Celebrity couple who kept their relationship secret for years

These celebrity couples kept their secret relationships totally hidden for years without us suspecting anything.

From red carpet debuts to Instagram official announcements, our favorite celeb couples are publicly playing out their love stories in a variety of ways. But for some celebs, it took years before they publicly declared they were officially over their relationship.

No, we're not just talking about the most private celebrity couples like Amanda Seyfried and her husband Thomas Sadoski, or Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman, who rarely speak publicly about each other.

And I'm not even talking about those celebrity couples who everyone knew they'd been together forever but who never walked the red carpet together.

I'm not talking about celebrity couples who broke up and then revealed they were back together, I'm talking about people who literally had no idea they were dating. Seriously, no idea.

Take country singer Lainey Wilson, for example, who may have mistakenly assumed she was single until she showed up on the red carpet at the 2023 ACM Awards with former NFL star Duck Hodges, with whom she'd been in a private relationship for two years. Now that's private romance!

Here are some celebrity couples who kept their relationships secret for years.

Beyonce and Jay Z

Image credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images, Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 Years.

Beyoncé and Jay-Z first met in 1999 but didn't publicly start dating until 2001. Beyoncé confirmed in a 2008 interview that she was 19 when they started dating, so their romance likely began in 2000. The two officially confirmed their relationship in a November 2001 cover story. Vanity Fair.
Duck Hodges & Lainey Wilson

Image courtesy of Gilbert Flores for Billboard

Rainie Wilson said in a 2023 interview people She began dating former Los Angeles Rams player Duck Hodges in 2021 but kept quiet about the relationship for two and a half years.

“I said, 'Let me see if you're in it for the right reasons,' and as it turns out, he was in it for the right reasons,” Wilson said. “It feels really good talking about it.”
Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes

Images by Michael Buckner for Variety and John Nacione for Variety

Jamie Foxx and Katie Holmes were together for over five years, but their romance remains one of the most secretive in Hollywood history.

Their romance was confirmed in 2015, but reports suggest it dates back to 2013. The private couple were spotted together on multiple occasions before they were reported to have split for good around 2019.
Shelby Rabara and Harry Shum Jr.

Image courtesy of Gregg Deguire for Variety

Glee star Harry Shum Jr. was so secretive about his relationship status that no one knew he was married until a few months after he proposed to his now-wife, Shelby Rabara.

In 2014, Us Weekly A source confirmed that the couple, who have been dating since 2007, are engaged. “They've been together for years and are very close,” the source confirmed.

The couple married in 2015 and had a daughter in 2019.
Darren Criss & Mia Swier

Image Credit: Stephen Lovekin/Variety

Darren Criss first spoke about his relationship with Mia Swier in an interview in 2013, revealing that “we were together for a long time.” The pair met in 2006, began dating four years later, and reportedly married in 2018.

They have two children.
Jim Parsons & Todd Spiewak

Image courtesy of John Nasion for Variety

Jim Parsons was with his current husband, Todd Spiewak, for 10 years before going public with their relationship.

Five years since he became famous Big Bang Theory, Parson quietly came out in a 2012 interview. The New York Times, He revealed that he had been in a relationship with a man for 10 years.

Parsons and Spiewak married in 2017.
Hayley Kiyoko & Becca Tilley

Image credit: Christopher Polk

Single man Star Becca Tilley spoke about her secret relationship for six years without anyone knowing about it, before going public with her romance with singer Hayley Kiyoko in 2022, posting a video montage of the pair's relationship.

She later spoke about coming out on her podcast, saying, “I was never prepared for the amount of love and support that we received. I never expected it.”
Zendaya and Tom Holland

Image courtesy of Michael Buckner for Variety

It's still not 100% clear when Zendaya and Tom Holland officially started dating, as they denied dating rumors for two years before being photographed kissing in a car in Los Angeles in 2021. Harper's Bazaar.
Raven Symone and Miranda Maday

Image courtesy of Gilbert Flores for Variety

Raven-Symoné and Miranda Maday began dating in 2015 but didn't go public with their relationship until they got married in 2020.
Jessie J & Chanan Saphir Coleman

Image by: Dave Benett/Getty Images for evian

British singer Jessie J has kept the identity of her boyfriend under wraps until the birth of her son in 2023.

“I struggle to keep things private,” she wrote in the post where she spoke about their relationship for the first time. “If you know me, you know that. I want to protect the people I love and keep them for myself.”

She revealed that he came into her life “like a ray of light” in 2021 and “lit up my dark days.”