While society seems to believe that relationships should follow a specific timeline of dating, getting engaged, getting married, and then starting a family, each couple should feel empowered to choose their own path. Want to have kids before you tie the knot? Go for it! Want to wait over 10 years before finally walking down the aisle? That’s perfectly fine too!
To prove it, a few celebrity couples have done just that and taken their sweet time to say their “I do.” Don Cheadle and his wife Bridgid Coulter, for example, waited an impressive 28 years before becoming husband and wife. “You’ve got to make sure,” Cheadle once joked to Entertainment Tonight. “I wasn’t sure. Now, I think I’m almost sure.”
Last year, Michelle Yeoh followed that same trend by tying the knot with her longtime partner, Jean Todt, after 19 years together. “19 years and YES!! we are married!!” the Oscar winner celebrated on Instagram.
To find out what other couples showed no rush in walking down the aisle (including one that waited 42 years!), scroll below!
Michelle Yeoh & Jean Todt
2023 proved to be quite a memorable year for Michelle Yeoh. In addition to winning her first Oscar, she also married her longtime partner Jean Todt after 19 years together.
“We met in Shanghai on 4th June 2004,” their wedding program began, below a throwback picture of the two. “On 26th July 2004, J.T proposed to marry M.Y and she said YES.”
“Today after 6992 days on 27th July 2023 in Geneva, surrounded by loving family and friends, we are so happy to celebrate this special moment together!”
Celebrating the occasion on Instagram, the newlyweds radiated happiness. “19 years and YES!! we are married!!” Yeoh wrote in the caption. “Thk to our ‘families’ who love us for all these years. We love you and here’s to many more to come.”
Bridgid Coulter & Don Cheadle
Don Cheadle and his wife Bridgid Coulter were together for a whopping 28 years before walking down the aisle. The happy couple, who had been dating since 1997, tied the knot during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“[Marriage] came up a lot of times,” Cheadle admitted to Entertainment Tonight about their relationship. “But every time, we were like, ‘But we’re already together?'”
Eventually, their accountant showed them how they two should take the plunge for financial reasons. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, but this is a better reason to be together,'” the actor remembered. “Really it’s because our accountant proposed to us, I wish there were some big sweet romantic story, but the romance happened, you know, the first year.”
But, despite the not-so-romantic “proposal,” it seems like the couple’s wedding was quite special. “It was just beautiful,” Coulter told the outlet. “It was just for us in our backyard, our two kids. It was for us. It was special.” The pair share 29-year-old Ayana and 27-year-old Imani.
Amy Adams & Darren Le Gallo
In addition to being together for 14 years before getting married, Amy Adams and Darren Le Gallo were engaged for a total of seven years too. “I’ve been really busy, and I feel like a horrible fiancée that I haven’t gotten swept up in the whole idea of a wedding,” Adams told Allure in 2009, per People. “But I just haven’t.”
The pair, who became fiances in 2008, ended up tying the knot in 2015. Their only daughter, Aviana Olea Le Gallo, is now 14 years old.
Lily Tomlin & Jane Wagner
The longest relationship pre-wedding of this gallery belongs to none other than Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. The two were together for 42 years before getting married during an intimate ceremony on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
Speaking of how they met back in the 70s, Tomlin made us all swoon. “A friend brought her to my hotel room,” Tomlin told Variety. “In two minutes, I fell in love with her. She had on hot pants, stretchy boots that went up to her knee, and a little backpack. I don’t know what it was, but I was in love.”
Tamsin Egerton & Josh Hartnett
Actors Tamsin Egerton and Josh Hartnett were together for a full decade before tying the knot in 2021, The Sun reports. The pair, who share four kids together, tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in a London Town Hall.
“They’re as smitten as ever and wanted to make it official in a low-key affair,” a source revealed to the outlet at the time. “It was a classy ceremony with only a handful of close family and friends. They’re really happy living a low-key life away from showbiz parties and red carpets, so [they] are happy to fly under the radar.”
Bo Derek & John Corbett
Sex and the City‘s John Corbett tied the knot with wife and former model Bo Derek after 20 years together in 2020. As for why they decided to go for it, the reason is quite special.
“After 20 years we decided to get married, we didn’t want 2020 to be that thing that everybody looks back at and hated. We thought, ‘Well, let’s get one nice thing out of it,'” Corbett said on The Talk, per People.
Tina Turner & Erwin Bach
After falling in love at first sight back in 1985, the late Tina Turner and Erwin Bach lived a love story for the ages.
Then, 27 years later, the pair tied the knot in a 200-guest occasion at their estate in Switzerland in 2013. “I wanted to be the best I could be. I wanted my garden and my guests to be the best they could be. And they were,” Turner once told Entertainment Tonight.
The two were together until Turner’s passing in 2023.
Joy Behar & Steve Janowitz
Joy Behar and Steve Janowitz also took their sweet time before walking down the aisle. The pair, who began dating in 1982, tied the knot back in 2011, a total of 29 years later.
Speaking to their reasons for waiting the TV personality listed a few. In addition to getting “embarrassed asking about senior discounts for her ‘boyfriend,” and being “sick of Barbara Walters bugging [me] to get married,” Behar also waited until gay marriage became legal in New York.
“It did have an influence on me,” she told Us Weekly. “It brought to my consciousness why gays needed to get married,” she said. “And I thought it was a good reason for me to get married. And so did Steve, so we did it.”
India Hicks & David Flint Wood
In another mind-boggling number, India Hicks, who is King Charles’ goddaughter and was a bridesmaid at his wedding to Princess Diana, tied the knot with former advertising executive David Flint Wood after 26 years together in 2021.
“As I stepped into the church, everything just sort of fell into place. It was incredible,” she told Brides following their intimate occasion. “There were all the people that I love most there with me and my five children. And as I walked down the aisle to marry the man I’ve been with for 26 years, I had no idea how emotional I was going to feel.”
“As I walked down the aisle towards David, I was overcome with the sensation of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right time—there by the altar was the man I would finally call my husband with all five of our children witnessing the ceremony about to happen,” she continued. How precious!
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