Celebrities Who Found Love Later in Life
While some might say that Hollywood is a land with breakups and messy splits all around, hopeless romantics out there should remind them that some celebrity love stories are as beautiful and tear-jerking as the movies they make.
If you ask us, that’s especially the case when celebrities find love later on in life. After all, their experience in life (and love) prepared them to really find “The One.”
Don’t believe us? Just ask Halle Berry and Van Hunt, who couldn’t help but be drawn to one another at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020. Or ask Barbra Streisand and James Brolin, whose blind date in their 50s turned out to be one of the biggest power couples Hollywood has ever seen.
To check out some of Hollywood’s best love stories that prove it’s never to late to find true love, scroll below!
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Alexandra Grant & Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves first met his girlfriend, artist Alexandra Grant, back in 2011 when they worked together to publish their book, Ode to Happiness. Only years later, in 2019, did 55-year-old Reeves take their relationship to the romantic side.
“The good news about falling in love as an adult is that I had built my own career by the time that my relationship had begun,” Grant told People in 2023. “I feel very confident in the relationship on the red carpet. I feel confident on it alone.”
Halle Berry & Van Hunt
Halle Berry and her boyfriend Van Hunt aren’t afraid to show their love for each other online, so you might be surprised to know they haven’t been together for that long. As it turns out, they first met during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Berry was 54 while Hunt was 50.
“We were forced to let only our brains connect and discover if we had a connection before our bodies decided to get involved,” Berry told AARP: The Magazine, per People, of how they first met. “I’d never done it this way. I fell in love with his mind, his conversation.”
George & Amal Clooney
George Clooney was 52 years old when sparks began flying between him and his wife, Amal Clooney.
Their love story began when a friend of his asked to bring a friend to his home in Lake Cuomo, Italy. Before she even arrived, Clooney’s agent had a sixth sense that she was the real deal.
“I got a call from my agent who said, ‘I met this woman who is coming to your house, who you’re going to marry,’” the actors remembered in My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. “It really worked out that way.”
“The funniest thing was my mom and dad were visiting so my parents were there,” he remembered. “And we just talked, we stayed up all night talking. And I got her email address because she was going to send me some pictures of my parents. So we started writing. I didn’t know if she wanted to go out with me—I just thought we were buddies.”
In 2014, the pair got married. Three years later, on June 6, 2017, they welcomed their twins Alexander and Ella.
Jessica Betts & Niecy Nash
Niecy Nash and her wife Jessica Betts are proof that when you know, you know!
The pair first met in 2015 over their mutual love for music but things only turned romantic four years later in 2019 (Nash was 49 at the time).
“Not only was it challenging for me to realize I’m having feelings for a woman that I’ve normally had for a man,” Nash told Essence. “But it was compounded by the fact that this is my friend. I thought, ‘What I do not want to do is anything that would allow this person to not be in my life for the rest of my life.'”
Luckily, it all worked out. Nash and Betts tied the knot in 2020.
Francois-Henri Pinault & Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek met her match when she was 40 years old in 2006 when she started seeing Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault.
In 2007, they announced they were engaged and expecting their first child together, now 16-year-old Valentina. On Valentine’s Day two years later, the pair tied the knot.
“Today 14 years ago I met my soul mate,” Hayek wrote to Pinault in 2020 on Instagram. “After the test of time and even the test of the quarantine I feel very blessed that I’ve found you, and the more I discover you the more my love grows.”
Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones
Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones first met in 1998, when 54-year-old Douglas turned his charm on trying to woo 29-year-old Jones at a bar. It didn’t totally work at first though.
“I met her in the bar and was a total gentleman,” Douglas said on The Jonathan Ross Show. Shortly into their conversation, he dropped a bomb. “You know, I’m going to be the father of your children,” he told her.
And while the comment initially spooked her, it couldn’t have turned out to be more true. The pair, who tied the knot in 2000, welcomed kids Carys in 2003 and Dylan in 2000.
Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi
Ellen DeGeneres was in her late 40s while her wife Portia de Rossi was in her early 30s when they met in 2004. Regardless, it was a love at first sight.
“I ran into Ellen at a photo shoot about a year ago and she took my breath away,” de Rossi told The Advocate. “That had never happened to me in my life, where I saw somebody and [experienced] all of those things you hear about in songs and read about in poetry. My knees were weak. It was amazing.”
“And it was very hard for me to get her out of my mind after that,” she admitted. “And then when I saw her again that night [at the VH1 awards show] we started talking and that’s that. We just were kind of supposed to be together.”
The two started dating shortly after and tied the knot in 2008.
Daniel Craig & Rachel Weisz
Actors Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz were both in their 40s when they first started dating in 2010. A year later, they tied the knot.
“Look, I’m in love,” Craig told British GQ in 2012. “I’m very happy. And that is as far as I’m prepared to go. Life is long, life goes wrong and I don’t want to say something now that might be thrown back later.”
The two have kept their marriage pretty private ever since.
Sarah Paulson & Holland Taylor
Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor first met in 2005, but it took over a decade for their relationship to come to be.
“It’s a long story,” Paulson once remembered at Watch What Happens Live. “We met a very, very long time ago. I was with someone else; she was, too. We sort of breezed by one another, and then started following each other on Twitter, and then …”
As it turns out, Taylor slid into her DMs and set up their first date. The two have been steady ever since.
James Brolin & Barbra Streisand
James Brolin and Barbra Streisand are testament that blind dates really can work out. Streisand was 54 and Brolin was 56 when they first met on a blind date in 1996. Two years later, they tied the knot.
“I can’t tell you how lucky I am that this would happen to me so late in life,” Brolin said in his speech at their wedding, per People. “Every night is a new adventure. Sleeping is a waste of time. I can’t wait to see her again in the morning.” Talk about a hopeless romantic!
They’re been inseparable ever since!
Marcia Cross & Tom Mahoney
Desperate Housewives alum Marcia Cross was about 42 when she met her now-husband, Tom Mahoney, in 2004. By 2006, the two had tied the knot.
“She’s over the moon,” Cross’s Housewives co-star Eva Longoria told People at the time. “I’m so excited for her. It’s so beautiful to see her this happy and so in love.”
In 2007, Cross and Mahoney welcomed their twin daughters, Savannah and Eden, with the help of IVF.
Kourtney Kardashian & Travis Barker
Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker were friends and neighbors for a long time before they started dating in 2021. When they started, however, no one could stop how undeniable their chemistry was.
“Kourtney, my heart and soul knew you were the one way before I realized,” Barker admitted during their wedding in 2022. “The sense of home I felt any time I was around you was undeniable.”
“Deep down, I always knew,” he added. “I wanted to protect you from anything and anyone trying to hurt you. For so long I just didn’t want to ruin our friendship.”
“I think for a while I just told myself to be thankful I have someone so special in my life,” he said. “But I also knew if we were ever together then something more powerful than we had ever experienced would happen. And it did. I didn’t ever want to be with another person or think about another person in my life.”
In November 2023, they welcomed their first son together, Rocky.
