10 Celebrity Couples Who Got Together Young and Are Still Going Strong

The Gist

• Many celebrity couples found love at a young age, connecting with their future partner in their teens or early 20s.

• Some, like Jon Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea or Kendrick Lamar and fiancée Whitney Alford, met in high school.

• Others were fans of one another before they’d met, as was the case with David and Victoria Beckham and Hailey and Justin Bieber.

Some of the most beloved celebrity couples started out as childhood friends, high school sweethearts, or young lovers trying to navigate their 20s together. Despite naysayers telling them they were too young to know that they’d found their soulmate, they chose to stick with what felt true.

Jon Bon Jovi and his family proved the stars can align early across generations. The ‘80s rocker tied the knot with his high school sweetheart, Dorothea Hurley, in 1989. Over three decades later, their son, Jake Bongiovi, married Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown. Bongiovi was 22 and Brown was 20. Both couples are still together today.

They’re not the only high-profile pairs who followed their hearts all the way down the aisle. Ahead, learn which celebrity couples started dating surprisingly young and are still head over heels for each other today—whether it’s been a few years or a few decades since they got together.

01 of 10

David Beckham and Victoria Beckham

It was love at first sight for David and Victoria Beckham—through the TV screen, that is. The soccer star said in a 2008 interview (via People) that he’d seen a Spice Girls performance featuring Beckham while at a hotel. “I remember turning around—before I’d even met Victoria—and said, ‘I want to marry that one.'” They met in real life at a Manchester United football match in 1997—David was 21, and Victoria, 22. Two years later, they tied the knot, solidifying their power couple status and laying the groundwork for their eventual family dynasty.

02 of 10

Sofia Richie Grainge and Elliot Grainge

Sofia Richie was 22 years old when she soft-launched her relationship with now-husband Elliot Grainge on Instagram in March 2021. After one year of dating, they got engaged—but it was their glamorous ‘quiet luxury’ wedding that helped them go viral. At the time of their April 2023 ceremony, influencer Richie was 24, while music executive Grainge was 29. They’ve since welcomed two children: daughter Eloise and son Henry.

03 of 10

Beyoncé and Jay Z

Beyoncé has been “Crazy in Love” with fellow music mogul Jay-Z since the turn of the millennium. They started dating in 2001, per Vanity Fair, when she was 19 and he was 30 or 31. Come 2008, they tied the knot in a super-secret ceremony at the rapper’s Manhattan penthouse. Why the wait? Despite getting together young, the Cowboy Carter artist wanted to be sure it was the real thing. “I really don’t believe that you will love the same thing when you’re 20 as you do at 30,” Beyoncé told Seventeen (via People). “So that was my rule: Before the age of 25, I would never get married.”

04 of 10

Jon Bon Jovi & Dorothea Bongiovi

They’re one of the longest-lasting couples in rock music. Jon Bon Jovi and wife Dorothea met as teenagers at New Jersey’s Sayreville War Memorial High School in 1980. Nine years later, they had a Las Vegas elopement at the Graceland Wedding Chapel. They’ve since welcomed four children together: daughter Stephanie, and sons Jake, Jesse, and Romeo.

05 of 10

Kendrick Lamar and Whitney Alford

While Kendrick Lamar likes to keep his relationship private, he’s spilled a few details in lyrics and interviews about his love story with fiancée Whitney Alford. Before they dated, they were two teens who became friends while attending Centennial High School in Compton. That friendship blossomed into a romance, and they’ve since welcomed two kids: daughter Uzi and son Enoch. As the “Not Like Us” artist told The New York Times Magazine in 2014, Alford has “been here since Day 1.”

06 of 10

Kevin Jonas and Danielle Jonas

Danielle Jonas (née Deleasa) basically lived out the plot of a romance novel IRL. While on a family vacation to the Bahamas in 2007, she had an unassuming meet-cute moment with her future husband—who just so happened to be a member of hitmaking boy band The Jonas Brothers. Two years after their chance meeting, when Kevin was 22 and Danielle was 23, they married. They’re now proud parents of two daughters: Alena and Valentina.

07 of 10

Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber

Most people don’t have a video of their first meeting with their future spouse, but Justin Bieber and wife Hailey Bieber do. Hailey was just 12 years old when she first fangirled over Justin backstage at a Today show event in 2009. They dated on and off starting around 2015, before getting engaged in July 2018. At the time of their courthouse nuptials that September, Justin was 24 and Hailey was 21. In 2024, the longtime loves welcomed their first child: son Jack Blues.

08 of 10

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.

An accidental date turned into the love of a lifetime for Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar and She’s All That actor Freddie Prinze Jr. The ‘90s It couple met on the set of 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. Both were around 20 years old. They wouldn’t start dating until 2000, when, as Gellar told PEOPLE Now in 2020, “[W]e were supposed to go with someone else, and the third person didn’t make it out and we decided to still go.” That unintentional date has since led to a 24-year marriage and two kids.

09 of 10

Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman

They found love on campus. Hunger Games alum Elizabeth Banks met future husband Max Handelman when they were both students at the University of Pennsylvania—crossing paths on their very first day of college, per People. They wed in 2003, after 10 years of dating. While Handelman isn’t in the spotlight as much as his actress-filmmaker wife, the two have worked together on various projects through their production company.

10 of 10

Jeff Bridges and Susan Bridges

Actor Jeff Bridges met future wife Susan Geston, then a waitress, while filming Rancho Deluxe in Paradise Valley, Montana in 1975. She was 21, according to People, while Bridges was around 25. “We were kids. And we still feel like kids,” Susan told People in 2022. They married in 1977 and have been by one another’s side ever since. With a relationship of over half a century behind them, they remain one of Hollywood’s greatest love stories.

Read the original article on InStyle