Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Marriage Is Basically an Accident
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Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. were a quintessential '90s "It couple" and are still Hollywood royalty over two decades later. Though the duo met on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer, it still took two years for the She’s All That actor and Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum to officially start dating. But once their actual meet-cute (which was a complete accident at the time) happened, it was game over.
Over the years, Gellar and Prinze have proven it's possible for two super famous people to have a healthy, lasting relationship in and out of the limelight. Scroll down to see their relationship timeline in full.
1997
Gellar and Prinze first met on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer, and while it seemed they were strictly cordial at the time, it would prove to be the beginning of their super-sweet, multi-decade relationship.
Apparently, while the lovebirds were filming the movie in North Carolina, Gellar didn’t have her driver’s license so Prinze began driving her, “and that’s when we became friends,” he said in an April 2020 Us Weekly interview.
“We just would talk about life and stuff like that, and we had completely different philosophies on just about everything... ‘Cause she was a born and raised New Yorker and I was a born and raised L.A. kid, and we just looked at everything like night and day.”
1998-1999
After filming wrapped, the duo remained in each other's lives, often reuniting at dinner parties with their friends. Gellar might have a thing for the acts of service love language because he admitted that, at the time, he “wanted to cook for [Sarah], because that’s what my family does.” “So, we started this weekly barbecue thing at her house, and me and my cousins would come over and cook food for her and her friends. And then we’d make sure everybody ate, and that was kind of how our friendship began.”
~2000
A full three years after they initially met, Gellar and Prinze planned another one of their friendly catch-ups with a friend, but they ended up bailing. “We had made plans for dinner with a mutual friend and the person canceled. We decided to have dinner anyway and never looked back,” Gellar revealed to People in her own words just a few years later in 2002.
Gellar recalled the accidental first date with her now-husband in the sweetest Instagram post years later in January 2020. “20 years ago this week, my friend @realfreddieprinze and I were supposed to have dinner with a mutual friend from out of town,” she reflected. “That friend missed her flight, but we decided to still meet and catch up. Now 20 years together, 17 plus married and two kids, we still go to that restaurant for dinner. So thank you @sloaney77 for not showing up for dinner.”
May 2000
While attending an NBA game in 2000, the pair truly rose to the occasion when featured on the kiss cam.
April 2001
Within a year of dating, the pair got engaged in April 2001. Here's a throwback pic the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum posted on her IG of the two of them shortly after Gellar popped the question:
June 2002
The actors tried the whole co-starring together thing again and played scripted love interests Fred and Daphne in Scooby Doo. A classic.
September 2002
When you know, you know is clearly the motto when it comes to these two, who quietly got married in Mexico roughly a year after their engagement. Gellar shared a rare pic from the happy day on the pair's 13th wedding anniversary in 2015 with an Elizabeth Barrett Browning quote that says, “I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.”
March 2004
Two years later, Gellar and Prinze reprised their roles in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
September 2009
The couple welcomed their first child, Charlotte Grace Prinze, in September 2009.
September 2012
Three years following the birth of their first child, the two became parents to a second child: a baby boy named Rocky James Prinze.
April 2015
Gellar shared a photo of the couple from their home in L.A.’s Mandeville Canyon neighborhood on April 8, 2015 in honor of a special project her husband had been working on. “Please help me in congratulating my husband #freddieprinzejr on the announcement of his first cookbook #BackToTheKitchen coming in 2016 from #rodalebooks,” she began the caption. “I am very proud to say that I have personally tasted everyone of these amazing #recipes and will continue to. But now all of you will get to share in the amazing food from my absolute favorite chef.”
Back to the Kitchen: 75 Delicious, Real Recipes (& True Stories) from a Food-Obsessed Actor: A Cookbook
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Amazon PrimeAugust 2015
“This is how #datenight begins and ends when you have two young kids. Luckily we made it till the end #movienight,” GEllar posted on Instagram.
February 2020
Shortly before the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, the couple starred in a commercial for detergent brand Cascade, where they joked about “doing it every night” in reference to washing dishes together. “We do it after enchiladas,” Prinze said in the ad, to which GEllar added, “We do it after takeout.”
November 2020
In November 2020, the couple shared they added two adorable puppies to their family as an early Christmas present for their daughter and son. “Puppies, puppies are harder,” Prinze admitted to Us Weekly when likening the dogs—Kumi and Sato—to his children. “Like, [with] the kids you go, ‘Okay, when they’re older, if I’m nice to them, they’re going to take care of me.’ Dogs, you’re like, ‘Man, when they’re older, then I will take care of them more.’ So, puppies are harder.” The two would go on to adopt a third pup—this time, a dachshund named Franz—in May 2021 as a Mother's Day gift.
March 2021
For Prinze's 45th birthday in 2021, Gellar shared a cheeky tribute to her Instagram, gushing, “I was looking for the perfect present for your bday @realfreddieprinze, but then I realized...I am present enough ?? ?? ??.”
March 2022
Last year, Gellar veered more sentimental for her birthday tribute to her husband, musing, “Today is @realfreddieprinze birthday. Normally this is where I would make a joke. But it's also #internationalwomensday and it completely makes sense that you share that day, as there is no man that is a bigger champion and friend to women than you. I couldn't think of someone better to raise a daughter with or to teach a son, what it truly means to be a good man. Happy birthday FP.”
September 2022
“We sort of experience life together [which is] separate from our careers. And I think that's really been a blessing for us,” the Cruel Intentions star shared with Us Weekly after the pair celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. “Right now, I can honestly say we won't work together [again] because we have young children and we work it out so that one of us is always home. Who’s to say 15 years from now? I can't speak to what that might look like.”
October 2022
For Halloween last year, the duo dressed up as the two lead protagonists from the 1987 film The Princess Bride. “As you wish,” Gellar even captioned a snap of the two of them in a cute homage to one of the movie’s most iconic lines.
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