Prince Harry And Other Celebs Share The Moment They Realized They’d Met ‘The One’

After striking up a friendship at St. Andrews University in Scotland, everything changed for Prince William and Kate Middleton in March 2002. It all began when the latter took to the catwalk in a fashion event. And as royal specialist Katie Nicholl noted in the Prince William at Thirty TV documentary, “When Kate came out dressed in this amazing see-through dress and her lingerie, William’s eyes popped. He turned to his friend and said, ‘Wow, Kate’s hot!’”

When Chris Hemsworth was introduced to his future spouse Elsa Pataky, he was instantly drawn to her. The Marvel star informed Elle magazine, “There was no light-bulb moment. From the first time we met, we just made sense. She’s fun. She’s outgoing, and she has a sense of humor and a passionate attitude toward life, which is nice to try to keep up with.”

It’s not every day that a mom and dad get to see their kid fall head over heels for someone in real-time. But that’s exactly what happened with Nina and Nick Clooney. They watched their son George strike up an immediate bond with Amal at a get-together in 2013. Nick said to People magazine, “I really think by the time that first meeting was over, [their] fates were sealed.” The pair tied the knot the following year.

For Blake Lively, her relationship with Ryan Reynolds changed after she came to an important realization. Speaking to Marie Claire magazine, the actress said, “I knew he’d always be my best friend for my whole life. That was the biggest thing to me. I’d never known anything like the friendship that I had with him. I could like him as much as I loved him.” Aww! The famous duo got hitched in 2012.

As a teenager, Carey Mulligan became pen pals with a boy, sending messages back and forth. But the connection didn’t last — the pair soon moved on with their lives. Anyway, fast-forward a few years, and Mulligan did find her way back to her old pal. His name? Marcus Mumford. Yes, of Mumford & Sons fame. Their relationship would turn romantic and they went on to exchange their vows in 2012.

Touching on his first meeting with Emily Blunt, John Krasinski told TV chat show ellen, “It was one of those things where I wasn’t really looking for a relationship. Then I met her and I was so nervous. I was like, ‘Oh god, I think I’m going to fall in love with her.’ As I shook her hand I went, ‘I like you.’” The feeling was mutual — Krasinski and Blunt eventually tied the knot in 2010.

There was a period when David and Victoria Beckham were arguably the most famous couple in the United Kingdom. They were huge! As for their first meeting, Victoria looked back while writing a note to her past-self. She said, “Yes, love at first sight does exist. You’ll see David standing aside [at a bar] with his family. And he has such a cute smile. You’ll think how similar he feels to you.”

When did Tom Hanks know that Rita Wilson was “the one” for him? Simple — as soon as he saw her in a 1972 episode of The Brady Bunch. “I was actually at a friend of mine’s house when it aired,” the actor recalled to People. “And I remember thinking, ‘That girl’s cute.’” Hanks and Wilson went on to work together in the following years, before getting married in 1988.

Have you ever felt Cupid’s arrow strike your heart as soon as you look at someone across a crowded room? Well, you’ve got something in common with Portia de Rossi, then. The actress informed Oprah that there was an “immediate draw” after she saw Ellen at a get-together in 2000. They later formed a romance, ahead of walking down the aisle in 2008.

While speaking at a Q&A event, Stephen Colbert revealed the moment that he fell in love with his future spouse Evelyn. The TV star remembered, “I walk in [to a theater lobby] and I see this woman — I think for the first time, not girl, woman. [A] beautiful woman in a black linen dress, and I think ‘Her.’ Honest to God, I thought, ‘There’s your wife, you’re going to marry her.’ And I thought, ‘That’s crazy.’”

Looking back on her introduction to Matt Damon, Luciana Barroso said to Vogue magazine, “I was working as a bartender in [Miami] and he was shooting a movie there. The crew ended up in the bar one Saturday night. Matt’s story is that he saw me across the room and there was a light on me.” The actor approached her, apparently claiming he was trying to avoid public attention, only for Barroso to “put him to work” at the bar!

To say that it didn’t take Hugh Jackman long to figure out that Deborra-Lee Furness was his soulmate would be a major understatement. The X-Men icon told TV show TODAY, “I knew two weeks into meeting Deb that we were going to be together for the rest of our lives.” He popped the question within a few months, and they got married in 1996. 

Gisele Bündchen had absolutely no doubt that NFL legend Tom Brady would be her future hubby. As she said to Vogue, “I knew Tom was the one straight away. I could see it in his eyes that he was a man with integrity who believes in the same things I do.” The glamorous pair went on to tie the knot in 2009.

During an appearance on Oprah’s Next Chapter, John Legend had this to say about his engagement to Chrissy Teigen. The musician noted, “I don’t think it was one particular moment [when I knew I wanted to propose]. But I knew I loved her, I knew I could see myself living with her and spending time with her forever. I knew I could envision us having kids together. I just felt like it’s time to get married.”

Want to know when Jada Pinkett fell for Will Smith? Well, you might be surprised to hear that it wasn’t “love at first sight.” Speaking to YourTango, she said, “I met him when I was 19 at an audition for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After we’d known each other for many years, we went out for dinner and I saw that he’d grown [into] this really responsible man. Our friendship turned into romance.”

It’s fair to say that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas’ relationship didn’t get off to the best of starts. Douglas told Redbook magazine, “I found out that [we share the same birthday] the first night I met her. After she told me that and [that] she loved golf, I told her, ‘I’m going to be the father of your children.’ Then she said ‘Goodnight.’” Oof! Despite that, though, the Hollywood pair did get hitched in 2000.

After becoming pals with Ashton Kutcher during their time on That ’70s Show, Mila Kunis later noticed a significant shift in their relationship. The Hollywood star told Marie Claire, “One day, it just changed. All of a sudden, it wasn’t the same and I was really proud of myself for acknowledging that.” From there, Kunis and Kutcher went on to exchange their vows in 2015.

As two of the coaches on the TV hit The Voice, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani looked to offer their expertise to the hopeful contestants. But behind the scenes, a romance blossomed between the famous pair. And by the winter of 2015 Stefani and Shelton officially became an item. They celebrated their wedding nearly six years later. 

As a guest on Oprah, Jerry Seinfeld provided some fascinating insight into his romance with spouse Jessica. The comedian noted, “I met her and I thought, ‘You know what, we could have a life together.’ It gave me a life to live. It’s not the conversation or the attraction that you feel, it’s just like this comfort level. I knew this is someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

Although Miles Teller and Keleigh Sperry celebrated their nuptials in 2019 the actor never thought he’d get that far following their first meeting six years earlier. Teller informed Vogue, “Keleigh had caught my eye [at a party], and we talked. I didn’t think it went well, but after a few more attempts, I got her to dance with me. A week later, we went on a date. I knew she was the one.”

It can take a little while before you know if someone’s your soulmate. But David Harbour didn’t have that issue when he started seeing Lily Allen. The actor said to GQ magazine, “It was our third date. I was like, ‘I’m just going to be brutally honest about everything.’ It’d take a really extraordinary person to be accepting of the things I said. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, that’s somebody I want to be around.’”

One is a tennis megastar. And the other is the co-founder of Reddit. For that alone, Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are among the most powerful celebrity couples in the world. “I had this sense, like, ‘I’m going to marry this guy. I'm not ready yet, but I know I’m going to marry this guy,’” Williams said of their initial meeting. Just like on the tennis court, her instincts were bang on — they got married in 2017.

Quirky — that’s probably the best way to describe Jamie Dornan’s courtship of his wife Amelia Warner. You see, as their first date approached, the actor decided to wear a Christmas jumper for the occasion. But it was February! Apparently, Dornan wanted to be “memorable.” On the whole, though, he informed the Belfast Telegraph newspaper, “I was smitten with her from the start, I really was.”

If you’re a big romantic, then Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra’s love story will be right up your alley. Speaking to SiriusXM Hits 1, the musician said, “I knew her for two years before we really started dating. [That] made it easy to say, ‘Wow this is the person and I know, right off the bat.’ I told [my brothers] a week after our first date, ‘I’m going to propose later this year.’”

There was nothing starry about the way we got together,” Justin Timberlake once noted during a press event about his relationship with Jessica Biel. And he wasn’t downplaying it! Following their first meeting, the stars continued to bond while chatting on the phone. No text messaging here! Then, a romance blossomed, leading to their wedding in 2012.

Movie sets aren’t necessarily the most romantic of environments, but that didn’t stop Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling from feeling Cupid’s arrow. Yep, the pair became smitten while working on 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines. And funnily enough, it was Gosling who put Mendes’ name forward to be cast in the film, as he was already somewhat familiar with her. Thank goodness the director said yes!

For names as glamorous as Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom, the early stages of their romance were pretty bizarre. Speaking on TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Perry said, “In-N-Out plays a big role in my life. We bonded over an In-N-Out burger at the 2016 Golden Globes. He stole one off of my table. He took it and I was like, ‘Wait! Who — oh, you’re so hot. Fine, take it.’ [Later], he's like, 'I like you.'”

As it turns out, only one thought popped into Matthew Broderick’s head when Sarah Jessica Parker entered his life. The movie star told TV show Watch What Happens Live, “[I knew she was the one] the first time I met her. I saw her walking down the street and thought, ‘That’s it.’” Broderick couldn’t be more sure! They eventually tied the knot in 1997.

Curious as to when Prince Harry recognized that Meghan Markle was his soulmate? Well, the British royal went into more detail while chatting with the BBC. Harry said, “The fact that I fell in love with Meghan so incredibly quickly was confirmation to me that all the stars were aligned, everything was perfect. It was this beautiful woman just sort of literally tripped and fell into my life. I fell into her life.”

If you want a great example of a “modern” romance, then get a load of this. Yes, Vanessa Hudgens fell for her partner Cole Tucker on Zoom! As the actress explained to Entertainment Tonight, “I get on the Zoom, and I’m like, ‘Who is that?’ I found him, and we started talking. I think I still have that stigma that the man is supposed to do that initial step. If I want something or someone, I’m going after them.”

As a producer on The Cable Guy, Judd Apatow sat in on Leslie Mann’s audition for the movie, going over the script with her. Then, when it ended, Apatow informed Vanity Fair, “Afterwards, I turned to Ben Stiller and said, ‘I can’t believe Mrs. Apatow just walked into the room.’” Some 12 months after the film’s release, the pair got hitched in 1997. He called it!

James Corden and his wife Julia Carey were in a unique spot at the start of their relationship. During an episode of The Late Late Show, the TV personality recalled, “Jules and I never went on dates. The night we met, we talked about how we were both bored of going out all the time. As a joke, [we] planned the rest of our lives together.” But the “joke” became a reality in 2012 when they got hitched.

You won’t find a cooler cat in Hollywood than Matthew McConaughey. Yet even he got flustered when he first saw his future wife Camila Alves in 2006. McConaughey told People, “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 [said to myself], ‘This is not the kind of woman you call over across the room, McConaughey. Go get her.’ Which I did.”

Years before Jenna Dewan and Steve Kazee became an item in 2018, the actress was introduced to him. Six years previously, the Step Up star had just watched Kazee in Once, leading to a fleeting interaction. Dewan informed The Knot, “Steve and I just had one of those eye-catching moments. It was very quick, but it struck us both. It was a moment.”

After reaching out via Instagram, Joe Jonas met with Sophie Turner in London, England, in 2016. And it’s fair to say that she wasn’t sure what to expect. But then, this happened. Turner recalled to Elle, “We just found a space far in the corner [of a bar] and talked. We talked for hours. And I wasn’t bored. It wasn’t contrived. It wasn’t small talk. And soon we were, like, inseparable. I went on tour with him.”

Behati Prinsloo was first introduced to Maroon 5’s Adam Levine when an opportunity came up to star in a music video. She didn’t do it in the end, yet the model continued to speak with Levine online. “We kind of fell in love over email,” she said to Porter magazine. Then, after they met face-to-face, Prinsloo revealed, “It was love at first sight, it was crazy.” The couple walked down the aisle in 2014.

There were no ifs, buts, or maybes for Lily Collins after she saw director Charlie McDowell for the first time. Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, the actress revealed, “It was one of those situations where I knew the second I met him that I wanted to be his wife one day. So it was just a matter of when, really.” Collins got her wish — she tied the knot with McDowell in 2021.

How about this for a crazy timeline? When Jamie Lee Curtis spotted Christopher Guest in Rolling Stone magazine in 1984 she said, “I’m going to marry that man.” But after reaching out through his agent, Guest gave her the silent treatment! Then, that June, the pair crossed paths at a restaurant. “On July 2, Chris and I had our first date,” Curtis said to O, The Oprah Magazine. “And by August 8, we’d fallen in love.”

During the production of The Mountain Between Us, Idris Elba experienced “love at first sight” away from the set. As the Hollywood star told TV show The View, “I went out on my only day off, true story. It was a Sunday night, [I] went to this party, and there she was. The rest is history.” Yes, he and Sabrina walked down the aisle in 2019.

While chatting with InStyle magazine, Jessica Alba revealed some interesting details about her relationship with hubby Cash Warren. She said, “I just knew when I met him that I was going to know him forever. It was weird; he instantly felt like family. It was so easy. I’d never felt like that with anyone. We got each other. We’re kindred spirits.”