Is nothing sacred anymore? After seven years of marriage, Heidi Klum and Seal (who were once on this list, as were Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore) are reportedly splitting up. But an endangered group still exists: from Jeff Bridges and Susan Geston to Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols, here are some pairs we still believe in (and hope we didn't jinx).
Jeff and Susan Bridges met on a ranch in Montana in 1974. He was there acting in a comedy Western called Rancho Deluxe. She was a waitress and aspiring photographer. He fell in love at first sight, but she declined his request for a date. Bridges came back after filming wrapped, "kidnapped" Susan for a trip to Canada. The two married in 1977 and have been together ever since. "I'm so in love with her," he said recently. "The relationship just keeps getting better and more intimate and sexier and all that stuff. You don't want to mess around with that."
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Proving that marriage is not the only way to show commitment, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have remained Hollywood’s golden couple for 26 years. The two met while filming The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band in 1968, but sparks flew when they were reintroduced on the set of Swing Shift 15 years later, in 1983. Their union produced ’80s classic Overboard in 1987 and one child, son Wyatt Russell, now 23. The shockingly stable twosome has melded families with their children from previous marriages—Hawn’s Kate and Oliver Hudson and Russell’s son Boston. Though their relationship seems unflappable, Hawn’s red-carpet gowns are the only ones we’ll likely see her in. "There’s something about marriage I don’t like," the twice-divorced star told People. "The idea that Kurt gets to be my boyfriend is a sexy choice and incredibly fascinating."
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Rita Wilson first met future husband Tom Hanks on the set of his breakthrough role on Bosom Buddies in 1981, when she guest-starred as Peter Scolari’s Satan-worshipping girlfriend. But seeing Hanks dressed in drag wasn’t exactly a dealmaker for Wilson, who later developed romantic feelings for the actor while working on Volunteers in 1985. Three years later, they wed, and their careers took off both separately and together. Hanks and Wilson played siblings in Sleepless in Seattle in 1993 and unrelated characters in 1996’s That Thing You Do. They’ve also co-produced several films together, including My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Mamma Mia. Besides making movies, the two also have produced two sons, Chester and Truman, and yet they still don’t seem sick of each other after 21 years of marriage. "We always make each other laugh, have honest communication, and I never take him for granted," Wilson told Fox News earlier this year.
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Five years after Elton John came out, he met then-advertising executive David Furnish on Oct. 30, 1993, at a dinner party he was hosting. The musician reportedly asked Furnish for his phone number, and the two had a private dinner the following night, on Halloween. But their relationship was no trick or treat. John and his partner have had their trials and tribulations, but eventually they made their union official at a Dec. 21, 2005, ceremony at the Guidhall, Windsor, followed by a lavish affair at their Berkshire mansion. "Meeting David has been the greatest thing to happen to me," John told The Daily Mirror of his Rocket Man. "Yes, we spend a lot of time apart and it’s hard, but we make it work. We phone each other five or six times a day and we still send each other a card from wherever we are." Correspondence certainly helps the couple of 16 years maintain their romance, but so do flowers. Says John: "David’s best advice to me all the time is: ‘Just stop and smell the roses.’ But I don’t stop. I’m not one for looking back, I’m one for looking forward."
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Colin and Alma Powell’s quickie wedding has since turned into one of the strongest political marriages in an age when government infidelity runs rampant. The former secretary of State was set up with Alma Johnson in November 1961 in Boston. It was the first blind date for both Colin and Alma, and would be their last. Colin called the next day to ask his future wife out on a second date, writing in his 1995 book, My American Journey, that Alma "had everything I would ever want in a wife." "Alma must have loved me because I was not a romantic suitor," he wrote in his autobiography. "I did not even buy her an engagement ring… She was wise enough to know that the trappings tell little about success in marriage. ‘Don’t worry about the ring,’ she told me. ‘You can make it up to me later.’ Which I eventually did, with a fairly nice rock." Two weeks after his ring-less proposal, the pair married at the First Congregational Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Aug. 25, 1962, or as Powell called it, "my luckiest day." The couple has since had three children and Alma has been a devout wife and mother, she told Ebony it wasn't always an easy feat throughout their 47-year marriage: "You have to be a very strong person yourself. You have to have a certain sense of adventure and an awful lot of patience." But her husband’s temperament has helped. "Without exception, Colin is the calmest person I know. He gives me calm."
Gerald Herbert
Rarely does the mistress become the wife, but in a love story that seemed to have been written for British tabloids, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles have beaten the odds and become a power couple all their own. The two met at a polo match in 1970, and though Charles saw Bowles as his future wife, royal courtiers reportedly did not see her as a suitable companion for the future king. Three years later, she married Andrew Parker Bowles and the prince wed Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. But Charles and Camilla reportedly renewed their romance in the ’80s. As the affair became public knowledge a decade later, Camillagate exploded on the pages of the British papers, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana split soon afterward. The royals and public shunned the other woman, to whom Diana reportedly referred as "the Rottweiler." But in 2005, the prince and Parker Bowles were legally bound in a civil ceremony. Having weathered media firestorms, numerous scandals, and failed marriages during their 40 years on and off, Parker Bowles and the Prince of Wales, it seems, will always be each other’s "the one."
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Diane Sawyer had director Mike Nichols on her wish list before they even met. But love wasn’t what she was wishing for; she merely wanted 60 Minutes of his time as a profile subject for the CBS program, for which she was a correspondent. When they met in an airport waiting room in Paris in 1986, however, things changed. A lunch arranged to discuss business turned into a heated romance, and the two have been together since (nearing 23 years). "He’s generous and adventurous and a little wild and utterly kind. It’s that combination of something you’re completely sure of and something dangerous and interesting. And he’s also the funniest man on the face of the earth," Sawyer told People of her husband. Nichols shares her sentiments, reportedly saying of Sawyer, "When I first met my wife, I thought nobody can be that perfect. But she is." Fourth time seems to be the charm for the television legend.
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It seems only natural that two tennis stars would end up together, but Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s romance did not fall into place so smoothly, with courtside sightings and overlapping practice schedules. The two rarely saw each other during their burgeoning relationship, but that didn’t stop the then-married Agassi from sending Graf a bouquet of roses while she was dating a German racecar driver. "She thought I was a dog," Agassi told Vogue. But they both saw something special in each other. "Each rose was stunning," Graf told the magazine. "You felt every petal had reached the perfect moment of its bloom." And although she knew he was married, she said he "definitely got into my head," former mullet and all. Shortly after the bouquet bequest, Agassi and Brooke Shields’ divorce was finalized, and he began courting Graf. The star athletes married in 2001, making them an unbeatable match.
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Proving opposites do attract, Nan grew up with the desire to become a nun, and Gay grew up openly saying, "Sure, I would have liked to screw my mother," according to New York magazine. What began as conflicting ideals turned into a budding romance—and the fact that Nan indeed looked like Gay’s mother certainly helped. After two years of dating, the two literature fanatics married, not inside, but outside of a church to demonstrate Gay’s position as a fallen Catholic in 1959. Despite bumps in the road due to Gay’s in-depth, hands-on research for his novel about the sexual revolution, they’ve remained together. "Marriage is not a love story," Gay told the New York Daily News. "It’s a friendship, a friendship you can’t do without. Sex is not important. Sex you can get anywhere." But despite his viewpoint, Nan says their relationship has been "far from ‘open.’" Monogamous or not, the writer and editor’s acceptance of each other and realistic mind-set of what a marriage should be serves as a strong glue in their relationship.
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One Texas barbecue and a date at a miniature golf course later, George W. and Laura Bush took a walk down the aisle. "We had known each other about two and a half months," she told ET of the proposal. "But I knew I wanted to marry him." The political powerhouse couple had similar interests and values, and most important, they knew they wanted to make it last. "George and I have learned one important thing: Whatever happens in life, we handle it," Laura told Tango magazine, and they have certainly endured and persevered through enough trials to prove it. The two have loyally remained by each other’s sides for 33 years, and she publicly supported George W. throughout his tumultuous years as president, for which, he says, he will forever be grateful. "I saw an elegant, beautiful woman who turned out not only to be elegant and beautiful, but very smart and willing to put up with my rough edges," he told CNN while serving as governor of Texas. "And I must confess she has smoothed them off over time."
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Arrested Development actress Portia de Rossi and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres were both at the tail end of long-term relationships when they rekindled a spark that had been ignited five years before. Though it’s been reported they met backstage at VH1’s Big in ’04 Awards on Dec. 1 of that year, their romance, at least from de Rossi’s perspective, began long before that night. "There was a lot of chemistry between us," she told The Advocate of their initial meeting, when she was starring on Ally McBeal and closeted. "I really never stopped thinking about her, because I just haven’t felt that kind of energy with anyone in my life." But after five years of buildup, those feelings and thoughts could no longer be ignored when they were reintroduced in 2004 at a photo shoot and the aforementioned awards show. DeGeneres, de Rossi says, took her breath away. "That had never happened to me in my life, where I saw somebody and [experienced] all of those things you hear about in songs and read about in poetry. My knees were weak," she told The Advocate. "We just were kind of supposed to be together." And in 2008, comedienne DeGeneres made sure they would be, when she proposed with a three-carat pink diamond ring. In an intimate 19-guest wedding at their Los Angeles home, the couple wed on Aug. 16, 2008. With de Rossi constantly in the audience at DeGeneres’ show and their initial undeniable connection, this five-year romance seems to have staying power.
Dan Steinberg / AP Photo
