Not everyone has to get married at Madison Square Garden.

18 celebrity couples who got married in secret

Not everyone has to get married at Madison Square Garden.

By Brianna Zigler

July 2, 2026 6:11 p.m. ET

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Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons; Tom Holland and Zendaya. Credit:

Christopher Polk/Getty; Pablo Cuadra/WireImage

Big stars don’t always need big weddings.

Though Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are currently tearing up midtown Manhattan as preparations unfold for their MSG marriage, other celeb couples have taken a much more demure route on their way to marital bliss.

Couples like Dave Franco and Alison Brie managed to keep most of their relationship quiet leading up to an uber-private ceremony, while others, like Callum Turner and Dua Lipa, had a highly publicized romance but opted for a low-key, town hall wedding only uncovered by paparazzi snooping.

We take a look at 18 iconic celebrity couples who opted for unflashy, and even unknown, circumstances surrounding their “I dos”.

Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z

Jay-Z and Beyoncé attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King" at Dolby Theatre on December 09, 2024 in Hollywood, California.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

The music industry’s ultimate power couple tied the knot privately in a super-secret 2008 wedding that took place at Jay-Z’s Tribeca penthouse in New York City. With only 40 guests in attendance, the rapper and “Single Ladies” singer chose to keep things casual for their nuptials — though, there *were* 70,000 white orchids flown in from Thailand.

Notoriously private about her personal life, Beyoncé Knowles opened up about her marriage to Jay-Z to *Essence* magazine in November 2008. “What Jay and I have is real. It’s not about interviews or getting the right photo op. It’s real,” she said.

She also explained her decision not to get an engagement ring, instead choosing to wear a band over a tattoo on her ring finger of the Roman numeral for four (IV), which her husband has as well (Beyoncé and Jay-Z were both born on the 4th of their respective birth months, and they were married on the 4th).

“People put too much emphasis on that,” Knowles said about engagement rings. “It’s just material and it’s just silly to me.”**

Cardi B and Offset

Cardi B and Offset attend Sean Combs 50th Birthday Bash presented by Ciroc Vodka on December 14, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Fans didn’t know that the “Bodak Yellow” rapper and the Migos member cemented their turbulent relationship in holy matrimony, until the latter referred to her as his wife during the 2018 BET Awards. It was then confirmed by *TMZ *that Cardi B and Offset had secretly married, with their marriage certificate dated for nine months prior to the BET incident.

Though initially hesitant to reveal their nuptials, Cardi B ultimately took to X to confirm the marriage. In a Notes app screenshot and post, she unveiled the title of her then-first album, *Invasion of Privacy, *inspired by the publicity she was getting.

“This why I name my album *Invasion of Privacy* cause people will do the most to be [nosy] about your life. Well f--- it,” she wrote.

The Notes app statement read, “There are so many moments that I share with the world and then there are moments that I want to keep for myself! Getting married was one of those moments! Our relationship was so new breaking up and making up and we had a lot of growing up to do but we was so in love we didn’t want to lose each other, was one morning in September we woke up and decided to get married.”

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux

Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston attend the Louis Vuitton's Dinner for the Launch of Bags by Artist Jeff Koons at Musee du Louvre on April 11, 2017 in Paris, France.

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Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston had been together for five years and engaged for three of them before the pair tied the knot in a hush-hush ceremony in 2015. Speaking later with the *New York Daily News*, Theroux admitted that throwing a secret wedding wasn’t easy.

“I wouldn’t say it was fun to plan,” Theroux explained. “Part of the fun of planning a wedding is telling people and we had to keep it under wraps.”

The *Friends* mainstay and *Inland Empire* star were married in their backyard in front of a crowd of their A-list pals, before heading off to their Bora Bora honeymoon.

However, once the ceremony was over. Theroux was instantly at ease. “I noticed it almost immediately,” he said. “It was like your blood pressure goes down two PSI. It’s not like life is completely different. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski

Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski pose at the opening night of the new Avett Brothers musical 'Swept Away' on Broadway at The Longacre Theatre on November 19, 2024 in New York City.

Bruce Glikas/Getty

After meeting while filming *The Last Word *in 2016, Amanda Seyfried and Thomas Sadoski began dating later that year, were engaged by 2017, and had their first child in 2017 as well. Amidst all of this, they got married too, in March 2017, which they had managed to keep tightly under wraps.

In a 2018 interview with *Net-A-Porter*'s weekly digital magazine *PorterEdit*, per *E! News, *Seyfried confirmed the low-key ceremony: "We got married in Topanga, March last year. Just the two of us.”

Instead of a wedding reception, they grabbed brunch at Cheebo on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, near the couple’s home.

“Afterwards, I was like, 'Can we just go to Cheebo?' It was awesome," *The Testament of Ann Lee* star said.

John Mulaney and Olivia Munn

John Mulaney and Olivia Munn attend the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 02, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.

Amy Sussman/Getty

In the summer of 2024, comedian John Mulaney and *The Newsroom *actress Olivia Munn were quietly married at a friend’s N.Y. home. PEOPLE had previously broken the news of the couple’s nuptials, and a year later Mulaney took to *Jimmy Kimmel Live* to discuss exactly what went down.

Their “very simple ceremony” was officiated by none other than Munn’s *The Newsroom* costar Sam Waterston. “[He] once said to Olivia if you ever get married, I’ll perform the ceremony,” Mulaney said.

While Mulaney admitted to Kimmel he thought the offer was only “chit chat,” he ended up taking Waterston up on the offer for real.

At that point, the couple already had one son, Malcolm, who was two at the time of the ceremony, and was dressed in “a little tuxedo and shorts.”

“And [Malcolm] didn’t ask at any point, ‘Oh, you two aren’t married yet?,’ which was nice and polite of him,” Mulaney quipped,**

Tom Holland and Zendaya

Tom Holland and Zendaya attend the 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' photocall at the Four Seasons Hotel on June 15, 2026 in Madrid, Spain.

Pablo Cuadra/WireImage

Social media flew into a tizzy when Zendaya’s longtime stylist Law Roach revealed back in March that his client and her boyfriend, *Spider-Man* star Tom Holland, had been secretly wed.

In an interview with *Access Hollywood* on the red carpet at the 2026 Actor Awards, Roach said bluntly that, "The wedding has already happened. You missed it.” When the reporter asked if Roach’s claim was true, Roach responded with a laugh, “It’s very true!”

The longtime couple have kept mostly mum on their nuptials, but an *Esquire* interview with Holland from June confirmed the rumors. After the interviewer touched on fake AI wedding photos that had circulated online, Holland admitted that they'd fooled his grandmother into thinking she wasn’t invited to the ceremony.

*Esquire* asked Holland if other family members needed similar assurances, to which the actor replied, “No, because they were all there.”

When asked to speak further about the wedding, Holland responded, “That's all you'll get on that," but the actor did speak lovingly of his new wife, saying that "I found my person."

Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California.

Christopher Polk/2026GG/Penske Media via Getty

After starring as a couple in distress in the second season of FX’s *Fargo, *Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst were together for six years and had two children together before quietly tying the knot in Jamaica in 2022.

A source close to the couple confirmed to PEOPLE that the ceremony had taken place over the Fourth of July weekend at the GoldenEye resort in Ocho Rios.

Speaking about how marriage changed him in an interview with *Entertainment Tonight*, the *Bugonia* actor admitted that it feels “different, in a good way.”

"It's funny. I wasn't sure how different [marriage] was gonna feel because we've been together for a while and, two kids later, it's pretty solid, you know?" Plemons explained. "But there was something really nice about [a wedding] and actually setting aside time to celebrate it.”

Since starring together on *Fargo, *the pair have gone on to act on-screen again in both *The Power of the Dog* and *Civil War,* the former clinching both of them Academy Award nods.

Callum Turner and Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa and Callum Turner attend Elton John AIDS Foundation's 34th Annual Academy Awards Viewing Party on March 15, 2026 in West Hollywood, Californi.

Michael Kovac/Getty

The “Levitating” singer was levitating back in May when she said “I do” to boyfriend and rumored James Bond contender Callum Turner. The couple had been linked since 2024 and were engaged in July 2025, which Dua Lipa confirmed in an interview with British *Vogue*.

In the interview, she gushed about the custom ring Turner had gotten her. "I'm obsessed with it. It's so me. It's nice to know the person that you're going to spend the rest of your life with knows you very well,” she said.

Unlike her pop music contemporary Taylor Swift, Lipa kept things small and subtle for her wedding day. She wed Turner in a quiet ceremony at London's Old Marylebone Town Hall on May 31, which was captured in photographs taken by *The Sun. *The couple was surrounded only by a small group of friends and family, but obviously they looked incredibly chic.**

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody attend Netflix's Golden Globe Afterparty 2025 at Spago on January 05, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California.

Emma McIntyre/Getty

*Gossip Girl*’s Blair Waldorf and *The O.C.* star have been together for more than a decade now, and they've managed to keep their relationship mostly out of the spotlight. The two were engaged shortly after romance rumors began spreading in 2013, and marriage came soon after that.

In 2014, a source confirmed to PEOPLE that Leighton Meester and Adam Brody had officially exchanged vows in a secret ceremony. “She has a lovely ring. She likes [it] a lot,” the insider revealed, describing the wedding as “under-wraps” and “super intimate”. The couple now have two children together.

Speaking about her decision to have an unflashy wedding, Meester told *Bustle* in 2025 that, “On sets and in life, I’ve been able to wear a fancy dress and hit a mark and say lines, and I didn’t want it to feel like that. I wanted it to feel intimate and private.”

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Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden

Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden attend the Michael Rubin REFORM Alliance Casino Night Event on September 13, 2025 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Arturo Holmes/Getty

One month after getting engaged, the Good Charlotte musician and *Shrek* star were married in an ultra-private, celeb-filled wedding at their Beverly Hills home in January 2015. PEOPLE confirmed the nuptials shortly after the intimate ceremony occurred.

Cameron Diaz was spotted sporting what appeared to be an engagement ring on her finger at a luncheon in Hollywood the previous October, and it was also reported that she and Benji Madden had moved in together.

In a 2017 panel at the “In Goop Health” wellness summit in Culver City, Calif., the actress spoke about waiting until 42 to get married.

“I think it’s a matter of I just hadn’t met my husband,” Diaz said plainly. “I had boyfriends before, and there’s a really, really distinct difference between husbands and boyfriends.”

On what made Madden different, she said, “He’s just my partner in life, in everything. I’ve never had anyone who supported me so much and gave me so much courage to be myself and to really explore myself. My husband has been able to show me what it’s like to […] be an equal. And I’ve learned so much from him. I look at him every day and he inspires me. I feel so lucky.”

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz

Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz at the Oscars Nominee Luncheon held at Fairmont Century Plaza on March 7, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.

Gilbert Flores/Variety/Penske Media via Getty

The A-list Oscar winners met on the set of the Spanish film *Jamon Jamon* in 1992, but didn’t become a couple until reuniting for *Vicky Cristina Barcelona* in 2007. Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz kept their romance private, and were married three years later in a small ceremony.

Rumors had circulated the previous year that the couple were engaged, but neither would speak on it. However, Cruz’s rep confirmed to PEOPLE that she and Bardem tied the knot in the Bahamas at a friend’s home. They eventually welcomed two children together.

The stars have continued to keep their relationship extremely private, but that hasn’t stopped Bardem from gushing about his wife. In March’s *Variety* cover story, Bardem was positively effusive about Cruz, calling her an “amazing, beautiful, good human being.”

“She's a woman I'm so blessed by having had the chance to be at the same time, in the same place, in life,” the actor raved. “It's important that you respect and support your partner, but also that you admire that person for what she is, for what she does.”

He also candidly can’t believe that his wife is literally Penelope Cruz: “When I see her being photographed on some magazines, I go, Is that my wife? Jesus, is it? It must be!” May every man speak about their wife this way.

Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost

Colin Jost and Scarlett Johansson on Sunday, February 16, 2025.

NBC/Noam Galai/NBC via Getty

Scarlett Johansson and *SNL* writer and performer Colin Jost began dating after meeting on the set of the late-night NBC sketch show, and the couple exchanged vows in a secret ceremony at their Palisades, N.Y., home in October 2020.

The public learned about the celebrity nuptials through the Meals on Wheels America charity, which had encouraged donations on social media using a picture of the Staten Island Ferry with the text “Jost Married” above the boat.

The *Asteroid City* actress first opened up to PEOPLE about the wedding, noting how “challenging” it was putting the ceremony together amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the restrictions allowed things to be fittingly understated.

"I think just keeping it intimate and small made it feel intentional," Johansson explained. "We wanted it to feel like it had an intentional intimacy as opposed to being something that felt like we were restricted by all these things."

Dave Franco and Alison Brie

Alison Brie, Dave Franco at the Deadline 2025 Sundance Film Festival Studio held at the Deadline Studio on January 26, 2025 in Park City, Utah.

Deadline/Deadline via Getty

Though Alison Brie had told *Elle* Canada in 2012 that "I don't even know if I want to get married,” she ended up exchanging vows in a very under-the-radar ceremony in 2017 with her partner of more than five years, Dave Franco.

The two had a whirlwind meeting at Mardi Gras in New Orleans in 2011, which Brie divulged on *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon *in 2020. Franco then popped the question to Brie in August 2015, per *Us Weekly.*

Though they’ve kept their relationship private, they’re a lot more open about it now. They’ve interviewed together and even starred in movies together, like the romantic comedy *Somebody I Used to Know *(directed by Franco), and as an engaged couple in crisis in the 2025 horror film *Together.*

In a 2023 interview with* , *the couple talked about working together on *Somebody, *and how they wrote the script during COVID lockdowns.

"We didn't know when we would actually have time to sit down and write it, and then, a few months later, the world ended," Franco explained. "At the time, they were saying that lockdown was going to last two weeks, so we looked at each other and said, 'Okay, we have two weeks to pump out this first draft.' We were waking up very early and writing all day. We ended up writing the first draft within that timeframe, but then, of course, the world stayed shut down for much longer, so we had a long time to refine that draft."

John Corbett and Bo Derek

Bo Derek and John Corbett arrive at the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute Celebrating Julie Andrews at Dolby Theatre on June 09, 2022 in Hollywood, California.

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

*My Big Fat Greek Wedding* star John Corbett and former model Bo Derek quietly got hitched in 2020, with the news not breaking until a year later by Corbett himself.

In an appearance on *The Talk, *Corbett told co-host Jerry O’Connell that he had wed his longtime partner “around Christmastime.”

The couple were together for an impressive 20 years before finally deciding to say “I do”. "We're pretty private people,” Corbett explained, “we didn't make an announcement, all our friends and family knew but this is the first time either one of us has said anything publicly about it because really we haven't had an opportunity. So, you're my buddy and now I guess I'm telling all of America, or the world."

Corbett continued, saying, "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.’”

Grace Gummer and Mark Ronson

Mark Ronson and Grace Gummer at the 66th Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Crypto.com Arena on February 4, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty

In May 2021, Meryl Streep’s actress daughter Grace Gummer sparked engagement rumors when she was spotted with a big ol’ ring on her finger. Grammy winner Mark Ronson then revealed that the two were engaged on *The FADER *Uncovered podcast.

At a July 2021 event in the Hamptons, the two made their red carpet debut as an engaged couple, and one month later, *Page Six* reported the couple were getting married. Then, in September 2021, Ronson himself confirmed the reports by acknowledging their marriage in an Instagram post for his 46th birthday.

The since-deleted post shared a photo of Ronson and Gummer holding hands down the aisle with a caption that read, "To my truest love...out of nowhere, you made 45 hands down the greatest year of my life. And I'm sure it took me 45 years to become the man worthy of your love.”

He added, "I hope I spend every one of these birthdays by your side til my last day. And beyond. Forever and ever yours ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ (and yes, we got married).”

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Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively attend 'SNL50: The Anniversary Special' on February 16, 2025 in New York City.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

While Black Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ relationship has never been much of a secret, they chose to keep their wedding ceremony under wraps.

The pair surprised the public in 2012 when a source confirmed to *E! News* that they had been married in a quiet ceremony in Mount Pleasant, S.C., roughly a year since they began dating after they met on the set of *Green Lantern.*

Though their wedding was top secret, the couple aren’t as shy about their marriage these days, occasionally talking about one another in interviews and often appearing together in public.

Talking about the key to his marriage with Lively, Reynolds told *Entertainment Tonight*, "We don’t take each other too seriously, but we're also friends. Falling in love is great, but do you like each other? That's kinda the question you gotta ask yourself, you know, going into it."

"We've always liked each other,” he added. “We grow together. We learn from each other," he continued. "So yeah, I'm lucky to have a buddy in that."

Reynolds even made a rare comment about his wife’s ongoing and highly publicized legal battle with her *It Ends With Us* costar and director Justin Baldoni, saying that “I've never in my life been more proud of my wife.”

In a discussion on the *Sunday Sitdown* live chat with *Today*'s Willie Geist, Reynolds said, "People have no idea what's really going on. And I've just never in my life been more proud of someone with that level of integrity that brings that with them and carries that with them in everything that they do."

Gabby Windey and Robby Hoffman

Robby Hoffman and Gabby Windey in the audience of 'Dancing With the Stars'.

Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty

Though Gabby Windey had risen to fame by being the titular *Bachelorette,* she certainly surprised Bachelor Nation when she got together with her girlfriend, comedian Robby Hoffman. When the two first met outside of a bar, Windey was “exploring [her] sexuality,” as she explained to *Interview* magazine, in a joint conversation with the couple.

Though Windey admitted she was new to dating the opposite sex, the *Hacks* breakout star was with her every step of the way.

“I had such a good partner to kind of show me the ropes and lesbian culture and just be really patient with me,” Windey explained. “ People were like, ‘Some lesbians don’t like to date baby gays, they’re too afraid.’ But Robby never says no to a challenge.”

The two were married twice — the second time officially in a Los Angeles courthouse, the first time impulsively (and unofficially) in a tiny Las Vegas ceremony, which had only cost them $799, per *Cosmopolitan*. The couple had fled to Las Vegas during the Los Angeles fires in January 2025.

Windey made the announcement on social media, in an Instagram post with photos of the two at their adorable ceremony with the caption “Husband and wife!!”**** “I just love being with Robby, so knowing that I got her one-on-one to celebrate this beautiful night, I could cry. It was joy,” Windey rhapsodized to *Cosmo.***

Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha

Kerry Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha seen at a Special Screening of 'The Knife' at Ray Kurtzman Theater on August 11, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Eric Charbonneau/Cinetic via Getty

Kerry Washington married actor and former NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha in a secretive, Idaho-set wedding in June 2013. At the time, a source told PEOPLE that the small ceremony was held at a friend’s house. “It was small, just family and close friends,” said the insider. “They said their own vows, people stayed at the house. It was really simple and sweet.”

According to a source for *E! News**,* the couple had been dating for a year before they tied the knot. Almost 10 years to the date exactly, the *Scandal *star joked about the secrecy of her own wedding to *Entertainment Tonight.*

When probed about her impending 10th anniversary, Washington laughed and replied, "How do you even remember that?"

She continued, saying, "I do have an incredible husband. Do you remember how secret my wedding was? How private and secretive it was? That's how the anniversary is gonna be too!" she joked.

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