Surprise, We're Married! Five Other Shocking Celebrity Weddings

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz aren't the first Hollywood stars to pull off secret nuptials

By Marianne Garvey Jun 27, 2011 5:42 PMTags
Daniel Craig, Rachel WeiszBryan Bedder/WireImage; Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Why was Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz' wedding in New York last week such a shocker?

For starters, the duo hadn't been dating that long; the actress only ended her 10-year romance with director Darren Aronofsky in November.

More surprising, though, is the movie stars' ability to keep their Wednesday nuptials under wraps until this weekend.

What other Hollywood twosomes have managed to pull off similar top-secret ceremonies right under our noses?

ZumaPress.com, Nancy Kaszerman/ZumaPress.com

1. Renée Zellweger and Kenny Chesney: In 2005, the Jerry Maguire star shocked everyone when, after a whirlwind romance, she swapped vows with the country musician during a sunset beach ceremony on St. John in the Virgin Islands. The unlikely duo had met at a tsunami relief benefit just months earlier, where he performed and she answered phones and took donation pledges. They split just four months after their wedding, and the marriage, which was the first for both, was annulled with Zellweger citing "fraud" as the reason. 

LA County Jail; Dominique Charriau/Getty Images

2. Britney Spears and Jason Alexander: When Spears was just 22 and at the very beginning stages of her complete mental unravelling, she flew to Las Vegas, tossed on a baseball hat, grabbed a hotel bellboy and marched over to a tiny wedding chapel and married her childhood pal.

Spears later swore it was all a joke that went too far, and her team rushed in and helped her annul the whole mess.

3. Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds: These two did it in the woods, inviting a handful of pals to a remote wilderness retreat outside of Vancouver where they became man and really, really hot wife. The incredibly gorgeous duo had announced their engagement four months earlier, but managed to pull off the ceremony without a whisper leaking out beforehand.

The couple split two years later, filing for divorce in December 2010 after reportedly having grown apart due to their successful careers and too much distance between them.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images/Getty Images

4. Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon: Here's a quickie wedding story with a happy ending. They've done vow renewals, had twins and seem to be getting along like two lovebugs—and it all started in 2008 when they swapped vows after just six weeks of dating. Carey, who has called Cannon her "soul mate," flew herself, Cannon, and their giant wedding cake to the singer's $5 million mansion on Windermere Island in the Bahamas, where they pulled off a top-secret ceremony in front of a group of friends.

5. LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian: The extremely public duo first hooked up during the filming of a Lifetime movie, Northern Lights—while both were married to other people—then quickly started flaunting their romance in front of every camera they could find.

The Grammy winner and Cibrian, who were engaged in December 2010, hastily wed in front of 40 guests in Los Angeles in April. They had tricked guests into believing they were headed to an engagement party, but instead they surprised everyone with a full-blown wedding.