Nicole Pomarico is a full-time freelance entertainment writer living in Atlanta. Her work can be found in Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly,Refinery29, and more.
Celebrity weddings seem to go one of two ways: Either the stars celebrate with a massive spectacle, occasionally a TV special (hi, Kim Kardashian), and spend the months and weeks beforehand filling their fans in on all the planning details, or we find out later that, actually, they’ve been married for weeks (or months!) and we had no idea. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of in between. And though you’d think it would be hard to pull off a secret wedding in Hollywood, it can be done—and it has been done, many, many times. Whether they got hitched in intimate ceremonies in their own backyards, headed down to city hall, or used their special star resources to keep everything quiet, these are the celebrity couples who pulled off top-secret weddings. And for the famous pairs who've stayed together, here are The Longest-Lasting Marriages in Hollywood.
1 | Beyoncé and Jay-Z
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Beyoncé and Jay-Z may be one of the most famous couples in the world, but they still managed to keep their wedding celebraton under wraps. It was months after their April 2008 nuptials that news broke they were officially married, and years after that when photos and video from their wedding were played on screens at the couple’s 2014 On The Run tour.
Add these two to the list of couples who pulled off secret weddings right in their own domain. In 2015, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Therouxgot married at their Los Angeles home, and not only did the public not know they were getting married—neither did their guests! Reportedly, everyone invited thought they were going to Theroux’s birthday party, only to find out it was a wedding when they arrived. That’s one way to keep the secret!
3 | Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost
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A year after getting engaged, Scarlett Johansson and Saturday Night Live's Colin Jost made things official, and they shared the news in a pretty sweet way. They let the official Meals on Wheels Instagram account be the ones to make the announcement in October 2020. "We’re thrilled to break the news that Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost were married over the weekend in an intimate ceremony with their immediate family and loved ones, following COVID-19 safety precautions as directed by the CDC," the post read.
Though Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi had originally been planning on a huge, traditional royal wedding, the coronavirus pandemic caused them to postpone their May nuptials. At first, it seemed like Beatrice and Mozzi would have their wedding at a later date, but in July 2020, the royal family announced that they’d actually said their vows in a tiny ceremony in Windsor with extra precautions taken so Queen Elizabeth could be there.
5 | Niecy Nash and Jessica Bettes
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Back in August 2020, Claws star Niecy Nash revealed that not only was she married, but she had also married a woman, when in the past—as far as fans knew, anyway—she had only been romantically linked to men. In an Instagram post, she shared a photo from her wedding ceremony, introducing her wife, singer Jessica Betts, and using the hashtag #LoveWins.
Since his ultra-public breakup from wrestler Nikki Bella in 2018, John Cena opted to keep his relationship with model Shay Shariatzadeh as private as he possibly could, and that included their wedding. They hadn't even announced an engagement when news broke that Cena and Shariatzadeh had gotten married in Tampa, Florida. Their nuptials took place the first week of October 2020, and they still haven’t shared any of the finer details. Maybe we'll never know!
7 | Hilary Duff and Matthew Koma
Instagram/matthewkoma
In December 2019, Hilary Duff and musician Matthew Koma managed to pull off a secret wedding by getting married in their backyard. The world was none the wiser until the news was leaked after their big day, and the couple proudly shared photos from their low-key celebration on Instagram.
This love was so secret that no one even knew Miranda Lambert was in a relationship to begin with when she announced to the world that she and Brendan McLoughlin were married! In February 2019, the country singer took to social media to share that she was officially spoken for, writing, “In honor of Valentine’s Day I wanted to share some news. I met the love of my life. And we got hitched! My heart is full. Thank you Brendan Mcloughlin for loving me for.... Me.”
9 | Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka
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Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka easily kept their 2014 wedding off the radar by tying the knot in Italy surrounded by their friends and family and filling everyone in on it later. Two full days after the wedding, Harris confirmed the wedding on Twitter, sharing a photo from their ceremony.
One Tree Hill star Hilarie Burton and The Walking Dead's Jeffrey Dean Morgan had been together for more than a decade and were raising two kids by the time they got married until 2019. And since so many people assumed they were married already, they managed to keep their actual wedding under the radar. After the fact, Burton shared a wedding photo on Instagram. “From the moment I met @jeffreydeanmorgan, he was my husband. Rather than make vows right out of the gate, we lived them. For over ten years. The good times and the bad,” she wrote. “Standing up there with our children at our sides—celebrating all that has been—was bliss.”
11 | Benji Madden and Cameron Diaz
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Part of the reason that Benji Madden and Cameron Diaz managed to keep their wedding such a secret is the fact that they got married in their living room! As Diaz later explained to Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM radio show (via Hello!), they invited their closest friends and celebrated afterwards with a party in the backyard on their tennis court.
12 | Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
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Of course, they’re no longer together, but nearly 10 years into their relationship, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt got married, keeping the ceremony a secret. A select 20 guests were invited to their estate in Correns, France, to celebrate the big day, and the couple only shared the more intimate details of the day after they’d had time to enjoy it with their children.
13 | Amy Schumer and Chris Fischer
YouTube/Late Night with Seth Meyers
Considering how low-key Amy Schumer and Chris Fischer were when they were just dating, it’s no surprise that nothing changed when they got married. Reports of their wedding surfaced after it happened in 2018, and Schumer simply confirmed them with an Instagram photo of her and her new husband in their wedding attire, captioned merely, “yup.”
14 | Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz
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Are we really surprised that the man best known for playing the world's most elite secret agent kept his wedding confidential? Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig got married in June 2011 in an intimate ceremony in New York City—so intimate that only four people attended and the public still knows virtually nothing about the event.
15 | Alexis Bledel and Vincent Kartheiser
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Much like Alexis Bledel managed to hide her pregnancy, she also hid her wedding to Mad Men star Vincent Kartheiser. In 2014, Bledel’s rep confirmed to E! that the couple had gotten married, but no other details have ever surfaced since then, and at this point, they probably never will.
16 | Ellen Page and Emma Portner
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It wasn’t until after Ellen Page and choreographer Emma Portner were already married that the former shared the good news with her fans on Instagram. Posting a photo of their hands sporting their brand new wedding bands (along with other photos of the couple), Page wrote, "Can’t believe I get to call this extraordinary woman my wife."
17 | Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell
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After years of dating, Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell finally decided to make things official by getting married in 2013. They kept things extremely chill, though, getting married in a small ceremony at the Beverly Hills courthouse. They’ve since shared funny photos from their day on Instagram now and then, but haven’t placed much emphasis on the wedding itself—before getting married, they’d always said that their commitment to each other was bigger than a piece of paper.
18 | Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski
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Mamma Mia's Amanda Seyfried and The Newsroom actor Thomas Sadoski quietly got married in March 2017, and as she later told PorterEdit, it was easy to keep a secret because they kept their wedding to just the two of them.
“We got married in Topanga, March last year. Just the two of us,” she told the site in 2018. “And afterwards, I was like, ‘Can we just go to Cheebo?’ It was awesome.'”
19 | Kathy Griffin and Randy Bick
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In January 2020, Kathy Griffin surprised fans when she announced that she had married Randy Bick in a ceremony that had been officiated by comedian Lily Tomlin. She didn’t stop there, though—she even shared a video of the 14-minute ceremony with her followers on social media, allowing her to maintain her privacy while also sharing her joy with her fans.
20 | Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied
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As Vogue reported at the time, Natalie Portman was partially able to pull off her secret wedding to choreographer Benjamin Millepied in August 2012 because they got married at a private home in Big Sur, California. They kept things as private as possible while still celebrating with friends and family, though some details—including that they went with a vegan menu and gave out packets of wildflower seeds as wedding favors—still leaked.
21 | Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Lauren Hashian
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In August 2019, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson married his longtime love, Lauren Hashian, in Hawaii, keeping it a secret until after the vows were done. In one of his Instagram posts about their big day, Johnson explained a bit about how they were able to wed so quietly.
“To carry out my #1 goal of complete privacy, no wedding planners or outside resources were hired. Everything you see was created by hand, by staff and family only,” he wrote.
22 | Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford
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Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford are practically an institution as far as Hollywood couples go, and even they were able to keep their nuptials from being tabloid fodder. After over a decade together, they got married in 2010 in a very private ceremony at the governor’s mansion in Santa Fe, New Mexico, sharing the news later publicly.
23 | Matt Bomer and Simon Halls
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Matt Bomer and publicist Simon Halls secretly got married in 2011—before Bomer had actually publicly come out. It was in a 2014 interview with Details (via People) that Bomer revealed the pair had actually been married for years at that point, and somehow, nobody caught on. That’s next-level secret-keeping.
24 | Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha
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It wasn’t until a month after Kerry Washington and pro football player Nnamdi Asomugha’s wedding that the news of it broke publicly—and that was only because People managed to obtain a copy of the marriage license. They’ve been married since 2013, and are still extremely private about their relationship, so whatever they’re doing, it must be working!