Here are 8 People Who Were Dating Celebrities and Were Absolutely Unaware Of It

Celebrities Whose Spouses Were Unaware of Their Fame

It happens that celebrities go on international trips and fall in love. And sometimes their prospective spouse doesn't even know they're famous. Celebrities have often said that they were strangers to their spouses when they first met. Although it's very uncommon for superstars to date and wed regular folks, their partners sometimes misidentify them as "normies." Here is a list of some unexpected couple stories where one of the partners was unaware of the other's fame during their dating period. 

1.  Tom Pelphrey and Kaley Cuoco

Tom Pelphrey was unaware that his girlfriend Kaley Cuoco was a multi-award-winning, critically acclaimed cast member of The Big Bang Theory until his mother's partner began referring to her by her character's name. Pelphrey told W Magazine, "When I first brought Kaley to New Jersey to meet my family and friends, my mom's partner — who apparently was a Big Bang Theory fan — was there, and he kept calling her Penny. I had no clue what was going on. So I pulled Kaley aside, like, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand what's happening. Why does he keep calling you Penny?' She's like, 'That's my character in The Big Bang Theory.' I was completely unaware. I've watched a few episodes with her since, and, obviously, she's fantastic."

2. Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard 

Dax Shepard had just become famous on Punk'd when he and Kristen Bell first met at a birthday party for a mutual acquaintance. In 2019 Bell told Willie Geist, "The only thing I remember is that he talked so much...There were no sparks whatsoever...Two weeks later, we both met at a hockey game...we saw each other...started to flirt. Then a day after that, I get a text that says, 'Hi, my name is Dax. I violated your privacy and got your number from Shauna [Robertson]. How do you feel about that?' And I was like, 'Excuse me? You sound stimulating.'"

3.  Michael Cera and Nadine

Before March 2018, Michael Cera married Nadine, and the two were sighted out together with matching gold rings. The two don't talk about their relationship or go out in public together; they are private people. Comedian Amy Schumer did, however, revealed in 2022 that Nadine and Cera had their first child in the autumn of 2021, and Cera has since spoken publicly about his kid. He once told the Guardian, "I didn't know if she would speak English, and if we would even have a chance to talk, and it was fortunate that she did because we wouldn't have a son, we wouldn't have a relationship."

4. Jonathan Owens and Simone Biles

On April 22, 2023, the pair exchanged vows in the Harris County Courthouse in Houston. They had a second wedding ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, a few weeks later. The Green Bay Packers star and the Olympic gymnast had a chance encounter months before their formal first meeting in March 2020. Even though Biles and Owens had a near encounter during the 2019 Texans game, the two didn't meet until March 2020 when Biles initiated contact via the dating app Raya. Even though they are both well-known athletes, Owens was first unaware of Biles. He told Texas Monthly in 2021, "I didn't know who she was, I just hadn't heard of her, and when I told her that, that's one of the things she liked."

5. Lena Dunham and Luis Felber

Early in 2021, Dunham and Felber met and immediately got into a fast-moving romantic relationship. When they first met, they strolled around London's streets for hours on end, without stopping to communicate. The couple moved in together a few months later, and in September of the same year, they were married in front of their closest friends and family in a small ceremony. Felber said that he didn't know who Dunham was before their first encounter, but that he had heard about her show Girls from his mother, which he hasn't seen. He said in an interview with The New York Times, "Mum was a fan of Girls. I remember when I was touring in my 20s, my mum and my sister were watching that show. But I never watched it."

6. Danielle Jonas and Kevin Jonas

On a family trip to the Caribbean, the "Sucker" singer Kevin met Danielle Deleasa, a hair stylist at the time, who would later become his future wife. At the time, Danielle acknowledged to People, she "didn't know who the Jonas Brothers were." As reported by People, Kevin was the one who first saw her going on the beach with a flower in her hair and then quickly followed her. On December 19, 2009, the couple was married, and they later had two kids. Kevin shared a picture of them at the same location where they first met 13 years ago in honor of their 11th wedding anniversary.

7. Camila Alves and Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves's love tale began in an L.A. nightclub, similar to many Y2K romances. However, in contrast to other high-profile partnerships around that period, theirs endured for an impressive 17 years and counting. At a pub, Alves first saw McConaughey, but she didn't recognize him because he "had a really long beard, and he had this rasta hat." However, seeing his close buddy at the time, she recognized him for who he was. She told Access Hollywood, "Lance [Armstrong] came to talk to me. You knew they were always together, so I'm like, OK, I'm outta here. I'm going to the other side of the room!"

8. Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams

In June 2017, Serena Williams spoke about how she got to know Alexis Ohanian for her Vanity Fair cover story. While having breakfast at the Cavalieri Hotel in Rome, the pair happened to cross paths. Alexis took a seat at the table directly across from Serena and her pals while they were eating. Ohanian had no prior knowledge of the sport that had made Williams famous at the time. He said in the interview at the time, "[I had] never watched a match on television or in real life. It was literally the sport — even if ESPN was announcing tennis updates, I would just zone out...I really had no respect for tennis."