20 Celebrity Couples Who Got Married in Secret

Celebrities usually adore basking in the glow of the spotlight, and many have over-the-top weddings with plenty of paparazzi present. But some celebs choose to go more low-key and marry in secret. Whether they run off to the courthouse or get married in a ceremony with only a few friends and family present, plenty of stars have gotten hitched quietly. And who can blame them? Sometimes the glare of fame can get a little old, especially for such a monumental event in your life (just look at these Hollywood legends on their wedding day!). Old-school Hollywood stars often were just as eager to avoid the bright lights and photographers when it came to getting married. Many of them also eloped or married quietly to hide from the ever-present press and their cameras.

Here are just a few of the many celebrities through the years who have married in secret:

Beyonce shot to fame as the lead of Destiny’s Child in the late 1990s. In 2002, she made her film debut in Austin Powers in Goldmember, and began a solo music career. Her debut album, Dangerously in Love, featured five top five hits. Her career has remained strong ever since.

Rapper Jay Z is a star in his own right. So, when it came time to tie the knot, the two stars chose a quiet event. The couple started dating after they collaborated on Jay Z’s song, “03 Bonnie and Clyde.” They tied the knot in secret in 2008 at Jay Z’s apartment, followed by a celebration with family and friends. Their signed wedding license, dated April 4, was filed at the end of April in Scarsdale, New York.

Ole Blue Eyes hardly needs an introduction: He rose to fame singing big band music in the '30s and '40s with an amazing string of hits. He also won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in From Here to Eternity in 1953. After a brief slowdown in his musical career, he rose to fame again in the '60s as a founding member of the Rat Pack in Las Vegas.

Lithe and pixie-like, Mia Farrow is best-known for her roles on the soap Peyton Place and in the films, Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Great Gatsby (1974) She was 30 years Sinatra’s junior when she became his third wife in 1966, raising more than a few eyebrows at the time. They were secretly married in a private wedding in Las Vegas. The marriage lasted two years. In 2013, Farrow revealed Sinatra may be the father of her only biological child, Ronin. She’s also said Sinatra was the love of her life.

Garner rose to stardom with her role on the TV series, Alias (2001), for which she received a number of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. She moved on to a series of film roles including Pearl Harbor (2001), Daredevil (2003), 13 Going on 30 (2004).

Affleck was already a star, known for his roles in movies such as Good Will Hunting (1987), when the two met on the set of Pearl Harbor. At the time, Garner was married, while Affleck was engaged to Jennifer Lopez. They took their romance public in 2004. They married secretly a year later, separated after 10 years and divorced in 2018 amidst rumors of his infidelity and his struggles with alcoholism.

Growing up in extreme poverty, the Italian beauty’s film career took off in the 1950s. She was highly regarded as one of the most stunning women in the world. Her film career blossomed, and she starred alongside Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra in The Pride and the Passion (1957). She won a Best Actress Academy Award in 1961 for her role in Two Women (1961).

During filming of The Pride and the Passion, Loren became involved with Grant and Italian film producer, Carlo Ponti, whom she met at a beauty contest years earlier. She ultimately chose Ponti, who was 25 years her senior, marrying him by proxy in Mexico in 1957. Complications from his annulment took a decade to untangle before the marriage was legally recognized in Italy. The two remained married until his death in 2007 — a rare example of lasting love in the entertainment industry.

Drafted by the New York Yankees in 1992, Jeter went on to become a star player, helping them win the World Series in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. He retired from baseball in 2014 but became part owner of the Miami Marlins in 2017.

Although he had been linked romantically to a few famous women, including Mariah Carey, he began dating model Hannah Davis but were notoriously quiet about their relationship. They were married in 2016 in a small private ceremony in the Napa Valley.

Hepburn grew up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. After the war, she made her stage debut in London and earned small film roles until skyrocketing to fame in the 1953 film, Roman Holiday. She had a string of hits throughout the '50s and '60s including Sabrina (1954) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). She’s one of the few actresses to have won an Emmy, Tony, Grammy and Academy Award during her long career. In her later years, she became a tireless advocate for UNICEF.

Hepburn met actor husband Mel Ferrer, when the two co-starred in the Broadway show, Ondine, for which she won her Tony. The couple secretly married in Switzerland in 1954 after leading the paparazzi on a wild chase to elude them (it was her first, his fifth marriage). The two divorced in 1968.

Brazilian supermodel Bundchen shot to fame when she signed a deal with Victoria’s Secret in 2000. By 2004, she became one of the highest paid models in the world.

Super-athlete Brady became the first NFL player to win six Super Bowls. He and Bundchen married in 2009, with only the couple’s parents and a few close friends in attendance. A month and a half later they traveled to Costa Rica and had a second ceremony in front of 40 guests.

Raised mostly by foster parents because her own mother battled mental health issues, Marilyn rose from nothing to international stardom. Signing with Twentieth Century Fox in 1947, Monroe’s career began to skyrocket in the early '50s with her roles in Niagara (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), and There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). She soon became a household name and an international sex symbol.

Baseball great DiMaggio married Monroe in January 1954 at a secret civil ceremony in San Francisco (though the press caught wind of the story in time to capture the newlyweds emerging from the courthouse). The couple would divorce later that year, although DiMaggio would be the one to help get her released from a psychiatric hospital in New York in 1961 as she battled exhaustion, depression and prescription drug addiction. After her death, DiMaggio had red roses delivered to her crypt for 20 years.

Paltrow began her film career in mostly forgettable films in the early to mid 1990s before earning the lead role in Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which she won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in many roles in the 2000s, including Shallow Hal (2001) and Iron Man (2008).

A hugely popular singer and songwriter with the band Coldplay, Martin and Paltrow met backstage at one of his concerts in 2002. The couple was secretly married in 2003 in Santa Barbara, with no family or friends present. They divorced in 2016.

Placing third on Nashville Star in 2003, Lambert went on to launch an impressive country music career with hits such as “Bring Me Down” and “Kerosene.” She’s won two Grammy awards and female country vocalist of the year for nine years.

Married to fellow country music star Blake Shelton for four years, after her divorce Lambert dated several other musicians until wedding a “mystery man.” In February 2019, she married former male model and NYPD police officer, Brendan McLoughlin in a private ceremony, which she later announced on social media.

After her divorce from DiMaggio, Monroe continued her climb to stardom, seeking more intense roles that would make the public take her more seriously.

Monroe and Miller, a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright best known for his play Death of a Salesman, met in 1950 at a party, then again when Monroe moved to New York in 1955. They began an affair while she was still married to DiMaggio. They married on June 29, 1956 but divorced in 1961 after a few rocky years, including two miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy.

As eldest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, Beatrice is used to the spotlight. Currently ninth in line to the throne, she dedicates her time to many charities, especially those supporting children.

Known as Edo, the millionaire property tycoon and Princess Beatrice reportedly started dating after the wedding of her sister, Eugenie. The pair first appeared in public together in 2019, and the businessman proposed in fall of that year. The wedding originally was scheduled for May 2020 in the usual royal style, but the nuptials were postponed due to the pandemic. Instead, the couple was wed in July in a "socially-distanced" private ceremony attended only by immediate family, including the Queen.

Starting out as a model in New York City, Ball moved to Hollywood, where she appeared in a string of B movies. In 1940, she met Desi Arnaz, and the two would eventually produce and star in the iconic and groundbreaking sitcom, I Love Lucy, which aired from 1951 to 1957.

Fleeing Cuba in 1933, Arnaz was a young, charismatic bandleader. When he met Ball in 1940 on the RKO movie, Too Many Girls, she was a contract player. By the end of the year, they eloped, tying the knot in Greenwich, Connecticut. By 1944, Ball filed for divorce due to Arnaz’s infidelities and drinking. The two eventually divorced in 1960 but remained friends until his death in 1989.

Raised in a theatrical family, Winslet’s first job was in a cereal commercial. She earned praise for her breakout role in Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she earned an Oscar nomination. She shot to stardom with her role in Titanic (1997).

Kate was married a twice before meeting Ned RocknRoll, the nephew of Richard Branson. Rocknroll (who changed his name from Abel Smith) works for his uncle’s company and met Winslet in 2011 at his uncle’s island getaway. The couple was married in a private ceremony in New York City with just a few guests in attendance. She was given away by her Titanic co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Bacall started her career as a fashion magazine model before scoring a role in her first movie, To Have or Have Not (1944) co-starring the well-known and respected actor, Humphrey Bogart. She would star in other films including The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953).

Twenty-five years her senior, Bogart and Bacall fell in love during the filming of To Have or have Not. They married in secret in Ohio at a friend’s farm in May 1945. They remained married until his death in 1957.

The talented Washington received critical acclaim for her roles in movies such as Ray (2004) and The Last King of Scotland (2006). In 2012, she began her role on the TV series Scandal (2012), earning several Emmy nominations.

Washington and athlete Nnamdi Asomugha, who played for the Oakland Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Francisco 49ers, dated for a year before they wed. They preferred to keep both their romance and wedding out of the spotlight and married in secret at a friend’s house in Idaho in 2013.

Signed by MGM, Hollywood’s largest studio, at the age of 13, Garland became an international sensation overnight. Despite the pressures of fame, she made comeback after comeback during her lifetime. She’s best remembered for her iconic roles in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1945), Easter Parade (1948), and A Star is Born (1954).

Garland met and Mark Herron, who produced her two comeback tours at the London Palladium, in 1964. After a whirlwind romance (during which she was still married to her third husband Sid Luft), they were married in private ceremony in Las Vegas in November 1965. The marriage lasted less than a year.

Weisz started modeling when she was 14, working her way into the theater and earning a role in The Mummy (1999), which secured her rise to stardom. She continued to star in a number of popular films in the 2000s, including The Constant Gardener (2005), for which she won an Oscar.

Craig, best known for his portrayal of James Bond, has had tremendous success in Hollywood. Weisz and he began dating in 2010 when they co-starred in Dream House (2011). A year later, they married in a secret ceremony in New York with just four people in attendance.

Daughter of Henry Fonda, one of the top actors of the 20th century, Fonda starred with her dad in 1954 in The Country Girl. She climbed to fame by the late '60s as screen siren in the sci-fi film, Barbarella (1968). She went on to earn her first Academy Award nomination for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) and won an Oscar for Klute (1971). She starred in many '70s and '80s movies including On Golden Pond (1982), alongside her father.

Vadim, a French filmmaker, who had also been involved with other young beauties such as Brigitte Bardot, directed Fonda in a few movies (which did better overseas than in the U.S.). They married in a civil ceremony in France in 1965 and divorced in 1973.

Cruz started her career a model and actress in Spanish TV and movies, eventually garnering her first US role in Woman on Top (2000). She starred in many movies in the 2000s including All the Pretty Horses (2000), Blow (2001), and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).

Bardem and Cruz started dating after meeting on the set of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), for which Cruz won an Oscar. They married two years later in a secret ceremony in the Bahamas.