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12 of the longest LGBTQ celebrity relationships that prove love knows no bounds
Frank Olito
- Some LGBTQ couples in Hollywood have been together for decades, such as Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, who met in the '70s.
- George Takei and Brad Altman; Elton John and David Furnish; and RuPaul and Georges LeBar have all been together for at least 30 years.
- Both Matt Bomer and George Takei came out publicly after years of dating their significant others.
Celebrity relationships come and go, but some couples, including those who identify as LGBTQ, last for decades.
Some of these couples had to deal with coming out publicly while others hid their relationships for years, but they all withstood the pressure of fame to remain together.
From actors to musicians, here are 12 of the longest-lasting LGBTQ couples in Hollywood.
Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner met five decades ago.
In the early '70s, actress Tomlin reached out to writer Wagner to get help with a character she was playing. Their meeting was love at first sight, Tomlin said.
"A friend brought her to my hotel room, and I tell you, in two minutes, I fell in love with her," Tomlin told Variety. "She had on hot pants, stretchy boots that went up to her knee, and a little backpack. I don't know what it was, but I was in love."
After their meeting, Tomlin flew to Chicago but then immediately flew back to New York to go on a date with Wagner. Over the next few decades, the two created a romantic and professional partnership that resulted in some of the best comedies of the '80s and '90s, according to Variety.
It wasn't until 2013 that the pair tied the knot.
George Takei and Brad Altman have been an item since the '80s.
"Star Trek" actor Takei joined a running group in the '80s and met a fellow member, Brad Altman. Together, they trained for 5ks and 10ks before eventually becoming romantically involved. They kept their relationship a secret for 18 years before Takei came out publicly in 2005. In 2008, the coupled got married, according to HuffPost.
"We truly are a team — me as the actor, writer, activist and Brad as the manager, scheduler and all-around essential guy," Takei told Variety in 2020. "And we love being able to share our lives and our livelihood."
Elton John and David Furnish have been together for almost 30 years.
In 1993, John was sober for the first time in a decade, and he looked for a new social circle to support his new lifestyle. His friend brought Furnish, a Canadian filmmaker, to dinner and the two felt an instant connection.
In 2005, the couple said "I do" in a civil partnership. They made it an official marriage in 2014 when same-sex marriage was legalized in England. Today, they have two children together.
"Every Saturday for 16 years, we've sent each other a card," John told Parade magazine in 2016. "No matter where we are in the world, to say how much we love each other."
RuPaul met his future husband, Georges LeBar, in a dance club in 1994.
In 1994, RuPaul met Georges LeBar, a rancher in Wyoming, on the dance floor of New York's famous nightclub, the Limelight. In 2017, the couple said "I do" on the anniversary of their dance-floor "meet-cute," Marie Claire reported.
"He works the ranch, I work Hollywood, and we meet up in fabulous places," RuPaul told Entertainment Tonight in 2017. "You know, he needs breaks from time to time because it's a very different life. So, we plan little getaways once a month, you know? New York or Maui or San Francisco or Vegas. We do that."
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi have been together for 16 years.
DeGeneres and De Rossi met in 2004 and instantly felt a connection, but De Rossi wasn't out to the public yet: The actress told Oprah in 2012 she hadn't been ready "to date the most famous lesbian in the world."
In 2005, she spoke to The Advocate about coming out and by 2008, the couple tied the knot. They have been married ever since.
"Portia and I constantly say to each other, 'We are so lucky.' Sometimes it's lying in bed at night before I go to sleep, and I just say thank you to whatever, whoever is out there," DeGeneres told People magazine in 2016.
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka started dating 16 years ago.
When they met on a street corner in New York City in 2004, Harris though Burtka was straight but was completely enamored by him. Slowly, they grew closer at other social gatherings.
"I initially fell for David harder than he fell for me," Harris told Out magazine in 2012. "I was in love with him before he was comfortable saying it, and I think that speaks to our past experiences. I remember saying, 'I think I love you,' and he was like, 'That's really nice,' which is not necessarily what you want to hear."
Still, Burtka — who is also an actor — was the one who proposed first on the same street corner where they met, Out magazine reported. They tied the knot in 2014 and now have twins together.
"Sex and the City's" Cynthia Nixon had never dated a woman before she met Christine Marinoni in 2004.
Nixon and Marinoni met while advocating for state schools in 2004, a year after Nixon broke it off with her high school sweetheart, according to the Radio Times.
"I had never dated a woman before or even kissed a woman or anything, and so when we started seeing each other, Christine kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for me to panic about what this would mean — to my career or to myself — as if somehow I just hadn't noticed that she was a woman. And then she met my mother and that was when she stopped worrying about it," Nixon told the Radio Times in 2017.
The two tied the knot in 2012 and have one child together.
"Queer Eye's" Tan France and his husband, Rob France, have been married for 13 years.
Tan met his future husband, Rob France, on a dating app over a decade ago. Rob is an illustrator and a Mormon from Wyoming, while Tan is a Muslim from England. Together, they bonded over their religious backgrounds.
"It made it easier to date somebody who had similarities to me. I don't drink alcohol, I don't smoke," France told the New York Post in 2018. "We practice some of our religions' practices. We don't practice them all. We practice what works for us."
The two wed in 2007, according to Newsweek.
Wanda Sykes met her wife, Alex Niedbalski, 12 years ago after spotting her on a ferry ride.
In 2006, Sykes was on a ferry to Fire Island, an island off Long Island, New York, when she saw a woman who instantly caught her attention. By sheer coincidence, the comedian was later introduced to the woman, Alex Niedbalski, the Guardian reported. The two started dating and married in 2008.
Sykes came out to the public the same year she tied the knot with Niedbalski. Previously Sykes was married to Dave Hall, a music producer, whom she often joked about hating.
"It just speaks to being in a bad relationship with my husband," Sykes told New York Times Magazine in 2018. "I was being honest. I wanted to get away. Like: 'God, there's his stupid face, and he's chewing. Ugh, does he have to breathe? Make him stop breathing.' Now I'm in a great relationship, and I'm happy, so my wife's chewing doesn't annoy me."
They have twins together.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Justin Mikita met in a gym locker room 11 years ago.
In 2009, Mikita, a lawyer, stopped Ferguson in the Equinox locker room to ask him about his new role on the ABC sitcom "Modern Family." A few months later, the pair started dating, and in 2013, they got married, Variety reported.
In July, they welcomed their first child together.
"We're just really excited to meet this person and experience what fatherhood is like," Mikita told Variety earlier this year. "We both have amazing fathers who we look up to very much, but it's different when it's you."
Matt Bomer and Simon Halls' secretive relationship began over a decade ago.
In 2012, actor Bomer came out during an acceptance speech, revealing he had three sons with publicist Simon Halls. In 2014, he dropped another bombshell, telling the public that he and Halls had actually been married since 2011. Since their relationship is mostly private, it's unclear exactly how or when they met, but their twins were born in 2008, according to Metro.
"Well, we have three kids right now, so you've got to fit the romance in when you can," Bomer told People magazine in 2016. "[My grandparents] just celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary, so I always look to them and I see how every day they express their love for each other and I try to follow. They've set a pretty good model for me to follow."
Another "Queer Eye" host, Karamo Brown, and Ian Jordan have also been together for a decade.
In 2010, Brown picked up Jordan outside of a club — literally. After flirting, Brown said he lifted Jordan off the ground.
"He literally started hitting my head and said, 'Put me down,'" Brown told Martha Stewart magazine in 2018. "The joke we tell now is that I swept him off his feet.''
After that night, the couple started dating and have been together ever since. They planned on marrying in October 2020, but they had to cancel their wedding amid the coronavirus, Elite Daily reported.
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