Adam Levine: Strange Things About His Marriage

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and Victoria's Secret Angel Behati Prinsloo are at the top of their careers, totally in love, and share a beautiful family together. Best known as the pop rock group's lead singer, Levine's vocals have dominated our radio airwaves for years with countless hits: "She Will Be Loved," "Moves Like Jagger," "Sugar." Amid his longtime gig as a judge on The Voice, this Grammy Award-winning artist has also ventured into acting, with roles in American Horror Story and Begin Again. Namibian-born supermodel Prinsloo has also enjoyed a successful career in her own right. In addition to her iconic work with Victoria's Secret, she's modeled for multiple high-end designers, including Versace, Alexander Wang, and Ralph Lauren (via Harper's Bazaar). Prinsloo has also appeared in Maroon 5's music videos for "Animals," "Wait," and "Girls Like You."

While these two have been killing it in multiple fields for years, there's more to their seemingly perfect relationship than what meets the eye. How much do you really know about this gorgeous power couple? Here are some of the stranger facts about Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo's marriage.

Before he settled down with Behati Prinsloo, the "She Will Be Loved" singer earned a bad reputation as a playboy. In 2001, Adam Levine broke up with high school sweetheart and former Vogue editor Jane Herman, who inspired his band's debut album, Songs About Jane. Afterward, he exclusively dated A-list stars, including Jessica Simpson and Cameron Diaz. During his serial modelizer days, he was romantically linked with Janine Habeck, Angela Bellotte, Nina Agdal, and Anne Vyalitsyna.

"There's two kinds of men: There are men who are f**king misogynist pigs, and then there are men who just really love women, who think they're the most amazing people in the world. And that's me," Levine told Details in 2012 (via E! News). "Maybe the reason I was promiscuous, and wanted to sleep with a lot of them, is that I love them so much."

It was not love at first sight for this couple. Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo chatted online in 2012 before meeting in person on the set of Maroon 5's boxing-themed music video for "One More Night."

"We kind of started talking over email, back and forth for months," the Namibia-born model told Access Hollywood Live in 2014. "I was kind of making fun of him. We talked over email for such a long time and then went to LA and we met for the first time." She added, "When we met finally, face to face ... I walked through the door and was like, 'What am I doing here?' And he had his [boxing] gloves on and was like, 'This is awkward, hi!'"

They moved past their uncomfortable meet-cute, and then this slow-burn romance quickly heated up. Levine and Prinsloo were caught kissing while vacationing in Hawaii shortly after, before making their red carpet debut in October at the GQ Gentlemen's Ball in New York City.

After less than a year of dating, Levine and Prinsloo briefly split in May 2013 — but it wasn't long before the "Payphone" singer rebounded with Sports Illustrated supermodel Nina Agdal. According to a source cited by Us Weekly at the time: "Behati was in and out, but they finally ended it. It wasn't an abrupt ending."

However, that break apparently catapulted Levine and Prinsloo to the next step of their relationship. By July 2013, the on-and-off couple was engaged! "It was love at first sight, it was crazy," Prinsloo told Net-A-Porter in 2019. "We broke up for two months, realized that it was the worst decision, then got back together, got engaged and got married. It was a wild ride!"

While Levine figured things out with his future wife, he apparently left Agdal in the dark. "Adam just went MIA on Nina and stopped answering her calls," one insider alleged. The same source claimed Levine "finally told [Agdal] about Behati in a text message," leaving the supermodel "heartbroken." Yikes.

It's safe to say that Levine's marriage proposal didn't exactly go as planned. The normally confident pop star was reportedly so anxious that his grand romantic gesture became super awkward and confusing. "Doesn't matter how certain you think you are," the "This Love" crooner said on Live with Kelly & Michael. "You still get down on that knee and ... you just get woozy and you're like, 'I'm doing this. Oh my God.'"

Levine added, "I got down on that knee and everything changed immediately. I lost my equilibrium. I had to get on the other one." At one point, The Voice judge was at a loss for words and told his bride-to-be, "'Both knees. Like look, I got on both knees.' And it didn't sound charming at all ... She was like, 'What?'"

Prinsloo, of course, said yes. "It was very simple," she told Access Hollywood Live. "It was nothing crazy, but it was the way I wanted it. He called my dad. It was very nice, very romantic."

When Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo got hitched, apparently no one was more surprised than the groom. "If you don't get married, you can't get divorced," the "Lost Stars" singer told Nylon Guys in April 2013 — just months before popping the question (via Page Six). The singer-songwriter, whose parents split when he was 7, added, "Why couldn't we learn from the devastatingly low percentage of successful marriages that our last generation went through?"

Ultimately, Levine's relationship with Prinsloo forced him to face his fears and change his point of view. During his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that October, the titular host said, "I remember talking to you one time, you telling me you were never going to get married, and now you're engaged. Tell me what happened here" (via E! News). Levine jokingly replied, "Famous last words, 'I'll never get married.'" However, the singer added, "I still don't necessarily think you have to get married unless you meet someone that makes you want to marry them."

Just ahead of the couple's big day, reports surfaced that Levine had reached out to all of his exes because he wanted to kick off his marriage with a clean slate. "He apologized for how he treated them," an insider told Us Weekly. While Levine may have intended for the alleged gesture to be noble, it apparently didn't go over well with all of his former flames — some reportedly weren't interested in making amends with the singer.

As the world mulled over whether Levine's alleged phone calls were totally odd or super sweet, the singer himself spoke out against the chatter during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show (via E! News). Calling the rumor a "total fabrication," he told the shock jock, "I'd like to clear the record right now, I totally did not do that." However, Levine did grapple with how he actually felt about the reported move. "It sounds like a fantastic idea ... I kinda wish I had done that," he admitted, before backtracking. "It's so selfish and arrogant to call. 'Sorry, it didn't work out between us because you weren't good enough for me.' It's kinda f**ked up to do that actually." Are you sure? Final answer?

After a year-long engagement, Levine and Prinsloo tied the knot in July 2014 at Flora Farms in Los Cabos, Mexico. While their destination wedding was a massive, star-studded affair, one of the more surprising elements about their big day was that is was officiated by actor Jonah Hill — who Levine's apparently been friends with since childhood (via The Huffington Post). "Adam knew that he was putting himself [in] good hands by having Jonah officiate," a source told Us Weekly. 

Of course, Hill wasn't the only celeb at Levine and Prinsloo's wedding. According to Brides, the ceremony was attended by 300 guests, including Jason Segel, Erin Heatherton, Candice Swanepoel, and Robert Downey, Jr. Oh, by the way, Maroon 5, Prinsloo, Sublime, and Stevie Nicks all performed at the reception — no big deal.

"Adam and Behati set out to make this the most fun wedding that anybody had ever experienced and they truly did just that," Us Weekly's source noted. 

If you ask Adam Levine, married life didn't affect the dynamic of his romance with Behati Prinsloo. It did, however, make him feel like a new man. "The relationship doesn't change," the "Wait" singer said during an interview with On Air With Ryan Seacrest, shortly after tying the knot with Prinsloo (via People). However, Levine said personally had changed "in a great way" since getting hitched. Explaining that he believes marriage makes a man feel "slightly more masculine," Levine said, "If it's the right marriage, if it's the right person, the guy feels a little bit more like a man."

Levine perhaps summed it up best while gushing over his wife to Us Weekly:"She makes me the best person I can be. She's the best in the world." He also counted his blessings during his Hollywood Walk of Fame speech in 2017. According to Entertainment Tonight, Levine said, "I have a daughter, I have the most beautiful wife in the entire world. I am the luckiest person who has ever lived, and it has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the people who love me." (We're not crying, you are!)

A year after the couple got hitched, multiple outlets reported that the honeymoon stage was officially over, reporting that the marriage was on the rocks. "Adam's acting like the same playboy he was before they wed, and that's a problem for his wife," a source told Radar Online in July 2015. "He goes out all the time and hangs out with other models." The insider added, "Behati has had trust issues. She never wanted to be that nagging wife, but now she is, constantly calling or texting Adam to see where he's at. It's driving him crazy — and pushing him further away."

While neither Levine nor Prinsloo commented on the nasty rumors plaguing their marriage — which ranged from cheating allegations to divorce hearsay — even shadier reports later circulated online. The pair's decision to sell its Soho loft in October 2016 further fueled speculation of marriage woes, including an unfounded rumor that fellow The Voice judge Miley Cyrus had caused problems for the couple. Earlier that year, Star Magazine also ran a false report that Levine and Prinsloo had their first child, daughter Dusty Rose, in a last-ditch attempt to save their marriage.

The couple, who starred together in Maroon 5's "Animals" music video, marked its marriage in an unconventional way — with tattoos. "I wanted a ring [tattoo], but everybody does the ring. So I did three dots," Prinsloo told Yahoo! Style in 2014. "It means being one with the earth. And I just wanted it on my ring finger so when I take [my engagement ring] off, it's still there!" For his part, Levine went a bit more extreme by getting "True Love" tattooed across his knuckles. "The truest," the Victoria's Secret angel wrote, captioning a snapshot of her husband's serious ink on Instagram.

The married pair also got matching tattoos, which read, "you're so cool, you're so cool, you're so cool." Prinsloo told Entertainment Tonight that hers is on her side and Levine's matching tat is on his right bicep. Let's just hope these two never get sick of their ink because tattoo removal can be one long process.

This married pair may have its fair share of quirks, but at the end of the day, Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo are still total #RelationshipGoals. These two never take themselves too seriously and are known to share their funniest and cutest moments on social media. Some of our faves include the couple hilariously donning matching baby bumps; going all out with '80s-themed Halloween costumes; and celebrating their anniversary. 

We dare fans not to audibly "aww" when Levine gushes about his wife. "I'm blown away by her," he told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres in 2018, following Prinsloo' post-pregnancy return to the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show runway. "I mean, honestly, she, once again, blows me away at every turn. So, she is incredible. I mean, I was there and I was just watching in awe." The proud husband added, "Much more importantly, she's the best person ever." 

Months earlier, Prinsloo shared a heartfelt Instagram post about Levine, which read, in part: "Our girls are so lucky to call you dad and I'm so lucky to have you as a husband a lover and a friend. We love you. Life is better with you." Seriously, how sweet are these two?