5 celebrities who dated fans – but who made it work? Justin Bieber first saw Hailey backstage, while One Direction’s Liam Payne met model Maya Henry at a meet-and-greet

Jul 27 , 2021

Which lucky fans got their fairy tale love story endings? Kate Middleton and Prince William, Justin and Hailey Bieber and Liam Payne and Maya Henry. Photos: @dukeandduchessofcambridge; @nolurbiseev; @liampayne/Instagram

Prince William and Kate Middleton are celebrating 10 years of marriage, but before the royal wedding, did Kate really have a poster of William in her dorm room?

Hollywood star Julia Roberts met cinematographer Daniel Moder on the set of The Mexican, and now they’re married with three children

Newsflash: we are now apparently living in a world where celebrities are open to dating their fans. There was a time when this modern-day fairy tale only appeared in films, but it is now a glaring reality – on the basis of these famous faces who fell so hard for their civilian supporters that they gave them a shot at romance.

So from forging unlikely connections on social media to meet-and-greet encounters, this is how some fans ended up winning over the hearts of their celebrity crushes and pursuing meaningful relationships for years to come.

Justin and Hailey Bieber

Hailey and Justin Bieber met each other backstage at the The Today Show in 2009. Photo: @nolurbiseev/Instagram

There became one less lonely girl in the world when pop star Justin Bieber went out with his diehard fan Hailey. Although the fashion model hails from the well-known Baldwin family, she was also notably a “Belieber”, or one of Bieber’s many devotees. Hailey’s dad, Stephen, introduced the pair backstage at The Today Show in 2009. Over the following decade, Justin and Hailey struck up a special friendship, which eventually turned into a whirlwind engagement. The young sweethearts have been hitched since 2018.

Prince William and Kate Middleton

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrate their 10 year anniversary in 2021. Photo: @dukeandduchessofcambridge/Instagram

While the Biebers have just started their journey as husband and wife, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge just celebrated their 10 year anniversary. Their inspiring story began in 2001 at the University of St Andrews in Scotland – but long before this a young Kate had already hung a poster of the young prince on her wall, according to her high school dorm mate anyway, talking to Marie Claire. During their official engagement interview in 2010, the duchess clarified that it was a picture of a random “Levi’s guy”. William, however, jokingly insisted that the poster was of him.

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