The Moment These Celebrities Knew Their Partners Were The One

All's fair in love and war, and there's nothing quite the love and the war that comes with a celebrity relationship. One moment, Pamela Anderson was setting a record for Tinseltown's shortest unformalized marriage — a whole of twelve days — and the next, her not-so-legal ex-husband, Jon Peters was leaving the "Baywatch" star a whopping $10 million inheritance. Of course, Hollywood romances aren't always full of conflict and legal drama. Some feature adorable meet-cutes and charming memories of the day they realized their other half was "the one." Quite frankly, there are a number that sound like something straight out of something you would see on the silver screen.

From being set up by mutual friends and connecting over dating apps to crossing paths at industry events and clicking on movie sets, stars fall in love with their significant others in all sorts of ways. Take "Jane the Virgin" star Gina Rodriguez and her husband, Joe LoCicero, for example. "He came onto 'Jane.' He was playing Don Quixote, the stripper," Rodriguez recalled on an episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." When Fallon whipped out a photo of LoCicero on "Jane the Virgin," Rodriguez joked it was exactly when she knew he was the one. Although the "Deepwater Horizon" actor was just kidding, there are celebrity lovebirds who have a vivid recollection of when cupid's arrow struck. Let's find out who they are.

The beginning of the relationship between television host Stephen Colbert and wife Evelyn McGee is an endearing story that, if told on the big screen, would give "The Notebook" a run for its money. As Colbert shared during a "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Q&A session, before he met his wife, he had been seeing a woman who was ready to get married — so much so, she gave him an ultimatum. Colbert, however, wasn't so sure. So he headed to his hometown to spend time with his family and think it over. 

During his visit, his mother offered him tickets to a musical, and it was a show that would change his life. "So, I go," he recalled. "I walk into the lobby with my mom, and I'm wearing a sharkskin suit ... I'm about forty pounds lighter than I am now ... and I walk in and I see across the lobby this woman. .... Beautiful woman in a black linen dress ... and I think, 'Her!'"

McGee and Colbert clocked twenty-nine years of marriage in October 2022. Of course, she showed up on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" for a celebration. Asked whether she had a hunch they'd be together that long, McGee's answer was an emphatic "Yes!"

Pauletta Washington and Denzel Washington first met on the set of the 1977 Wilma Rudolph biopic, "Wilma." Denzel portrayed the lead character's lover-turned-spouse, while his future real-life partner Pauletta (née Pearson) played the role of an athlete. "I met her then, but I didn't 'meet' her then," Denzel said on "Live with Kelly and Ryan." A year went by before Denzel and Pauletta crossed paths again at an event hosted by a cast member of "Wilma." The two of them got reacquainted. The following night, a serendipitous encounter at the theater bound them together.

"I attended a play and I got there late," Pauletta detailed on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." "So I snuck in and just sat down. I didn't look at who was around me and at intermission, the lights came up and we were sitting next to each other." While this might sound like fate brought them together, Denzel pointed out to Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest that he'd mentioned going to see that very play that very night when they were chatting at the aforementioned party. "She said she just happened to go see this," he laughed. "I'm getting in trouble as I speak." Charming coincidence or not, it's still a cute story.

Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith initially saw each other at a "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" tryout. "They told me I was too short, but you were there," Jada recalled to her husband on a "Red Table Talk" episode titled "Becoming Mr. & Mrs. Smith." Jada went on to feature on "The Cosby Show" spin-off "A Different World," through which she piqued Will's interest. As luck would have it, his co-star Alfonso Ribeiro happened to know Jada and was up for introducing the two. However, Will ended up hitting it off with "Our Journey" actor Sheree Zampino first, and they would get married and have a son, Trey Smith.

Up until that juncture, Will and Jada seemed to be star-crossed lovers. "We had all of these near-misses and every time we saw each other, it was always a beautiful energy," Will said on "Red Table Talk." However, after Will and Jada attended an event with mutual friends Duane Martin and Tisha Campbell, they realized their connection was too strong to ignore. But again, Will was still married to Zampino at the time. 

"I remember I had to get up from dinner when I had a realization that I wasn't with the person I was supposed to be with," Will said. It wasn't until later that a divorce ensued, and what followed was a  lot of unraveling, especially between Jada and Zampino, the former of whom became a stepmom to Trey.

When Emily Blunt came face to face with "The Office" actor John Krasinski, she was quite content without a partner and really wasn't looking for love. "I was sitting with a mutual friend [at a restaurant], and we were talking and discussing how much I was enjoying being single," "The Devil Wears Prada" star recalled in a chat with PeopleTV. "And then, she goes, 'Oh my God! There's my friend John!' And that was it."

Krasinski, who was at a table with Justin Theroux, found his way to the table Blunt shared with her friend. "He did not eat. He just stood there and made me laugh," Blunt chronicled on "Late Night with Seth Meyers." At that point, Blunt hadn't watched the American adaptation of "The Office," so she wasn't familiar with the charming antics of Jim Halpert. "I kind of knew who he was but not terribly well," she told PeopleTV. 

While Blunt might've not known Krasinski terribly well at first, she apparently wasted very little time falling for him. When PeopleTV asked her how long it took her to realize he was "the one," she replied, "Very soon into it. Yeah, disarmingly soon. We were engaged within 10 months."

In addition to being incredibly talented and gorgeous, Destiny's Child alum Kelly Rowland has a strong character — and her husband, Tim Weatherspoon, has long been a big fan of her character. "She embodies a lot of qualities that you would want in a woman. ... I was trying to grab her for that reason," Weatherspoon disclosed when the couple sat down for a chat with "I Turn My Camera on with Lance Gross." Rowland felt a similar way about Weatherspoon when they first crossed paths. "When I met Tim, he ticked every box and I was like 'Oh my God! Really?'" she recalled.

For Weatherspoon, it was clear on the first date that he and Rowland were meant to be. She, on the other hand, took a bit of time to fully warm up to him. "I knew the third date," Rowland shared with ABC News. "I got nervous, to be completely honest, cos I was like, 'Oh my God! This is my...this feels like my husband." She was right. In 2014, Rowland and Weatherspoon tied the knot in a Costa Rican wedding, which she confirmed in a since-deleted Instagram post.

When Marjorie Harvey was late for a comedy show back in 1987, it ended up setting the stage for a meet-cute with Steve Harvey, who happened to be performing that night. As Marjorie told the studio audience during a "Steve Harvey" commercial break, she and a friend arrived at the comedy club after the show began. Sneaking over to their seats proved to be difficult, as they happened to be sitting right in the front. Naturally, Steve noticed. "I was late and I thought he was going to give me the business because he got real quiet," Marjorie recalled. Her future husband stared at her for a while, and she assumed he was going to start teasing her for not showing up on time. However, when Steve finally found his words, it would set the tone for the coming years: "Oh I'm sorry. I don't know who this is, but I'm gonna marry her." 

Steve and Marjorie dated for a some time, went their separate ways, and reconnected years later. And they would indeed marry in 2007. On a 2023 episode of "Today with Hoda & Jenna," Steve made it clear that his declaration at the comedy show wasn't some happy fluke. "Men know," he said. "It don't take us a year [to decide]. We're not that bright."

The love story between Nick Lachey and Vanessa Joy Lachey (née Minnillo) began when the latter was a host of MTV's "Total Request Live." Nick was a "TRL" regular, whose then-relationship with "I Wanna Love You Forever" singer Jessica Simpson was still going strong. "It wasn't until, coincidentally, I broke up with my longtime boyfriend and he was getting divorced that we ended up reconnecting," Vanessa relayed in a Billboard interview. An unpaid appearance on the former 98 Degrees member's "What's Left of Me" music video marked the start of their romance. 

While asking Vanessa to be in his video might've seemed like a romantic ploy, Nick was actually making a business move. "In my grand marketing scheme I thought if I get the girl who is on 'TRL' to do my video, she'll play it on the show," he said. While the video didn't quite conquer "TRL," it all worked out. The lovebirds would mark eight months together in a passionate PDA on New Year's Eve, 2007.

But even before they hit eight months, Nick had come to the conclusion that she was his life partner. "I think I knew pretty early on with my fiancée that we were a good match, that I loved her," he told CNN in 2010. "So I would say, within the first six months we dated, I probably had a good idea that that was the one I wanted to be with."

Renowned television host Ellen DeGeneres and actor Portia de Rossi may be one of the longest-lasting high-profile same-sex couples in Hollywood today, but when they first clicked at a Rock the Vote concert in 2001, de Rossi had not yet come out. "I remember thinking that she was the coolest, most fascinating, beautiful, funniest person I'd ever met," de Rossi said in a cover interview with People. A couple of sparks flew regardless — and it was enough for her to have zero doubts that DeGeneres was her future spouse.

"When I first laid eyes on her," was de Rossi's answer when media mogul Oprah Winfrey asked about the surreal moment she fell for DeGeneres. "But, it took me three years to actually tell her how I felt about her because I was on 'Ally McBeal' at the time and I was not living as an openly gay person," de Rossi added. DeGeneres, who came out in 1997, was there for Rossi every step of the way. "Ellen really did help me through it just by being there and making me feel more comfortable about who I am," she said in People. A few months after California made same-sex marriage legal in 2008, de Rossi and DeGeneres tied the knot.

Evan Ross and Ashlee Simpson got tongues wagging in 2013 when they made their red carpet debut at a show for Jessica Simpson's fashion line. A little over a year later, the lovebirds walked down the aisle in a ceremony officiated by Ashlee's famous mother-in-law, Diana Ross.

Prior to the partners' rainy bohemian-themed nuptials, Simpson had thought through the possibility of getting hitched, largely because Evan had mastered the art of stealing glances her way. "Every time I was with him, it was just..." Simpson rhapsodized on "The Jennifer Hudson Show," completing her sentence by extending her arms. The undeniable chemistry between the pair, fueled by fierce eye contact, couldn't escape Ashlee's own mother's hawk eyes when they ran into Evan at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

"His pickup line was, like, he thought it was so sexy that I was a mom. And, I was there playing with my son," Ashelee told Hudson of the moment." Then my mom was like, 'The way that he looks at you I think it's like... yeah.'" From the look came a wave of warmth, fiery enough for them to release music together, get married, and welcome two children.

Long before the whole world was involved in Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's fairytale, it was just the two of them. And funny enough, it was a relatively relatable start: Harry's first virtual encounter with Meghan happened on Instagram. "I was scrolling through my feed and someone who was a friend had this video of the two of them. Like a Snapchat," Harry divulged on the couple's Netflix series "Harry & Meghan" (via ET). Like a true Instagram pro, Markle went into detective mode, perusing the prince's account to see what she could find.

Markle and Harry's initial physical meeting has one famous man at its center: former "Good Morning Britain" host Piers Morgan. The television personality alleged that he and Markle met when she visited the United Kingdom. "Who would know what a fateful night that was because she went from me, here, to her first date with Prince Harry," Morgan claimed in a sit-down with "Your Morning."

While neither Harry nor Markle have publicly addressed Morgan's claim, the Duke of Sussex revealed that things were starting to look steady between them the second time they went out. "The second date, I was starting to think, 'Wow! This is pretty special. ... It was just the way that we hit it off with each other," he said on "The Late Late Show with James Corden."

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively may cause a buzz on the internet for their lovingly trollish antics nowadays, but a little over a decade ago, the couple was taking the plunge in a 60-guest wedding in September 2012. The then-35-year-old Reynolds was tying the knot a second time, having been previously married to "Lost in Translation" actor Scarlett Johansson.

In a chat with People, Lively revealed that she and Reynolds rowed the friendship boat for a long time before they got together. "When we were both single we were still trying to find each other's, 'Who would be good for you?'" she recalled. The pair even went on a double date which Reynolds thought was awkward, but his love for Lively reached fever pitch on the dance floor.

"We were hanging out at this little restaurant in Tribeca that's open really late, and this song came on and I was just like, 'Want to dance?'" Reynolds recounted in a GQ interview. "No one was in there, so it was just totally empty. And it was just one of those moments where halfway through the dance, it was like, 'Oh, I think I just crossed a line.'"

For a long time running, "Goodies" hitmaker Ciara has been the envy of many, thanks to her many talents, style, and, of course, her storybook romance with the Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson. As the singer has shared time and time again, Wilson was the answer to her prayers — literally. "I prayed many times," she said on an episode of "The Angie Martinez Show." "I can tell you, I was very specific at this point in my life." She eventually shared her legendary prayer in a track called "Ciara's Prayer," which is featured on Summer Walker's 2021 album "Still Over It." "I pray the next man in my life will be my husband," she says on the record. "I pray he loves me, leads me, guides me, reassures me."

When Wilson and Ciara crossed paths initially, he already knew where they were headed. "I would say the first five minutes I met C, I knew she was going to be my wife and I also knew she was going to be a great mom," the NFL star said in an interview with E! News. "I knew in that moment she was everything I ever wanted."

Luckily for him, the affection he felt at the time wasn't unrequited. Ciara also sensed their strong bond right away, and also had a feeling he would be a great dad. 

In May 2014, "Modern Family" actor Sofia Vergara announced on WhoSay that she and businessman Nick Loeb had ended their engagement. By the end of that year, she was engaged to fellow actor Joe Manganiello — even though she was reluctant to strike up a romance with the hunky star at first. "I didn't want to go into a relationship with somebody that I thought was going to be too much work, because it was like girls throwing themselves at him," she told "Jimmy Kimmel Live." "I want somebody normal."

Alas, she still ended up with People's most prominent bachelor of 2014. As the "Magic Mike" star shared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," he made sure to mention the achievement early on in their courtship. "Look, I know you just got out of this long-term relationship and if you need to be single, then I understand, like, I'm not gonna like it. But I'll get over it," Manganiello remembered telling Vergara. To argue his case, he fished out a copy of himself on the cover and showed it to his future wife. 

Vergara, who seemed unfazed by Manganiello's cover, took the magazine, causally thumbed through its pages, and said, "I'm seeing who else is on the list." At that moment, Manganiello knew he was talking to his future wife.

Although Amy Schumer and her chef husband Chris Fischer have a prenup drawn up in case their marriage goes south, the couple is not separating anytime soon, thanks to Fischer's set of skills. As Schumer said in a 2021 interview with People, "He's a chef, he's a chef!"

Back when Schumer and Fischer were getting started, she had a feeling theirs was a forever kind of love right away. On a 2018 episode of "Today," she shared that they started out as friends, but after a few months, their dynamic shifted. As far as how long it took her to realize Fischer was "the one"?  "I think like a month in," she said. "We got down to business really quick."

Months after Schumer and Fischer's covert early 2018 Malibu wedding, the former confirmed — after several denials — that they were expecting a bundle of joy in a since-deleted Instagram post. Gene David Fischer, the couple's son, was born on May 5, 2019.