20 Celebrity Couples Who Have Been Together Forever

1 | Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson  

Hanks clearly understands the old saying, "happy wife, happy life." He once told Oprah Winfrey, "I'm a lucky man. Rita could have done better, but, you know, every now and again, you win the lottery." One of Hollywood's most enduring couples were first linked after they met on the set of Bosom Buddies,  the popular eighties sitcom that launched Hanks' career. The couple married in 1988 and have two sons, Chet and Truman Hanks.

2 | Beyoncé and Jay Z  

Beyoncé has said she was 19 when she began dating Jay Z, so their relationship started in either 1999 or 2000. When they finally got married April 2008, they kept all the details about their nuptials a secret, which sent the tabloids on a wild goose chase. (They got their marriage license in Scarsdale, New York, while visiting one of Jay's lawyers.)

The couple have had their share of marital woes, to be sure, which were revealed when a tape was leaked of a physical fight between Jay and Queen B's sister, Solange Knowles, in an elevator after the Met Gala in 2014. It was reported that Solange was furious over her brother-in-law's alleged infidelity. Rumors of a break-up swirled at the time but Bey made "Lemonade" out of lemons and the couple, who are parents to Blue Ivy and twins Rumi and Sir Carter, seems tighter than ever.

"Nothing is harder than this. By far," Jay admitted when he talked about rebooting his marriage after the incident. "I'm telling you, it's the hardest thing I've ever done." And for some great, feel-good love stories, see the 20 Marriage Proposals That Will Make You Believe in True Love.

3 | Julia Roberts and Danny Moder

The Oscar-winning actress met the cameraman on the set of The Mexican in 2000. She was dating Benjamin Bratt at the time and he was married, but true love conquered all and they wed in 2002 and are now the parents of three children Hazel, Phinnaeus, and Henry Daniel Moder.

4 | Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan  

The longtime couple, who just celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary last month, met when Pollan was cast as Fox's love interest on the NBC hit Family Ties back in the eighties. The stars made it official in 1988, one year before Back to the Future Part II was released.

The actor, who went public with his struggles with Parkinson Disease in 1998 (he was diagnosed in 1991) has said, "I wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for Tracy, I don't doubt that. When I told her about the Parkinson's I said to her, 'Are you in for this?' and she said, 'I'm in for it.'" They have four kids: Sam, Esme, Aquinnah, and Schuyler Fox. 

5 | Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick  

Kevin Bacon told TV host Stephen Colbert in 2014 that he first met his future bride when she was just a child. "She was a little girl, yeah, she was 12 years old," he said at the time.

With their seven-year age difference, (he was 19 at the time) they didn't start dating right then and there. It wasn't until they met again on the set of "Lemon Sky" in the ‘80s (when both were in their 20s) that they started their long love affair. The actors tied the knot on September 4, 1988. Sedgwick has said that she wasn't very attracted to Bacon initially, but he obviously grew on her. Today they have two kids, Travis and Sosie Bacon.

6 | Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy  

The couple first hit it off while working with the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City. For their 20th anniversary last year, Huffman took to Twitter to sing Macy's praises. "You took me home in '85," she tweeted. "Married me in '97. You give me a thrill every time you walk through the door. TY for marrying me 20 yrs ago today." She has explained the secret of their marriage this way: "Every day we sit down and make sure we take half an hour—each person gets 15 minutes—just to talk, with no crosstalk. You kind of just deeply check in with the other person. You kind of actually see what's going on with the other person without any talk-back."

7 | Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn  

One of Hollywood's most successful romances started back in 1983 when the actors met on the set of Swing Shift. Though they've never technically married, the ageless actress (and mother of Kate Hudson) credits their longevity as a couple to communication. She told People, "You have to want to stay together and really want to. Therefore you work to be together."

8 | Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick  

SJP spilt from Robert Downey, Jr. and started dating the Ferris Bueller star in 1991. The couple, who live in New York City and are frequently spotted on public transportation around town, have three children: son James Wilkie and twin daughters Marion and Tabitha Broderick.

"We're very devoted to our family and our lives. I love our life," Parker has said.  "I love that he's the father of my children, and it's because of him that there's this whole other world that I love." Fun fact: they share a wedding anniversary (May 19) with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. And for some funny photos of the two, check out these 30 Wildly Entertaining Photos of Celebrities Using Public Transportation.

9 | Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi  

The popular talk show host and the Scandal actress have been a couple since 2004. When the same-sex marriage ban in California was lifted in 2008, they had a lavish wedding at their California home. De Rossi reportedly also legally changed her name to Portia Lee James DeGeneres. They don't have any children, but the avid animal lovers do have lots of pets.While the tabs have them breaking up every year, they are still going strong a decade later.

10 | Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos  

The couple is celebrating their 22nd wedding anniversary this year after falling in love on the set of the ABC daytime soap All My Children back when they were both just starting out in the business. Ripa recently talked to Anna Faris for her podcast "Unqualified" at Comic-Con in San Diego about her marriage.

"This is what I've found works for me in my marriage with Mark: You're gonna fight. You're gonna have at each other. We're gonna annoy each other and do stuff that irritates each other because we're human beings. But at the end of the day, we're loyal to each other, we care about each other deeply. We're good friends and, you know, relationships evolve and we just happen to be lucky enough that we evolved together. We grew together. Our roots became entangled." They raised their three kids, Michael, Lola and Joaquin Consuelos, in New York City and still live there today.

11 | David and Victoria Beckham  

The former Spice Girl and the soccer superstar met in the Manchester United players' lounge in 1997 and, Victoria has said, had a "whirlwind romance," which culminated in marriage in 1999. The ever-present royal wedding guests have since had four children together and racked up a joint net worth reportedly close to $685 million.

12 | Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith  

The actress first caught her future husband's eye in 1994 when he was starring in the sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and she was auditioning for the role of his girlfriend. Jada didn't get the part, but she became wife in real life in 1997.

There are have been all kinds of wild headlines about the couple, including the persistent tabloid rumors that they have an "open marriage." Jada has said, "Will and I trust each other implicitly. I'm not the kind of woman who believes a man is not going to be attracted to other women. I'm just not that girl. And just because your man is attracted to other women, does not mean he doesn't love you!" Got that?

13 | Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard  

The indie actors met at a dinner party in 2002 and announced their pregnancy and engagement at the same time in 2006. They married in 2009 in a small private ceremony in Italy and live in New York City with their daughter, Ramona. In one of our favorite jokes from "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live, the two were given the unofficial "Bennifer" and "Brangelina"-style celebrity couple nickname of "Aaar-aaa." 

14 | Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher  

The man best known as Borat met Fisher at a party in Sydney, Australia, in 2002. They waited eight years to get married, during which time the Wedding Crashers actress spent three years studying so she could convert to Judaism.

"I will definitely have a Jewish wedding just to be with Sacha. I would do anything—move into any religion—to be united in marriage with him. We have a future together, and religion comes second to love as far as we are concerned," she said before their 2010 wedding.

15 | Mark Wahlberg and Rea Durham  

The couple's first date was at a church and they spent the next eight years together and had three children—Ella Rae, Michael, and Brendan Joseph Wahlberg—before marrying in 2009. When they said "I do," the ceremony was attended by their children and a few close friends and family at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Beverly Hills.

16 | Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber  

The supermodel and businessman married in 1998, three years after her headline-making divorce from Richard Gere (the couple famously spent $30,000 on a newspaper ad in The Times of London declaring their love and denying divorce rumors the year before their spilt).

Crawford and Gerber, who are BFFs with George and Amal Clooney, have both said they love their low-key family life in Malibu, where they raised their two kids, Kaia and Presley Gerber (who, not surprisingly are both hot models of the moment). Last year Crawford explained the secret to her successful marriage to The Daily Telegraph this way: "I make my husband a priority and don't take things for granted. If I'm away for three days, then I make sure I'm around the next week. I'm very realistic about how much time stuff takes and I find the balance."

17 | Elton John and David Furnish  

The singer and his partner got together in 1993. In 2005, they entered a civil partnership in England and legally married in 2015. Today, they're devoted fathers to their two sons, Zachary and Elijah Furnish-John.

18 | Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa

Sometimes the path to true love is pretty messy, which was the case with this long-time rock and roll couple. The Boss and his second wife first met at the Stone Pony, a well-known New Jersey bar in the early eighties. Springsteen was married to actress and model Julianne Phillips, but fell for Scialfa, who was in the E Street Band, and they had an affair. After Springsteen divorced Phillips in 1989, he moved in with Scialfa and married her in 1991. The couple, who live in New Jersey, have three children: Evan James, Jessica Rae, and Samuel Ryan.

19 | Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance  

The couple reportedly met at the Yale School of Drama, in 1980, long before they both became an award-winning actors. For nearly 14 years they were part of the same collegiate circle before their friendship turned into a love affair. They finally married in October 1997 and are the parents of twins born in January 2006 via surrogate after years of trying to conceive.

Their strong religious faith is something they have both said is important in keeping their marriage strong. Vance has said, "I've learned that the Lord is first and that my wife is the most important thing on this earth. The decisions in our marriage aren't easier, but they are clearer because of our relationship with God." Bassett believes, "God brought me a husband who loves me. But it is because I have a relationship with God, I can have a better relationship with my husband."

20 | Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka  

The How I Met Your Mother star and actor-chef Burtka started dating in 2004. "I initially fell for David harder than he fell for me," Harris told Out in 2012. "I was in love with him before he was comfortable saying it. I remember saying, ‘I think I love you,' and he was like, ‘That's really nice,' which is not necessarily what you want to hear. But I appreciated his honesty in not jumping the gun and saying something because he felt obliged to."

The dapper duo were together for a decade before saying "I do" in Italy in 2014 (Elton John performed at the ceremony!), with their twins, Harper Grace and Gideon Scott Burtka-Harris, in attendance.

Diane Clehane is a New York-based journalist and author of Imagining Diana and Diana: The Secrets of Her Style.

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