage only lasted five years (the divorce was amicable, however).
 * Harry Hamlin and Ursula Andress during the original Clash of the Titans.
 * Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh met and fell in love on the set of Fire Over England.
 * Claire Danes: twice. First with Billy Crudup. They met while dubbing Princess Mononoke, and started dating after filming Stage Beauty (causing a lot of controversy because Crudup left his pregnant girlfriend Mary-Louise Parker for Claire). The two later broke up, and Claire married Hugh Dancy after filming Evening.
 * Shia LaBeouf and co-star Carey Mulligan on the set of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
 * Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams during The Notebook.
 * And then Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen during Midnight in Paris
 * Ryan Phillippe dated several co-stars, and fathered a child with one.
 * Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of Rendition.
 * While filming The Turning Point, James Mitchell, who played the choreographer, partnered up with the film's costume designer, Albert Wolsky. They were still together when Mitchell died over three decades later.
 * Laura Dern has dated a number of her co-stars, including Kyle MacLachlan, Jeff Goldblum, and Billy Bob Thornton.
 * Even though they didn't share any scenes whatsoever, Eli Roth and Rosario Dawson briefly dated while filming Death Proof.
 * Julia Roberts was briefly engaged to two of her co-stars: Dylan McDermott after filming Steel Magnolias and Keifer Sutherland after Flatliners. Then she hooked up with cameraman Danny Moder on the set of The Mexican. Even though she was dating someone and he was married at the time, they ended up getting married a couple of years later and are still together.
 * Jim Carrey met his second wife, Lauren Holly, when she played his one-sided romantic interest in Dumb and Dumber. They were married for about two years. He later dated another on-screen love interest, Renee Zellweger. They dated for roughly a year.
 * In order to increase the realism, the director of Time After Time kept Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen from meeting until the scene when their characters did. It worked better than he expected; they fell in love while filming, married, and then divorced about a decade later.
 * Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick met during the PBS American Playhouse production of Lemon Sky and married the following year.
 * According to Shia Lebeouf, he and Megan Fox hooked up while filming Transformers.
 * Jamie Campbell Bower and Bonnie Wright are currently engaged after working on Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
 * Pauly Shore and Kylie Minogue on the set of Bio-Dome.
 * Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz got together after making Vicky Cristina Barcelona and are now married with a son. Before that, Penelope had a relationship with Tom Cruise after the two of them worked on Vanilla Sky together.
 * Taylor Lautner has had a couple: He dated Taylor Swift after the two of them filmed Valentine's Day and then he and Lily Collins briefly dated after filming Abduction.
 * Kate Hudson divorced her current husband and got together with Owen Wilson while filming You, Me and Dupree.
 * Liev Schrieber and Naomi Watts got together during the making of The Painted Veil; they're still together and have two kids.
 * While filming Underworld, Kate Beckinsale split from partner (and co-star) Michael Sheen to hook up with the director, Len Wiseman. Beckinsale is now Happily Married to Wiseman and has a healthy relationship with Sheen, the father of her daughter.
 * Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively got together while making Green Lantern.
 * Jennifer Connelly met Paul Bettany on the set of A Beautiful Mind. They're still married.
 * Keira Knightley and Rupert Friend dated for a few years after making Pride and Prejudice together.
 * Roy Rogers and Dale Evans met while filming a movie together called "The Cowboy and the Senorita."
 * During the commentary for A New Hope, Carrie Fisher mentions that Mark Hamill had a crush on her. Given a lot of photos from that time, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
 * In her book The Princess Diarist, published Before her death in December 2016, Fisher revealed that she and Harrison Ford had an affair while filming A New Hope.
 * Shane West and Mandy Moore got together while filming A Walk to Remember.
 * Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger on the set of The Marrying Man.
 * Casper Van Dien got together with Catherine Oxenberg while filming The Collectors they got married a few years later.
 * Milla Jovovich hooked up with her director Luc Besson during filming on The Fifth Element; they were married that year (1997) and divorced two years later. She later got together with Paul W. S. Anderson in the course of the first Resident Evil movie - they're now married with children.

Literature

 * In the short story "Who Am I This Time?" by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character completely takes on the persona of whatever character he performs in the community play. A beautiful but socially awkward woman, when performing A Streetcar Named Desire with him, falls in passionate love with his persona. By living a life of Romance on the Set through various plays, they become Happily Married.

Live-Action TV

 * Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, on Doctor Who. They eventually got divorced after 16 months. Eagle-eyed viewers can play along at home noting whether or not Tom and Lalla got along at the time of shooting their scenes. There are noticeable moments when the two of them absolutely refuse to look at each other.
 * Averted with him and Elisabeth Sladen who once, after noticing how well they got along on set, asked Tom out for drinks, only to "spend forty-five minutes awkwardly staring at each other, downing their drinks and leaving." This was not romantic, however, as Sladen was already married to her Romance On The Set, Brian Miller, whom she had met at the Liverpool Playhouse and whom she married in 1968. (They remained together, happily so, until her untimely death in 2011.)
 * David Tennant has dated several of his Doctor Who guest stars, one of whom had played his daughter. In fact, he's married to and has a daughter with Georgia Moffet (daughter of fifth Doctor Peter Davison). That's right; there is a kid out there that has the Doctor as her father and grandfather.
 * Another Doctor Who example: Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Deborah Watling (Victoria) briefly dated during their time together on the show.
 * Alexander Siddig and Nana Visitor married during the run of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, had a child together, and have since divorced.
 * Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Actually they decided not to date while they were still on the same show, and got together once he moved to Angel.) They're now Happily Married with a kid.
 * Also, Amber Benson (who played Tara) and Adam Busch (who played Warren ). This led to a funny moment when Joss told Adam.
 * Bobcat Goldthwait and Nikki Cox, Unhappily Ever After
 * Dominic Monaghan and Evangeline Lilly, Lost.
 * Kyle MacLachlan and Lara Flynn Boyle began dating after meeting on the set of Twin Peaks. Somewhat irritatingly, this has been cited as part of the reason why MacLachlan objected to the development of a romance between his character Cooper and Audrey, the series' Fan-Preferred Couple, leading to their relationship being stricken from the script.
 * Singaporean celebrities and media darlings Fann Wong (from Shanghai Knights) and Christopher Lee (not that one), who have starred alongside each other in so many TV series that it wasn't until their tell-all special that fans knew which one they officially hooked up on the set in.
 * Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco of The Big Bang Theory dated for a couple of years, but the general public didn't know about it until they broke up.
 * Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan met when she guest starred on Family Ties, got together and are now married with four kids.
 * Similarly, on Growing Pains; this is how Kirk Cameron and Chelsea Noble met and eventually married.
 * Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical, though they split up in early 2011.
 * Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter started dating almost as soon as they met on the set of Dexter. They got married, but later filed for divorce.
 * Alexis Bledel & Milo Ventimiglia in Gilmore Girls. The chemistry between Rory and Jess became pretty obvious when he joined the show. They dated for nearly four years and broke up in 2006, coincidentally, around the same time that their characters say goodbye for the last time.
 * The above-mentioned Mr. Ventimiglia more controversially went on to be a couple with his twelve-years-younger Heroes costar Hayden Panettiere. They didn't go public until she turned 18, but the rumor mill had linked them well before that. (Their onscreen chemistry, despite playing characters who were related, didn't help.) They later broke up.
 * Will Smith met Jada Pinkett Smith when she auditioned for the role of his girlfriend on an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She was denied the role on account of being too short, but she had bit parts on the series. Later on, after they got married, she played his wife, specifically in the film Ali.
 * Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos met on the set of All My Children while playing each other's love interests. They've been happily married since 1996. (Incidentally, their characters eventually tied the knot as well.)
 * Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush of One Tree Hill got married, but later split up.
 * Ben Stiller met his wife Christine Taylor while filming a pilot for a proposed Jack Black TV show, Heat Vision and Jack. (Ben was directing, Christine was acting.) They got married in 2000.
 * Stargate SG 1: Michael Shanks and his on-screen (lost) wife had a child together in real life, then broke up. He subsequently met Lexa Doig on Andromeda; they married, and she came and worked on SG-1 with him a few years later. Strangely enough, the SG universe tends not to have off-screen romances amongst its (multitude of) leads.
 * Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer of True Blood. They have since gotten married.
 * Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison of House, who were at one point engaged to be married but broke up before they made it to the altar. Curiously, their characters remained in a romantic relationship and actually did get married on screen (which must have been pretty awkward), although that ended in divorce.
 * Jared Padalecki and Genevieve Cortese of Supernatural are now married.
 * In The French Mistake, Sam and Dean are sent to a reality where their lives are a TV show, somehow replacing their own actors in the middle of a shoot. Their reactions to learning that Sam's actor is married to "Ruby" are...
 * Lindsay Korman (Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald Crane Winthrop) and Justin Hartley (Nicholas "Fox" Foxworthy Crane) met on the set of Passions. They married in 2004.
 * James Roday and Maggie Lawson from Psych have been dating for a few years now.
 * Mark Salling (Puck) and Naya Rivera (Santana) on Glee. Rumors are also circulating about Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) and Kevin McHale (Artie), but have yet to be confirmed.
 * Ushkowitz is now dating Michael Trevino.
 * Pick any two cast members and it's likely there is some inkling of gossip that they have or are hooked/hooking up.
 * Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, who met playing the title roles of eighties British cop show Dempsey and Makepeace. They got married for real when the series ended and still are.
 * Anna Torv and Mark Valley after their roles as partners and lovers in the Fringe pilot. They separated after a year of marriage.
 * In Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Amy Miller (Trakeena) and Reggie Rolle (Damon) fell in love and then got married after filming the season. Apparently there were a few times when little boys who were fans of the show would spot them and get confused, wondering why a Power Ranger was with the Big Bad.
 * Milo Cawthorne (Ziggy) and Olivia Tennet (Dr. K) from Power Rangers RPM have hooked up, which is amusing since it's implied their characters did the same in the finale after a season filled with Belligerent Sexual Tension.
 * Possibly even funnier is the case of Jungle Fury's Jason Smith (Casey) and Anna Hutchison (Lily), since Lily ended up with the other member of their Power Trio.
 * Firass Dirani and Melanie Vallejo took the next step that Nick and Madison didn't. They've since split up, though.
 * And one that crossed seasons: Emma Lahana (Dino Thunder's Kira) and Brandon Jay McLaren (SPD's Jack). They've also split up.
 * In Super Sentai, this also happened between Ryouhei Kobayashi and Keiko Hayase (Fumiya and Remi Hoshikawa). The catch? Their characters were twins. There's also Kotaro Tanaka and Rika Kishida (Ryu Tendo and Kaori Rokumeikan)) who are married now. The funny thing is, their characters was the official couple of the series and they got married at the end of the series.
 * Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and Sam Jenkins from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (and later Andromeda, but they were married by then) are married with three kids.
 * The cast of Saved by the Bell kept on dating each other on set to the point that the writers and the producers had to make sure that none of the cast members had a conflict with each other.
 * Takeshi Sorimachi and Nanako Matsushima met on the set of the live-action adaptation of Great Teacher Onizuka in 1998, playing Onizuka and Fuyutsuki. They began dating after the series finished, and got married in 2001. They now have 2 daughters.
 * Meredith Baxter and David Birney married after playing husband and wife in the early '70s sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie.
 * Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes on the set of Northern Lights. (No, not that one.) This caused quite a stir when it was discovered, since both of them were married at the time. They have since divorced their respective spouses and married each other.
 * Similarly, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott. They also got together while filming a Lifetime movie (Mind Over Murder), despite both of them being married. They married each other mere weeks after their divorces were finalized.
 * Erin Moran (Joanie) and Scott Baio (Chachi) on Happy Days, both on- and off-screen, for a brief period of time, ending around the time their spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi was made.
 * Denzel Washington met his wife Paulette while they were filming Wilma.
 * Alyssa Milano and Brian Krause dated from 2000 till 2001 while they both worked together on Charmed
 * Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder are dating and working together on The Vampire Diaries
 * Steven Mcqueen and Candice Accola also dated (Though their characters didn't interact much) and Paul Wesley's wife Torrey Devitto was brought in during season 3 as Meredith.
 * From Brazilian television: Carlos Alberto Riccelli and Bruna Lombardi were the main romantic couple onscreen at the soap opera Aritana, and got married soon after the last chapter. This was in 1979, and they are still together, more than 30 years after. The actor and musician Kim Riccelli is the only son of the couple.
 * Quite a few couples have met on the Gossip Girl set. So far the only confirmed ones have been Leighton Meester/Sebastian Stan, Blake Lively/Penn Badgley, and Ed Westwick/Jessica Szohr, but there's a lot of gossip, speculation and fans for any actor pairing.
 * Molly Burnett (Melanie Jonas) and Casey Deidrick (Chad Dimera) started dating after meeting on the set of Days of Our Lives.
 * Many believe that this is the reason that, after over two years of never interacting on the show, their characters are suddenly good friends and appear to be headed towards romance.
 * Hugh Jackman met wife Deborra-Lee Furness while filming the 1995 television drama Correlli.
 * Kelly Coffield met her husband Steve Park, when both were cast members on In Living Color.
 * Broadway legend Patti LuPone met her husband Matt Johnston in 1987 on the set of the TV movie LBJ: The Early Years. She was playing Lady Bird Johnson, he was an assistant cameraman. She said in her memoir that she took one look at him and "said no in my head and yes in my heart." They're still married.
 * Peter Herman had a stint as a defense attorney on Law And Order: SVU, which is how he met the show's lead actress Mariska Hargitay. They got married in 2004 and remain happily so.
 * Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle began a relationship during the production of Pride and Prejudice, although ironically people only learned about it after it had ended.
 * Colin Firth also had a romance on the set with Meg Tilly while filming Valmont and met his wife when they were filming the miniseries Nostromo
 * Both the romantic leads in The Thorn Birds met their future husbands when shooting the show.
 * Rachel Ward married Bryan Brown, who played her abusive husband.
 * Richard Chamberlain met his future life partner Martin Rabbet, who had a tiny part as a priest that broke his chastity vow.
 * James McAvoy met Anne-Marie Duff on the set of UK show Shameless, as of this writing they are married and have a son together.
 * On The X-Files, Mitch Pileggi (Skinner) met his wife on the set, Arlene Warren, on the set. She originally started out as Scully's stand-in and eventually became Skinner's secretary.
 * Rob McEhenney and Kaitlin Olson met while co-starring in Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. They're now married with two children.
 * Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas, of Once Upon a Time. For those who don't watch the show, they play Snow White and Prince Charming. Yes, really.

Professional Wrestling

 * WWE wrestler Triple H was dating Chyna, and then he was paired with Stephanie McMahon after her Face Heel Turn. In 2003, Triple H and Stephanie got married in real life. Whether his marriage is helping or hurting the company is heavily debated among fans.
 * Chyna also dated Sean "X-Pac" Waltman for a time several years later.
 * Notable that Triple H and Stephanie went through their entire on-screen relationship from start to finish before they began to date in real life. In one DVD interview, Triple H half-jokingly says that one reason for their happy marriage is that they got to do a dry run before the real thing.
 * Debra McMichael was married to Steve McMichael before Steve got into Professional Wrestling, but then divorced him and got involved with Jeff Jarrett, then Steve Austin (whom she later married, and divorced)
 * (In)Famously, Chris Benoit and his wife, Nancy. They fell in love during a storyline where they were having an affair behind the back of her then-husband, Kevin Sullivan - a storyline Sullivan wrote.
 * Kayfabe being what it was back then, this storyline involved Chris and Nancy being seen at the same clubs, eating at the same restaurants, and even staying in the same hotel rooms, appearing to all the world as though they were the genuine article. The fact that they hooked up for real probably made Kevin Sullivan the only wrestler to ever be shockingly swerved by his own story. And given the... unpleasantness of a few years back, not a few conspiracy theorists armed with very-coincidental-but-still-interesting evidence have suggested that Sullivan may have been involved in the incident and staged it to look like a murder-suicide on Benoit's part. Writing his cheating wife and the man who stole her out of the picture, as it were.
 * Matt Hardy was once Lita (Amy Dumas)'s boyfriend, but she cheated on him by dating Edge (who cheated on his wife). You know what happened...
 * Brock Lesnar met Sable during his 2003 run on SmackDown. Today, they are married.
 * Drew McIntyre and Tiffany (Taryn Terrell), though they divorced after a year.
 * Frankie Kazarian and Traci Brookshaw.
 * The Undertaker and Michelle McCool.
 * John Morrison and Melina (on and off).
 * Billy Kidman and Torrie Wilson first got together in WCW after becoming a couple on-screen, then got married while they were in WWE, where they were never an on-screen couple (at their insistence). They have since divorced.
 * CM Punk dated Daffney and later Tracy Brooks during his time in Ring of Honor. Then, while in OVW, dated Maria Kanellis, but they split up due to WWE moving them to two separate brands. Then, he briefly dated Lita. Then, he started a long term relationship with Beth Phoenix, which is still going strong as of 11/2011.
 * As of 2012, Punk and Beth have now split up. His ex Maria says there were rumors of "incidents" between Punk and WWE Diva Kelly Kelly back when he was with Maria, but that if anything ever happened, Maria is over it.
 * Batista seems to have dated almost as many coworkers as CM Punk, having had brief relationships with Melina, Kelly Kelly, and Rosa Mendes.
 * In TNA, there's Jeff Jarrett and Karen Angle, Kurt Angle's wife. After Karen's divorce from Kurt, she would marry Jeff (who lost his last wife, Jill, to cancer) in real life.
 * The Miz and Maryse are currently dating.
 * Tommy Dreamer and Beulah in ECW had an on-again, off-again love triangle with Raven, including a fictional pregnancy for Tommy and Beulah in 1997. Years later, they got married and had twins for real.
 * Bryan Danielson and one of the Bella Twins (Brie). One wonders if they use Twin Magic when he's not looking...

Music

 * Faith Hill opened for Tim McGraw during his 1996 Spontaneous Combustion tour. He proposed right before a performance one night, and they married shortly after the tour ended. They're arguably country music's most famous couple.
 * Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins got together with Jessica of The Veronicas while helping on their third album.

Theatre

 * Kim Crosby and Robert Westenberg met while appearing in Into the Woods (playing Cinderella and her Prince respectively). While the characters broke up by the end of the play, the actors married and remain happily so.
 * Laura Bell Bundy and Christian Borle, the original leads in Legally Blonde: The Musical. Unfortunately he was still married to his former Romance on the Set, Sutton Foster from Thoroughly Modern Millie.
 * Orfeh and Andy Karl, the original Paulette and Kyle the UPS guy, are Happily Married, after having their own romance on the set while performing in the musical adaptation of Saturday Night Fever.
 * Rent has a couple examples: Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel are the most well-known and have been together since the play's original run in 1996 (they got married in 2003). Also, Wilson Jermaine Heredia (Angel) dated his makeup artist while filming The Movie.
 * In the play's 2007 Australian run, the actors playing Mark and Roger became a couple, adding a fun layer to the Ho Yay already between the characters.
 * William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman met during their stint with the Atlantic Theater Company and remain happily married to this day.
 * Cate Blanchett met her playwright/screenwriter husband Andrew Upton while she was performing in a production of The Seagull. According to her, "He thought I was aloof and I thought he was arrogant. It just shows you how wrong you can be, but once he kissed me that was that."

Web Original

 * Lindsey Ellis (The Nostalgia Chick) and Todd Nathanson (Todd in the Shadows). In-universe, this has been translated to the Chick having an obsessive and completely unrequited interest in him, while he continues stalking Obscurus Lupa.
 * There have been several Channel Awesome couples, including Lupa and Phelous, and Nash and JO.

Western Animation

 * The French voices of Homer and Marge in The Simpsons (Veronique Augereau and Philippe Peytieu) end up married for real.
 * Similarly, the voices of Kif Kroker and Amy Wong in the Latin American dub of Futurama are a married couple as well.
 * Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor, the voices of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, were Happily Married until Allwine's death.