Celebrities Who Started Dating After Years of Friendship

Credit: Courtesy of Chelsea Handler/Instagram

Celebrities Who Started Dating After Years of Friendship

Written in the stars. Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and more celebrities went from just friends to something more over the years. In fact, some of the strongest relationships in Hollywood began on platonic terms. West and Kardashian did not start dating until 2012, but they first crossed paths nearly a decade earlier. “I met him I think in 2002 or 2003,” the KKW Beauty founder said during the Keeping Up With the Kardashians 10th anniversary special in 2017. “He was recording a song with Brandy, and I was her friend. I vividly remember hanging out with him, and then they did a video together, so I’d see him a few times. He was asking his friends: ‘Who is this Kim Kardajan?’ He didn’t know what my name was.” The rapper quickly became acquainted with the reality star, leading to a long friendship that saw Kardashian wed to another man. She and Kris Humphries tied the knot in August 2011, but their short-lived marriage did not eliminate her bond with West. [jwplayer hq7v9MN7-zhNYySv2] “Right before I got married to Kris Humphries, [Kanye and I] were talking, and I just went a different direction,” she explained. “I think I had to go through that to figure out what I wanted. After my breakup, I was feeling really low and down and he said, ‘Just come to Paris and see my fashion show.’ He jokes that he put on this whole fashion show just to get a date with me. So I went there and I stayed with him, and that’s where we started dating. I swear from the moment I landed, I fell madly in love with him and I thought, ‘Oh, my God, why didn’t I do this sooner?’ Like, this is what real life is like — love and fun and real support.” The KKW Beauty and the Yeezy designer wed in an Italian ceremony in May 2014. Nearly six years later — and after welcoming four kids together — the pair separated in February 2021. Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher also had an aha moment years after starring on That ‘70s Show together. The Ranch star and the Bad Moms actress became friends with benefits … until she called it off. “I walked up to him and I was like, ‘You know what? I actually care about you, and I don’t wanna mess anything up, so I’m just going to walk away before it becomes too much,’” she recalled in a 2018 interview with the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast. “And he was like, ‘Got it.’” However, their feelings for each other won out: “The next day he showed up to my house, and he was like, ‘Move in with me.’” Scroll to see more celebrity couples who were friends first. [podcast_block]

Credit: Courtesy of Chelsea Handler/Instagram

Chelsea Handler and Jo Koy

The couple’s move from longtime friends to lovers was “organic,” according to the former Chelsea Lately host. Koy was a guest on an October 2021 episode of her “Dear Chelsea” podcast, where they discussed the early days of their romance, which began after he asked her to write a blurb for his 2021 book, Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo.

The Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea author later admitted she may have had feelings for Koy when he was a regular guest on her late-night talk show, which ran on E! from 2007 to 2014, but she “suppressed” them. “By the way, who gives a s–t?” she said on her podcast amid their romance. “Look where we are now. I would’ve ruined it if I had those feelings earlier, probably.”

In July 2022, the twosome announced their decision to part ways. 

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Ben Platt and Noah Galvin

The Pitch Perfect alum and the Good Doctor actor both played the role of Evan Hansen on Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen — Platt was the original star of the musical before Galvin took on the character in 2017. Their friendship began a few years prior to the Broadway crossover, the two have a mutual friend in Beanie Feldstein, and continued to grow before becoming romantic during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve been together a year-and-a-half now,” Platt said during an appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show in June 2021. “We were friends for five years and right before the pandemic, we finally decided to really give it a shot. We kind of skated around it for a long time.”

The pair’s relationship went from “zero to 60” when they moved in with Platt’s parents amid the health crisis in early 2020. “Living together with my parents in our childhood home and seeing each other all the time … it ended up being a beautiful time,” the Politician star said. “[Noah] won’t say it was all of the sudden because I was pretty dumb about it. I didn’t see the light for a long time and then I realize, you know, that he was the guy.”

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Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello

The musicians went on tour with Austin Mahone in 2014, at which time they struck up a friendship. They collaborated on “I Know What You Did Last Summer” the following year. It was not until they teamed up again for “Señorita” in 2019 that Cabello and Mendes became more than pals. The duo were first linked in July 2019, with Us Weekly confirming at the time that they were an item.

Two years later, Mendes and Cabello announced their decision to part ways in a joint statement on Instagram.

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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis

Kunis received her first kiss from Kutcher when the pair starred on That ‘70s Show together from 1998 to 2006. The former costars became friends with benefits in 2012 following his divorce from Demi Moore, and things quickly turned serious. They married in July 2015 and welcomed daughter Wyatt in October 2014 and son Dimitri in November 2016.

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Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

The Grammy winner and the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star met in the early 2000s but did not begin dating until 2012. The longtime friends, who now share daughter North, son Saint, daughter Chicago and son Psalm, wed in May 2014. Kardashian filed for divorce in February 2021 after nearly six years of marriage.

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Ashley Iaconetti and Jared Haibon

The reality stars formed a connection during season 2 of Bachelor in Paradise in 2015 but decided to just be friends. The couple announced in May 2018 that they were officially dating; they tied the knot in August 2019.

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Ariana Grande and Mac Miller

Grande and Miller became friends while collaborating on “The Way” in 2013 and “My Favorite Part” in 2016. The two were first romantically linked in August 2016. They split in May 2018 after nearly two years together. The rapper died from mixed drug toxicity in September 2018 at age 26.

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Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber

Hailey’s father, Stephen Baldwin, introduced her to the Grammy winner in 2009. The model and Justin dated from 2015 to 2016 before ending things. Us broke the news of their reconciliation in June 2018. They wed in September 2018 and held a second ceremony one year later.

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Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.

The She’s All That star and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum met on the set of 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer. The pals began dating three years later after having dinner together. They exchanged vows in September 2002 and welcomed daughter Charlotte and son Rocky in 2009 and 2012, respectively.

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Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder

The Vampire Diaries costars’ chemistry was undeniable after the CW series debuted in September 2009. The castmates went public with their romance in 2011. Us exclusively revealed in May 2013 that Dobrev and Somerhalder called it quits. According to a source at the time, the exes vowed to “remain best friends, which is where the relationship started.”

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Carey Mulligan and Marcus Mumford

The actress and the musician wrote letters to each other after meeting at a Christian summer camp. They bumped into each other again at a 2011 party in Nashville and, soon after, developed into more than friends. They wed in April 2012 and became parents to daughter Evelyn in 2015 and son Wilfred in 2017.

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Bella Thorne and Gregg Sulkin

The Disney Channel alums met in 2009. They eventually dated from 2015 to 2016 and stayed friends after their split.