Dolly Parton Met Her Husband Outside A Laundromat, And 14 Other Celebs Who Have The Most Adorable Stories About How They Met Their Partners
Conan O’Brien met his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, in 1999 while filming a segment for Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
1. First, M*A*S*H star Alan Alda met his wife, Arlene Alda, in 1956 at a mutual friend’s dinner party while they were both college students at Fordham and Hunter College, respectively. They met after a rum cake fell on the floor, and they were the only two guests who didn’t hesitate to eat the cake anyway. They’ve been married since 1957 and share three children.
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In 2021, the section detailing their meet-cute from Alan’s Wikipedia page went viral. He replied to the viral tweet, writing, “We did eat the rum cake off the floor and were inseparable after that. But I was captivated by her even earlier in the meal when I heard her at the end of the table laughing at my jokes. She had me at Ha.”
2. Riz Ahmed met his wife, author Fatima Farheen Mirza when they both sat down at the same table at a coffee shop in NYC. They were both there to write, with Riz preparing for his role in Sound of Metal. They started talking after they both reached down to plug their laptops in. They’ve been married since 2020.
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“We were both jostling over the same laptop plug points, like a very modern way of meeting,” Riz told The Tonight Show in 2021.
He continued saying, “We struck up a friendship, and we reconnected down the line. But it’s weirdly one of the many things about preparing for this role that was so special. It just brought a lot of goodness into my life.”
3. Dolly Parton met her husband, Carl Dean while walking down the street in Nashville while doing laundry at a laundromat. According to Dolly, “This guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.” They’ve been married since 1966.
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In an interview with the New York Times in 1976, Dolly said that she wouldn’t go out with him at first. She said, “He came up every day that week, and we set out on the porch. I wouldn’t even take him in the house. Then my aunt got a day off, and she could keep the kid [Dolly’s nephew] and that was my first chance to go anywhere with Carl and he drove me straight to his folks’ house and introduced me to his mother and daddy. Cause he said he knew right the minute he saw me that that’s the one he wanted.”
4. Killing Eve and Harry Potter star Fiona Shaw met her wife, economist Sonali Deraniyagala, after reading Sonali’s memoir. Titled Wave, the book details how Sonali lost her husband, children, and parents during the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. They’ve been married since 2018.
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In an interview with Radio Times, per Express, Fiona recalled, “I was so surprised she was that person, not the person in the book. We spent half an hour chatting. And when I left, I thought, ‘I have just met life.'”
“I understand the value of things by being with Sonali. She lives knowing that at any moment the world could end because she lost her world. It has brought me into land, I suppose, about lots of things; a lack of arbitrariness about life,” Fiona said in an interview with Good Housekeeping.
5. Colman Domingo met his husband, Raúl Domingo, in 2005 after they spotted each other at Walgreens. Three days later, while on Craigslist looking for a used computer, Colman saw a missed connections ad that Raúl placed that said, “Saw you outside of Walgreens. Berkley.” They’ve been married since 2014.
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While telling the story on The Graham Norton Show, Colman added, “He described me with my fauxhawk. It was 2005. And I was like, Get out of here. We met up three days later. We had our first date. I was trying to be a good boy and go home. He said, ‘Can you stay over?’ I said, ‘Sure. But let’s just cuddle.’ We cuddled. I thought he was asleep. Four o’clock in the morning, I couldn’t sleep, and I said, ‘I think I love you, and you’re about to change my life.'”
6. Author Stephen King met his wife, Tabitha King, while they were both attending the University of Maine at Orono. While working at the Fogler Library as students, the duo met “in the stacks.” They’ve been married for 53 years and share three children.
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During his speech at the National Book Foundation in 2003, Stephen talked about Tabitha, saying, “She’d read my stuff and felt certain I’d someday support us by writing full-time. She never made a big deal of this. It was just a fact of our lives. We lived in a trailer, and she made a writing space for me in the tiny laundry room with a desk and her Olivetti portable between the washer and dryer.”
He continued, saying, “When I gave up on Carrie, it was Tabby who rescued the first few pages of single-spaced manuscript from the wastebasket, told me it was good, said I ought to go on. When I told her I didn’t know how to go on, she helped me.”
7. Bono met his wife, Ali Stewart, when he was just 13 years old while they both attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School. Ali was a year below him in school, and he was her “first real boyfriend” when they were 15 and 16, respectively. They got married in 1982 and have four children together, including actor Eve Hewson, who stars in Bad Sisters and The Perfect Couple.
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“He was my first real boyfriend,” Ali told The Telegraph in 2008, per People. “It was 1976 that we got together — the same year that the band formed. I saw their first gig in our school gym.”
In a profile with the Irish Independent, Ali revealed that following Bono’s mom’s sudden death in 1973, she helped him. Often making sure he got to school, came to dinner at her parents’ house, and more.
8. Yellowstone star Cole Hauser met his wife, Cynthia Daniel, at his mother’s house 31 years ago. She was friends with his sister, Vanessa, and Cole said as soon as she walked by the window, “Time stopped.” They got married in 2006 and have three children.
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In an interview with The Drew Barrymore Show, Cole recalled, “When you meet people in your life who are important, that should be there for life, certainly with my wife, when she walked by my mother’s window, time stopped, and I was like, Who is that?“
He said he immediately asked his sister who Cynthia was and if she could invite her over for dinner.
9. Conan O’Brien met his wife, Liza Powel O’Brien, in 1999 while filming a segment for Late Night with Conan O’Brien at the advertising agency where Liza worked at the time. In an interview on the Inside Conan podcast, Liza said that Conan has never watched the segment, saying, “He’s never watched it … he wants to remember it instead. Which is sweet, but it’s like … are you afraid you’re gonna reconsider?” They’ve been married since 2002 and share two children.
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On an episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast in 2020, Conan talked about meeting his wife, saying, “I immediately start talking to her [Liza], and then I’m not even trying to be funny … I’m just trying to find out more about this woman.”
He continued, saying, “Then I left the room after this 20-minute conversation with only her … We were breaking down the equipment, and she walks out. We start talking some more, and then we end up talking in the lobby.”
10. Sterling K. Brown met his wife, Ryan Michelle Bathe, when they lived in the same dorm their freshman year at Stanford, where they did their first play together. However, they were both born at the same hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating from Stanford, they attended NYU together and eventually started dating. They’ve been married since 2006 and share two children.
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Speaking about their college romance, Sterling recalled to OWN, “She said this whole thing about, ‘When we leave this place, there are going to be people that you keep in contact with, and there are gonna be some people that you just fall out. And you don’t see them ever again. And the idea of you being one of those people breaks my heart, and I really don’t want that to be the case.'”
Ryan also guest starred on Army Wives and This Is Us, while Sterling starred in both series.
11. Catherine O’Hara met her husband, Bo Welch, on the set of Beetlejuice in 1988. Bo was the production designer on the film, while Catherine starred as Delia Deetz. “Our first day of shooting at the house was the day that Bo finally asked me out,” Catherine said in an interview with InStyle. They got married in 1992 and share two children.
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In an interview with Uproxx, Bo recalled that director Tim Burton suggested he ask Catherine out while working on the movie. “Towards the end of the movie, Tim told me, we were shooting in Vermont, ‘You should ask Catherine out.’ And I said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, you should ask her out.’ It didn’t even occur to me that I was even supposed to talk to actors. But since Tim told me to, I did, and then we dated, and we’re married, and here we are today.”
The duo recently got to walk the red carpet together for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
12. Martin Short met his late wife, Nancy Dolman while performing in Godspell in 1972. Martin played Jeffrey, while Nancy was an understudy. They got married in 1980, with Nancy eventually taking a break from acting to raise their three children.
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In 2010, Nancy sadly died after battling ovarian cancer.
In an interview with AARP in 2019, Martin opened up about losing his wife and their marriage, saying, “Our marriage was a triumph. So it’s tough. She died in 2010, but I still communicate with her all the time. It’s ‘Hey, Nan,’ you know? How would she react to this decision or that, especially regarding our three kids. I believe that when people die, they zoom into the people that love them. This idea that it just ends, and don’t speak of them — that’s wrong. That’s based on denial that we’re all going to die. So, to me, she’s still here.”
13. Harry Potter actor Matthew Lewis met his wife, Angela Jones, in 2016 while she was working at a “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” event at Universal Studios in Florida. She was a VIP event manager for the resort at an event. They’ve been married since 2018
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Writing about their relationship on her blog, Sunshine State of Me, Angela wrote, per Bustle, “I never believed in soul mates until we met. We came from two different countries, 4,334 miles apart, and yet we were one and the same. A few months after meeting, he proposed to me in Paris during my first trip abroad. Yes, it’s been that kind of fairytale thing.”
14. America Ferrera met her husband, Ryan Piers Williams when he cast her in a student film in 2005. She was a student at the University of Southern California, while he had just graduated. The duo got married in 2011 and they share two children.
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The short film was titled Muertas and called attention to the ongoing murders of women and young girls in Juarez, Mexico. At the time, Ryan told El Paso Inc., “You can’t predict how people are going to respond. You can only hope that you’re going to inspire somebody to want to learn more about the issue.”
To celebrate their anniversary in 2023, America penned a heartfelt Instagram post that read: “Happy Anniversary to my emergency contact. My person and home for 18 years.”
Notably, Ryan played America’s husband in Barbie.
15. And finally, Ralph Maccio met his wife, Phyllis Fierro when he was just 15 years old at a birthday party in his grandmother’s basement. She was a friend of Ralph’s cousin, and the duo hung out at the party together and even “danced a little.” They’ve been married for 36 years and share two children.
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In an interview with People, Ralph shared their adorable meet-cute story, saying, “This is 1970 or whatever, so this is Cheez Doodles, 7Up, Tootsie Rolls, probably the Ruffles with onion dip. She was a friend of my cousin, and we just smiled and talked and danced a little. Probably the Hustle.”
Seven years after they met, Ralph would become a household name when he starred as Daniel LaRusso in The Karate Kid when he was just 22 years old.
