Hollywood Cupids: 15 Times Celebs Played Matchmaker


These happy couples have a lot to be thankful for, but they owe an extra special thanks to the people who brought them together.

Some of the strongest power couples on the A-list were set up by friends and fellow celebrities. While many starry set-ups were intentional — like Meghan Trainor’s introduction to Daryl Sabara, all thanks to Chloë Grace Moretz — others happened by chance.

Ralph Lauren may not have dressed both Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas to get them together, for example, but their 2017 Met Gala run-in certainly played a part in pushing their romance along. Even Erin Andrews gets credit for telling Taylor Swift to give Travis Kelce a chance on her podcast!

Find out which other stars played matchmaker for some of Hollywood’s favorite duos.


Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce

Erin Andrews Travis Kelce Taylor Swift.

FOX via Getty; Gotham/GC Images


Matchmaker: Erin Andrews

The NFL commentator was rooting for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce way before they stepped out hand-in-hand. Speaking on her podcast with Charissa Thompson months earlier, Andrews urged the “Anti-Hero” songstress to give the Kansas City Chiefs tight end a chance.

“Taylor, I don’t know what you are doing in your life right now besides rocking the world,” Andrews said during an episode of Calm Down with Erin and Charissa. “Please try our friend Travis. He is fantastic.”

Kelce expressed some gratitude for the co-hosts in an Instagram comment, writing, “I owe you big time!!” Swift, for her part, paid tribute to the broadcaster by wearing a Chiefs jacket designed by Andrews’ brand, Wear by Erin Andrews. 

“As soon as she wore it, I saw it,” Andrews said during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “I started screaming and freaking out and singing all my favorite Swiftie songs. And then yeah, we restocked and we sold out. And thank you, thank you Taylor Swift.”



Hilarie Burton & Jeffey Dean Morgan

Jensen Ackles, Hilarie Burton Morgan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Craig Barritt/Getty; Manny Carabel/WireImage


Matchmaker: Jensen Ackles

One look at this divine pairing and you know they’re meant to be. However, Hilarie Burton and Jeffrey Dean Morgan may not have gotten together had it not been for Jensen Ackles, who coyly set them up on a blind date.

“Hilarie was in town visiting, this was in L.A., and she was staying with us and so we went out one evening. I remember it, it was like an Irish pub in Toluca Lake,” Ackles recalled during an episode of Friday Night in with the Morgans back in 2020.

“And there we were sitting, the three of us,” he continued Ackles. “I convinced [Morgan] to come down the street and meet us for a drink, and you did. And you pulled up in your Harley, and we were sitting there in the front window, and Hilarie sees this guy get off a bike in slow-motion and take his helmet off and throw his hair [around].”

“It was all very surreal,” he added, “You walked in, the two of you locked eyes, and that was pretty much the rest of the evening.”




Renée Zellweger & Ant Anstead

Ant Anstead/Instagram; Getty

Matchmaker: Drew & Jonathan Scott

Zellweger was the first guest on Celebrity IOU: Joyride — which, like the Scott brothers’ HGTV series Celebrity IOU, features A-listers paying back friends and mentors with makeover surprises (in the spinoff show’s case, their getting dream cars via Anstead). On her episode, the Oscar winner wanted to give back to Jerome and Jerald Cowan, the twin brothers and nurses who cared for her friend and publicist, Nanci Ryder, before her death from ALS in 2020.

Anstead and Zellweger quickly hit it off and starting dating shortly thereafter. The two made their first public appearance as a couple months later, in August 2021, and went Instagram official with their relationship a month later. Because of it all, Jonathan told PEOPLE in April 2022 that he and his twin definitely take credit for the successful relationship.

So could wedding bells be in their future? “Who knows,” Drew told PEOPLE. “I better be the ring bearer, that’s all I care about.”



Alfred Molina & Jennifer Lee

Matchmaker: Jonathan Groff

Spider-Man actor Molina and Frozen director Lee tied the knot in a romantic garden ceremony in August 2021, Lee announced on her social media.

One shot showed the couple sharing a sweet kiss in a garden, while Molina and Lee happily exchanged vows underneath a floral archway — with Frozen star Jonathan Groff appearing to act as the officiant — in another picture.

Lee also gave a shoutout to Groff in another Instagram post, writing in the caption, “This beautiful, generous soul is the reason Fred and I met.”

Alongside a photo of herself with the Broadway star, Lee added, “We owe him the world.”




Leslie Odom Jr. & Nicolette Robinson

Shannon Finney/Getty Images. INSET: GETTY IMAGES

Matchmaker: Billy Porter

During a January 2021 chat on Live with Kelly and Ryan, Odom Jr. recounted how Broadway star Porter was a professor of his at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and later tapped him to be his assistant director on a show in New York City.

Odom Jr. recalled “this really talented … college junior or senior” — a.k.a. Robinson — auditioned for a part, and he just felt their paths would cross, even if she didn’t land a role in the show.

“As fate would have it,” Odom Jr. recalled, she scored a different part in the show and as assistant director, “it was my responsibility … to make sure she felt welcome and part of the family,” he joked. The two started hanging out after their production wrapped — and never stopped.






Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas

Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock. Inset: Evan Agostini/Getty

Matchmaker: Ralph Lauren

Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas have the designer to thank for their relationship … kind of. While Lauren didn’t exactly hook this pair up with romantic intentions, he did dress them both for the 2017 Met Gala.

“We were both wearing Ralph Lauren and we decided to go together … Yeah, we were on the same table and we already know each other,” Chopra said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “So he was like ‘Hey, you wanna go together?’ And I was like ‘Yeah, okay, let’s go together.’ It ended up working out.”

The two didn’t start dating until the following year, but the glamorous fundraiser certainly played a part in nudging their romance along.



Sophie Turner & Joe Jonas

Taylor Jewell/Vogue/REX/Shutterstock; Inset: Stephen Lovekin/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

Matchmaker: Hailee Steinfeld

After Steinfeld worked with Joe Jonas’ band DNCE on their 2015 track “Rock Bottom,” Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner reached out to her close friend for details on the singer.

“I mean, I will say, I did get that text from Sophie being like, ‘So tell me about Joe,’ and I was like, ‘Go for it,’ ” Steinfeld shared on Nova 96.9. Turner took the actress’s advice, and she and Jonas eventually tied the knot with a surprise wedding Las Vegas wedding in 2019.

Four years later, the parents of two announced their split.




Prince Harry & Meghan Markle

Samir Hussein/WireImage; Inset: Neil Rasmus/BFA/Shutterstock

Matchmaker: Possibly Misha Nonoo

“We were introduced by a mutual friend,” Prince Harry revealed during the couple’s joint engagement interview. “It was definitely a set-up — it was a blind date.” Although they have declined to confirm the friend’s identity in order to “protect her privacy,” it’s long been speculated that designer Misha Nonoo is the mystery connection.

Nonoo’s ex-husband Alexander Giles once worked with Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie. Meanwhile, the designer met Markle several years ago when they were seated next to one another at a lunch. “I love her to death,” Nonoo told the Evening Standard of the soon-to-be royal. “She is the coolest girl in the world. She has the most remarkable and generous spirit. I aspire to be as philanthropic as she is, and to have as much of an impact as her.”



Meghan Trainer & Daryl Sabara

Source: Meghan Trainor/Instagram; Inset: Getty

Matchmaker: Chloë Grace Moretz

Meghan Trainor has Moretz to thank for her romance with Daryl Sabara, who’s best known for his role in the Spy Kids film franchise. “I asked every person I met since day one, ‘Find me a boyfriend!’ Like, especially new friends too,” the “Better” songstress tells Chelsea Handler on her eponymous Netflix show.

“Chloë Grace Moretz is a friend of mine, and day one of meeting her, I was like, ‘You know anybody that I could date? Or love? Whatever,’” Trainor recalled. “And she’s like, ‘I know the nicest guy in the world, Daryl, and you should meet him.’ I was like, ‘Daryl? Okay.’” It worked: The two got married in December 2018 and are expecting their first child together.




Sofia Vergara & Joe Manganiello

Gabe Ginsberg/WireImage; Inset: Getty

Matchmaker: Jesse Tyler Ferguson

Yet another reason we’d like to brunch with Ferguson: He helped introduce Sofia Vergara to husband Joe Manganiello after her split from Nick Loeb. “The day that I sent the press release [announcing the breakup], Joe immediately contacted Jesse Tyler Ferguson, like, ‘Please, please, please tell her I want her number.’ And I’m like, ‘Jesse, no, he’s too handsome,’ ” Vergara recalled. “Then, after two days of Jesse trying to convince me, I’m like, ‘Okay, give him my number.’ I’m thinking, I’m in New Orleans shooting, and he’s in L.A. Nothing’s going to happen. But we started talking a lot, and then he showed up in New Orleans. Since then we’ve been inseparable.”

After seven years together, Vergara and Manganiello decided to divorce in July 2023. At the time, a source told PEOPLE that they had been “growing apart for some time.”

“They definitely love and respect each other, but once that initial passion dies down and other areas get in the way, then little differences get bigger,” the insider said.



Cameron Diaz & Benji Madden

Ramey; Inset: FilmMagic

Matchmaker: Nicole Richie

“I’m going to take responsibility for everything!” said Richie of playing matchmaker between Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden (the twin brother of Richie’s husband, Joel Madden). “I am a devoted sister-in-law.” Yes, family dinner envy is officially a real thing.






Ellen DeGeneres & Portia de Rossi

Jonathan Leibson/WireImage; Inset: Rex USA

Matchmaker: Ed Helms

We wouldn’t necessarily call Helms a modern-day cupid, but this is a decent start: While running lines in Portia de Rossi’s trailer on the set of Arrested Development, Ellen DeGeneres was on their TV. “This was before you guys were an item,” Helms recalled to the now-married DeGeneres. “She said, ‘Man, I am so into her.’ Cut to two months later, and you guys were a thing. I take full credit because I didn’t talk her out of it.” Makes sense.




James Corden & Julia Carey

Matchmaker: Dominic Cooper

Late Late Show host James Corden was introduced to his now-wife Julia Carey by his former roommate. Cooper and Corden had gotten very close when they shared a home — which happened to have only one bed — so it’s no wonder the actor was able to help his friend make a love connection. “We’d often wake up curled next to each other,” Cooper told the Evening Standard about living with Corden. Cooper is now godfather to Corden and Carey’s son Max.



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