I think all of us are a little skeptical about “happily ever after”, “one true love”, and similar romantic clichés. There is always a question: can I - do I want to - live my entire life with the same person? How can I best manage my relationship? Celebrities aren’t any different - famous couples break up and get together every day.
There are no guarantees for a happily ever after, but I still decided to collect some positive examples of celebrity couples. These people aren’t only in a happy relationships, but they inspire us both individually and together: they take a stand not only for LGBTQ+ rights, but also for other important issues, such as environmental protection.
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi
America’s funniest television personality has been together with Portia de Rossie for over a decade, and we can easily say that the two of them are the strongest couple in Hollywood. They got married in 2008, and the significant age difference has never been an issue for them, unlike many other couples. And besides, Ellen looks twenty years younger than she is anyway.
Ellen has always lived an adventurous life: she challenged Michelle Obama to a push-up contest, ordered pizza at an Oscar gala, received the state’s highest honor from Barack Obama, former president of the United States, and received a Gorilla sanctuary for her 60th birthday from her wife, Portia. She holds the ethologist Dian Fossey’s work in the highest esteem, who - when still alive - studied the behavior of gorillas, as well as establishing an animal protection research center and foundation in Rwanda. Portia, on Ellen’s behalf, donated an entire complex to the center, and they also started the Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund.
Ellen Page and Emma Portner
When Ellen Page was 18, a director humiliated her in front of the entire cast by saying to a female co-star (who was ten years older than Ellen), “You should fuck her to make her realise she’s a lesbian.” Ellen publicly came out in 2014 at the Time to Thrive event for LGBTQ+ youth in Las Vegas. She has always been an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ+ rights - most recently, she stood up for transgender people. She married a choreographer, Emma Portner a year ago, and according to their Instagram page, they couldn’t be happier or more in love.
Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne
Tig Notaro hasn’t had an easy life by any means. Within one year, the comedian has suffered an inflammatory bowel disease, lost her mother to an accident, went through a break-up, fought breast cancer, and had a double mastectomy. She has turned all her suffering into incredible stand-up routines, inspiring, comforting and entertaining not only cancer survivors, but her whole audience. She married her wife in 2015 after being friends for years, and their twins, Max and Finn were born in 2016. We have published an article on their lives before, which you can find here.
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka
Neil Patrick Harris, the “class clown” of the popular show How I Met Your Mother, and his husband David Burtka also earned their place on the list of most famous LGBTQ+ couples. Neil and David met through The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and announced their relationship at the Emmy gala in 2007. In 2010, they announced that they were expecting twins through a surrogate mother. An interesting tidbit is that they implanted the surrogate mother with two fertilised eggs, one with Neil’s sperm and one with David’s - so they have no way of knowing which one of them is the biological father of the twins. Imagine how many times they must have said after the children’s mischief: “well, that’s definitely your kid!”
Neil’s Instagram page is full of insanely cute pictures of the twins, and they never seem to run out of heartwarming moments to share.
Sometimes I wonder if Neil used some of Barney’s well-known flirting tricks on David. Given that they’ve been together for years with no sign of ending, the answer hardly matters: what counts is that they are happy together.
Did you know that Neil wrote a children’s book called The Magic Misfits? I didn’t, so imagine my surprise when I found it’s actually the first in a series of four books. We already knew his talents are multiple: actor, singer, magician, and now a writer? The middle grade book is written for ages between 8-12, and its characters include a girl in a wheelchair, a violinist, and a girl with two fathers. It seems Neil never disappoints.
Jim Parsons and Todd Spiewak
A whole collection of phobias, an unbearable personality, and antisocial behavior? These are all characteristics of The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper. The odd, but love-able character is played by Jim Parsons, who has none of Sheldon’s “oddities” in real life - at least according to his husband, Todd Spiewak. The couple met at a blind date held at a karaoke bar, and got married in 2017, after 14 years together. Their wedding was organized and their marriage officiated by one of their closest friends.
Elton John and David Furnish
The composer of the Lion King soundtrack is also the proud owner of six Grammys, an Oscar, and official knighthood. He established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, and the next year he held the first annual Academy Award Party, which is in league with the most prestigious Oscar-gala parties. He entered a registered partnership with David Furnish in 2005, and they got married as soon as British law allowed it. Currently they’re the proud parents of two sons. They have a house in Nice, where they sometimes spend their vacations along with the aforementioned Neil and his family.
Jodie Foster and Alexandra Hedison
Jodie Foster (according to her) came out in the Stone Ages, at the 70. Golden Globe Award Show, after accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award. The talented actress married the actress/photographer Alexandra Hedison, better known as Dylen from The L Word, in 2014. Jodie Foster’s greatest treasure - understandably - is her privacy. She rarely talks about her family, even though she has two sons.
Whether you look upon the above list with a skeptical eyebrow-raise or a hidden smile, the lesson is the same: if they made it happen, then why couldn’t you?
Translated by Alexa Sebők
