Spending some time thinking about what she'd want in a forever partner, Jennifer Lawrence came up with an actual list. And we have to admit, it's relatable AF.
"Somebody that has the same taste in reality TV," she detailed to Vanity Fair in 2014, her preferred viewing including Shark Tank, Real Housewives, Dance Moms and Intervention. And somebody not afraid to, uh, let loose with some of life's imperfections, a partner, as she put it, who "isn't afraid to fart in front of me [rather] than to have big, passionate love. [Those relationships] are deeper because you can be your true self with somebody, and somebody can be their true self with you."
Most of all, she summed up, she'd like a peacekeeper type. "I don't like fighting, and I find argumentative people the most annoying people on the planet," she noted. "Like, why do you still want to be fighting? It's just unattractive."
Besides, should she meet this reality TV-loving, laid-back unicorn, she knew there'd be no need for such knock-down, drag-out conflicts. "I can't wait to be married," she told Vogue in 2015. "I feel like if I find that one person who I want to spend the rest of my life with, who I want to be the father of my children, that I would absolutely not f--k it up."
So far the odds have been forever in her favor, the 31-year-old actress and husband of nearly two years, Cooke Maroney, now expecting their first child together.
Save for the recent drop of the trailer for Don't Look Up, her December Netflix release, we actually haven't heard much from Lawrence of late, always a good thing for the Oscar winner who prefers to take a break from public duties in between filming box-office mega franchises and collecting trophies. "It's not healthy to realize how many people are actually looking and listening to you," she mused during a 2017 installment of Variety's "Actors on Actors" series. "That is such a mindf--k."
So she's limited her recent public statements to just those in support of Represent.Us, a campaign finance reform organization that counts her as a board member, signing on to Twitter to deliver a handful of messages about the need to reform the criminal justice system and the importance of voting.
And with much of Hollywood shut down due to COVID-19 last year, the Kentucky native, who once told Vanity Fair she hated the idea of "waking up with nothing to do or going to sleep without accomplishing anything," busied herself by putting together a slate of projects—including Don't Look Up, the lead role in the Elizabeth Holmes biopic Bad Blood and next year's Red, White and Water.
That left her nights free during the height of last year's stay-at-home orders to make use of the pasta machine, pizza stone and Le Crueset dutch oven she and Maroney, director of the New York contemporary art gallery Gladstone 64, registered for ahead of their vows in October 2019 ("I love trying new recipes," she shared on her Amazon wishlist) and break out her Riedel wine glasses for her nightly serving of red.
"I'm trying to wait until 6 p.m.," she explained to friend Amy Schumer of her quarantine drinking habits on a May 2020 episode of Schumer's Food Network series, "so I have, like, a preemptive beer at 5."
Even if pregnancy has put a damper on cocktail hour, there's still much to toast to—starting with the sort of love she's been seeking since remarking to Vogue in 2015 that "no one ever asks me out."
In Maroney she's found both a willing partner in binge watching and the person who just lets her be. As she put it to Entertainment Tonight at the June 2019 X-Men: Dark Phoenix premiere, "Well, he's just the best person I've ever met in my whole life."
And, truthfully, the actress has met some good ones.
"I'm friends with all my exes, actually. For the most part, yeah," she told Marc Maron on his WTF with Marc Maron podcast in February 2018, name-checking both British actor Nicholas Hoult, her on-off love of four years and costar in the X-Men franchise and mother! director Darren Aronofsky. "I have a theory. I think it's because I'm blunt. I don't think that you can have any sort of bad relationship with anybody if you're just blunt. Everybody always knows how you feel at all times and there's no lying, it's just honesty. Everybody's a good guy to each other. All my boyfriends have been wonderful."
They just hadn't been particularly right. And single since her late 2017 split from Aronofsky, "I would like to have a relationship," she confessed to Howard Stern the following February. "it's hard out there!"
So Lawrence was definitely interested when good pal Laura Simpson—the pair met at an industry event and "hit it off over a mutual respect for Chandler Bing," Simpson shared in a blog—first floated the idea of a set-up.
Maroney's list of credentials certainly seemed like a good fit. While the artist is industry-adjacent, his gallery representing industry giants such as Lena Dunham's father Carroll Dunham, his star-wattage wasn't the type likely to doom the actress to a lifetime of being trailed by photographers. And she was assured she'd never have to spend another press tour obsessing over how critics were reacting to her man's film, a situation she's admitted put unnecessary stress on her partnership with Aronofsky.
She'd long rejected the idea that she should be dating a fellow Hollywood insider, someone on "her level" as she'd heard people describe it. "Like, what is that level?" she scoffed to Vogue. "That doesn't mean anything to me, as a person."
She just wanted someone she could truly connect with.
Weeks into her romance with Vermont-bred Maroney, they went from being careful not to be seen together, to openly in love, going about their relationship much like any Manhattan couple. On any given day, they could be spotted at The Smile, a favorite of Lawrence pal Justin Theroux, Italian restaurant and wine bar Felice 64, taking in a New York Rangers game or simply picking up groceries, with trips to two of the world's most romantic cities—Paris and Rome—thrown in for good measure.
By January 2019, according to Us Weekly, the duo were bringing their bags back to a shared apartment. "Things between them are very serious," an insider told the outlet. "They definitely appear to be in it for the long haul."
A source told People the pair bonded over a mutual love of arts and culture "and living a life that includes both of their passions, yet sits outside of it," but for Lawrence determining that Maroney was right for her came down to a few simple questions. "I don't know, I started with the basics. How do I feel? Is he nice? Is he kind?" she shared on the NAKED With Catt Sadler podcast in June 2019. "It's just—this is the one, I know that sounds really stupid but he's just, he's—you know. He's the greatest person I've ever met."
Which made answering his February 2019 proposal fairly easy, despite previous assertions that she likely wouldn't wed.
"I definitely wasn't at a place where I was like 'I'm ready to get married.' I just met Cooke, and I wanted to marry him," she explained of her change of heart. "We wanted to marry each other."
So, they did, putting together a fall affair that attracted more celebrities than your average movie premiere, Lawrence's eclectic mix of famous friends including everyone from besties Adele, Emma Stone and Schumer to object of her adulation, Kris Jenner. Descending on Rhode Island's Belcourt Mansion, alongside Ashley Olsen, Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, Sienna Miller and some 150 others last October, they enjoyed an autumnal dinner of wood-roasted fish and heirloom carrots and squash served family-style and a night of dancing to classics by Aretha Franklin and the Jackson 5.
"Nobody wanted to leave," an onlooker said of the bash that continued well past 2 a.m. "It was an all-night party."
A honeymoon at Indonesia's Nihi Sumba Resort followed, the newlyweds staying in the $12,745-a-night five villa owner's estate. And kids were clearly next on the agenda, something Lawrence has remained steadfast about even when she questioned marriage.
"I definitely want to be a mother," she insisted to Diane Sawyer during a 2015 Nightline interview. The way she saw it, she explained to Glamour the following year while discussing her part as titular Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano in Joy, it'd be the capper on a life well-lived. "Everybody has this idea: You have children, and your entire life is complete," she explained. "That's how I imagine it. I imagine I'll have children and then my whole life will just seem complete."
If kids are that final tying of the ribbon, the package is already particularly spectacular. Lawrence has got career accolades aplenty (four Oscar nods, two major film franchises, a Dior contract and several years atop the list of Hollywood's highest paid actresses) and enough close friends to invite an entire roster of bold-faced names to celebrate one of life's most special milestones. And then there's the man himself, the person she so confidently pledged forever to nearly two years ago.
"We wanted to commit fully," she gushed to Sadler of the guy who changed every part of her life. "And, you know, he's my best friend. I feel very honored to become a Maroney."
This story was originally published on Saturday, Aug. 15 2020 at 12 a.m. PT.