From Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade to Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, these celebrity couples say they did not experience love at first sight when they first met.
Love doesn’t always happen instantaneously — sometimes it actually starts with a bad first impression. For some couples, their initial meeting doesn’t quite go as planned and it’s definitely not love at first sight. Despite their differences, these couples decide to give it another chance and eventually end up realizing that they do have feelings for one another. Although some of these relationships had a rocky start, sticking it out ended up being the best choice.
Find out which celeb couples say they didn’t actually like each other at first…
1. Gabrielle Union & Dwyane Wade
When Gabrielle Union met Dwyane Wade she wasn’t sure how she felt about him. She admits she had a lot of “preconceived notions” about the basketball player, who is nine years younger than her. When they first crossed paths at a Super Bowl party, Gabrielle says they were total opposites and she didn’t think very highly of him.
“When I met Dwyane, his ‘résumé’ looked like crap: athlete, going through a divorce, nine years younger than me. None of that screamed, ‘Let’s have a lasting relationship.’ Then, after I had a heart-crushing breakup with yet another immature jerk, I thought, it can’t be any worse if I date a fetus. Let’s just see what happens,” Gabrielle told Glamour.
She continued, “Turned out he’d been on his own since he was 15. He had wisdom that comes with facing an insane amount of adversity. He’s sweet, funny, honest about his shortcomings. When I put my preconceived notions to the side, I found someone cool.”
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2. Cole Sprouse & Lili Reinhart
Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart first met on the set of Riverdale and while they worked together, it wasn’t love at first sight. Lili says she actually found Cole’s voice annoying and Cole shared that Lili had a lot of walls built up around her.
“I thought his voice was annoying. I was like, ‘That guy’s got an annoying voice.’ And now it’s grown on me, I guess,” she shared in a video for Glamour.
Cole added, “Lili was a tough egg to crack. She’s very shy at first and reserved. I think it was about halfway into the first season she started letting people in truly.”
Despite their initial differences, the couple went on to date for two years before eventually calling it quits.
3. Kristen Bell & Dax Shepard
Kristen Bell admits “there were no sparks whatsoever” when she met her now-husband Dax Shepard. The couple first crossed paths at a birthday dinner for Forgetting Sarah Marshall producer Shauna Robertson and Kristen only remembers thinking that Dax talked way too much.
“I was like, ‘This guy can talk.’ And then I didn’t know who he was. I’m like, ‘Maybe is that one of the guys from Jackass or something?’ …He remembers, ‘You were telling a really intense story about a deal you had gotten at Target.’ And I was like, ‘That sounds like it’s on brand,’” Kristen shared with Today.
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4. Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams
Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams had a hostile relationship when they first started working together on the set of The Notebook. In fact, director Nick Cassavetes says Ryan actually asked if Rachel could be replaced in the movie.
“They were really not getting along one day on set. Really not…Ryan came to me, and there’s 150 people standing in this big scene, and he says, ‘Nick come here.’ And he’s doing a scene with Rachel and he says, ‘Would you take her out of here and bring in another actress to read off camera with me?’ I said, ‘What?’ He says, ‘I can’t. I can’t do it with her. I’m just not getting anything from this.’ We went into a room with a producer; they started screaming and yelling at each other,” Nick told VH1.
Once they were able to blow off some steam, Nick says things got better between the pair. Ryan and Rachel ended up dating a few years later, and were in a relationship from 2005 to 2007.
5. Rita Ora & Calvin Harris
Before Rita Ora and Calvin Harris met face-to-face, the pair had beef on social media. The pair went back and forth on X, formerly Twitter, because Calvin had written the song “Call My Name” and allegedly offered it to Rita — before giving it to Cheryl Cole instead.
“I don’t know if you remember but at the start we had a Twitter feud. So we never really liked each other in the beginning,” Rita told The Sun. “Then after that, it just kind of happened really. It was backstage at a thing like this when we first met and it went from there.”
The pair split in 2014.
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6. Cate Blanchett & Andrew Upton
Cate Blanchett and her husband Andrew Upton have been married for over two decades but when they initially met, they didn’t have the best first impressions. Cate says she actually thought Andrew was “arrogant” — but he quickly proved that wasn’t the case. They ended up getting engaged just three weeks after meeting.
“He thought I was aloof, and I thought he was arrogant,” Cate told Vanity Fair. “And it just shows how wrong you can be. But once he kissed me, that was that.”
7. Amy Landecker & Bradley Whitford
When Amy Landecker first met her Transparent co-star Bradley Whitford, she admits she really wasn’t interested in him. Although the couple are now married, Amy says she initially thought Bradley was “a cocky actor boy.”
“Now I’ve learned that If I don’t like someone at first, that’s probably a sign that they’re perfect for me because my taste is so bad…So I was like, ‘Oh, see here it is! I didn’t think, and now I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,’” she told People.
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8. Luke Bryan & Caroline Boyer
Luke Bryan and his wife, Caroline Boyer, had very different first impressions of one another. While Luke says he immediately knew Caroline was the one for him, she admits she wasn’t so sure about the man who had approached her at the bar.
“Just this big personality with this loud mouth comes up…It took me a couple of days to realize that this was a real character. This wasn’t just some drunk college guy, this is how he acts. But then I fell in love with his personality and everything,” Caroline said in an interview for Jockey.
9. Michael J. Fox & Tracy Pollan
Michael J. Fox says his wife, Tracy Pollan, thought he was an “a–hole” when they were first working together on Family Ties. Looking back, Michael explained that they were filming a scene after lunch and he made a joke about Tracy’s breath smelling bad.
“The moment she said her first line, I detected a hint of garlic and sensed an opportunity to have a little fun at her expense. ‘Whoa, a little scampi for lunch, babe?’ At first, she said nothing. Her expression didn’t even change. But looking me dead in the eyes, she said slowly, ‘That was mean and rude, and you’re a complete and total f–king asshole,’” he shared in the Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie documentary.
Michael added that he was surprised that Tracy wasn’t intimidated by him and was willing to call him out even though he was a star. He says it was that moment he started to fall in love with her — but it took her a little longer to warm up to him.
