Okay, so we've accepted it.
Several weeks after that epic embrace, it turns out that Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt aren't getting back together. Because as much as we want Hollywood's golden couple to reunite in all of their blonde highlighted, impossibly tan, amazingly talented glory, it turns out that they're not all that keen to relive their romance, content to let their ancient history live back in the late nineties and early aughts where it belongs.
And while we get it (guys, it's been 15 years since they were husband and wife—are you still Facebook stalking your high school boyfriend?) you can't help but feel that the eternally morose "love is dead" crowd has notched another victory.
It's 2020 and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are never ever getting back together, Brad and Jen are content to just be party pals and Chris Pratt and Anna Faris have both moved on from their marriage faster than the collective public.
And so it's hard not to feel sometimes that every Hollywood couple that falls in love—causing us to fall in love with them, double-tapping their every Instagram selfie and reading up on all of the reasons they're #goals—ends up in the same spot: releasing a carefully crafted breakup statement announcing their intentions to remain friends.
So it helps to be reminded that's simply not the case.
In honor of Valentine's Day, we're eating all the chocolate we can find giving a shout out to some of our favorite married duos. And there are a lot, perhaps too many to make a fully comprehensive list.
To celebrate the fact that the entertainment industry is still chock full of aspiring love stories, here are just a few duos we're hoping will continue to live happily ever after:
There are plenty of reasons to put this pair on the couples goals pedestal (hello, he gifted her with a sloth!) But, for us, endgame was when they did a shot-by-shot recreation of Toto's "Africa". Yes, they've been honest about how hard they work at marriage, but it seems that they play even harder.
Married five years, the Vanity Fair cover models are proof that love can blossom on the set of a music video. And though the model and cookbook author is the first to take a dig at her EGOT-earning husband, "I will say he is an amazing human being," she told E! News. Distilling their success to one sound bite, she told InStyle, "Make each other's loves and needs feel important."
Yes, trolling is part of this duo's love language. "It's sort of like what my dad used to say. 'If you can't say anything nice, say something embarrassing.' So, that's sort of how we roll," he explained on Live with Kelly and Ryan. "I think it's a sign of a healthy relationship, personally." But if they had to distill their union down to one secret, it'd be their time spent as pals. "In other relationships, if something came up, I would call my girlfriends or my sister, and say, 'Hey, this is what he did—what should I do?'" she shared with Glamour. "Where with him, we were friends for two years before we were ever dating. And I treat him like my girlfriend."
Honesty has always been a firm policy for the former That '70s Show costars. It's how they navigated the tricky transition from friends with benefits to married parents of two and how they deal with any rumors or innuendo. "There's no version of our relationship that's not transparent," Kunis raved during a 2018 appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast. "There's nothing that either one of us doesn't know about the other person.
Infidelity could snap weaker pairs, but the music power couple channeled their pain into two hit albums, reaffirmed their commitment to their nearly 12-year marriage and kept it moving. "That's my soul mate. It's the person I love," he explained to CNN's Van Jones of choosing to work on their union. Bad times happen, he continued, "You can either address it or you pretend until it blows up at some point. For us, we chose to fight for our love, for our family to give our kids a different outcome—to break that cycle for black men and women."
Together since their teens, the NBA champ and the lifestyle doyenne are the type of teammates who always have each other's backs. When the cookbook author was mocked for her playful dance moves, the Golden State Warriors guard blasted back, "Just make sure ya'll send me the video of you dancing at your own restaurant opening." Makes sense then that her most recent anniversary tribute had her saying, "Getting to do life with you is an infinite sea of bliss."
Together a decade beforehand, the actors, parents to now 9-year-old twins Harper and Gideon didn't need their 2014 Italian vows to cement their commitment. But they sure were special. "I just wanted to be able to say nice things about David, to David, in front of the people who matter most to us," the How I Met Your Mother alum explained weeks later on The View, "a declaration to share in front of our kids."
"The only thing we argue about is who loves each other more." It's the sort of statement that could be nauseating, but coming from national treasure Tom Hanks about his bride of nearly 32 years, it just seems...right. He credits the actress and singer with helping him truly delve into his Oscar-worthy roles; she brags on how supportive he was during her breast cancer treatment, but most importantly the two just really like each other. "People say, 'Jeez, it must be hard to stay married in show business,'" Hanks told The Mirror. "I think it's hard to stay married anywhere, but if you marry the right person, it might work out."
Who wouldn't want to score an invite on the Wade World Tour? Whether hitting up fashion shows in Paris, crushing it at the gym or dreaming up Instagram captions for their #shadybaby Kaavia, the actress and the retired basketball pro just seem to be having more fun than everyone else. And the truth is, they pretty much are. "It's been freakishly awesome, and it's almost kind of embarrassing to talk about," she gushed to E! as they wrapped their first year of marriage. "We really enjoy each other."
The "for worse" bit coming right at the onset of their marriage, when the country singer checked into a clinic to treat alcoholism in late 2006, they've been riding the "for better" wave ever since. "Meeting her and getting married wasn't life-changing, it was life-beginning," he said of the actress during a 2016 appearance on CBS' Sunday Morning. "It was literally, like, 'Okay, life starts.'"
When you're confident you've found your person, there's a positive slant to everything—even persistent divorce rumors. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but when that started happening, I thought, 'Oh, now we're finally accepted.' We get the same s--t as every celebrity couple,'" the talk show host explained on David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. "I thought, 'Wow, this is great that I'm pregnant, not pregnant, divorced, not divorced, whatever. That means there is an acceptance for this." Besides, as she put it to People in 2014, "The truth is, and this is corny, I fall more in love with Portia all the time. I really do."
The key to lasting love: Get you a partner who hypes you up as much as The Office alum. Bragging on his wife of nearly a decade, he told E! News, "It's one of those things where I was a huge fan of hers before I even met her, so I continue to be a huge fan of hers in everything she does. So we're just extremely supportive." Unbelievably supportive. Asked how many time he's watched Blunt's breakout film, The Devil Wears Prada, he mused on The Graham Norton Show, "Give or take, 72."
It's just the way he loves her, a feeling like this, but more than 23 years into their marriage, the country singers remain in perpetual bliss. "You know, we just think about how much we love our family, how much we love our life together, growing old together," McGraw told E! News of the thriving careers that have allowed them to work together on their various Soul2Soul tours while raising their three adult daughters. "We feel pretty happy in the life that we built together and the community we live in and the way we live our life."
Sitting down together for their first interview as husband and wife in 1996, the All My Children costars were asked to pinpoint the moment they fell in love. "As far as I'm concerned, instantly—before we ever had a scene together," Consuelos told Soap Opera digest. Agreed his new bride, "We just understood each other really well. If two people were ever supposed to be together, I'd say it was us." Some 24 years (and countless cheeky Instagram comments later), it's hard to disagree.
Few things are sweeter than the former president's recent birthday tribute to his first lady. "In every scene, you are my star, @MichelleObama!" he wrote of his bride of 27 years year. Fitting, as they've now made the shift from politics to raising awareness of key issues through their Higher Ground production company.