10 unlikely celebrity couples you didn’t know dated: from Kim Kardashian and Nick Cannon to Lenny Kravitz and Nicole Kidman, Madonna and Tupac Shakur – but which fellow pop star did Taylor Swift date?

Apr 23 , 2024

Ryan Gosling and Sandra Bullock once dated, as did Nick Cannon and Kim Kardashian. Photos: Instagram

Keeping up with Leonardo DiCaprio’s love life is a full time job, and we’ve lost count of the number of times that J. Lo’s been married. But then there are the couples who seem timeless; the ones who are burned into our brains whether they lasted or not – the Kims and the Kanyes, the Nicole Kidmans and Tom Cruises. So with hindsight and a little more context, realising they dated other people either side of their big relationships can seem a little mind-blowing.

Here are 10 of our favourite celebrity couples you either had no idea existed, or had completely forgotten about …

1. Matthew McConaughey and Janet Jackson

Matthew McConaughey and Janet Jackson did go out to dinner together, but that seemed to have been the extent of it. Photo: @boshbabexoxo/Instagram

This unlikely pair first hit it off at the 2002 Grammys. However, both acted coy when asked whether they were dating at the time. McConaughey later told Andy Cohen that the pair went out for dinner and “that was sorta it”, while Jackson told The Telegraph in 2006: “I guess we did [date] … It was just for a minute, that’s why I’m so hesitant to mention it”.

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2. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling may seem like an unlikely pairing, but the two dated for a year. Photo: @ryangoslingarmy/Instagram

The first thing you’d be right to notice about Miss Congeniality and Ken is their age difference. Yep, Gosling is 16 years younger, but the cute pair met on the set of Murder by Numbers, per Buzzfeed, and dated for about a year.

3. Chris Martin and Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence dated Chris Martin after the Coldplay vocalist split from Gwyneth Paltrow. Photos: Instagram

After the Coldplay frontman “consciously uncoupled” from his wife of 10 years, Gwyneth Paltrow, in 2014, he dated JLaw for four months. Per People, they broke up but then rekindled the romance in early 2015 where they were seen at Harry Styles’ birthday party together. In the end, Martin decided to put family first, according to People, and Lawrence got tired of him being “non-committal”.

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4. Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen

Rachel McAdams and Michael Sheen starred in Midnight in Paris together. Photo: @cinemacatsss/Instagram

It’s not often you see low-key Welsh actors dating glamorous Hollywood starlets, but that’s exactly what happened with this unlikely pairing between 2011 and 2013, per Cosmopolitan. “Michael and I never spend more than three weeks apart,” McAdams said at the time.

5. Kim Kardashian and Nick Cannon

Kim Kardashian and Nick Cannon split because of the leak of her sex tape. Photo: Instagram

If it weren’t for Kim K’s infamous sex tape, she may have been one of the women to add to Nick Cannon’s now 12-strong brood. As it was, the pair dated for several months in 2006, but split because Kardashian wasn’t honest with Cannon about the existence of the tape.

“If she might have been honest with me, I might have tried to hold her down and be like, ‘that was before me’, because she is a great girl,” Cannon told The Howard Stern Show in 2012.

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6. Bradley Cooper and Renée Zellweger

Bradley Cooper and Renée Zellweger never went public with their relationship. Photo: @misterblueeyes12/Instagram

These days, Bradley Cooper is dating Gigi Hadid, and before that there were Gaga rumours that just wouldn’t go away. But did you know he also dated Bridget Jones star Renée Zellweger between 2009 and 2011? The pair kept their relationship so low key that they never admitted to it, but as InStyle reported, “the actors were snapped by the paparazzi doing couple-y things all the time”, including holidaying with each other’s families and going grocery shopping.

7. Nicole Kidman and Lenny Kravitz

Other than dating Nicole Kidman (pictured), Lenny Kravitz’s other high-profile relationship is with Lisa Bonet. Photo: @gettyimagesfanclub/Instagram

Not only did the too-cool-for-school rocker date the Aussie actress, the pair were even secretly engaged. Together from 2003-2005 (post Cruise), Kidman admitted to The Edit in 2017 how she knew her co-star Zoë Kravitz on Big Little Lies: “Well, I knew Zoë because I was engaged to her father,” she let slip.

8. Cher and Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise and Cher dated in 1985, when the Top Gun star had yet to appear in his biggest films. Photo: @spoiledvenus/Instagram

Speaking of Cruise, the fact that he dated share Cher in 1985 is already mind-blowing enough. The fact that she later referred to him as one of her “top five” lovers on Watch What Happens Live even more so …

9. Madonna and Tupac Shakur

Tupac broke up with Madonna because he was worried he’d be letting his own people down – referring to her being white. Photo: @2pacunlimited/Instagram

This couple definitely gets filed into the “wait, what?” category. That’s right: in 1994, two years before his death, Tupac and Madonna dated, though the Material Girl only admitted it to Howard Stern in 2015, per Cosmopolitan.

In 2017, TMZ published a letter Tupac sent Madonna from prison in 1995, which revealed he’d broken up with her over her race. “I felt due to my ‘image’ I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was. I never meant to hurt you,” he wrote.

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10. Taylor Swift and Joe Jonas

Taylor Swift (pictured) and the Jonas brother, who later married and split from Sophie Turner, were briefly a couple in 2008. Photo: @billboard/Instagram

So there have been a few BFs before Travis Kelce came along, but it’s easy to forget that a teenage Taylor once dated none other than Joe Jonas for four months in 2008, according to Cosmopolitan.

Fame and celebrity

Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow were a world famous power couple for more than 10 years, but did you know that Jennifer Lawrence was the Coldplay singer’s rebound?
Bridget Jones’ Diary star Renée Zellweger secretly dated Bradley Cooper, and Nicole Kidman only let slip that she was engaged to Lenny Kravitz 12 years after the fact