There is no reason to rush things when it comes to taking a big step like marriage. According to the American Psychological Association, approximately 40-50% of first marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate for second marriages is even higher, with approximately 60-67% of second marriages ending in divorce. Meanwhile, the percentage of women who believe that a young couple shouldn’t live together unless they are married has dropped to 28 percent from 34.7 percent in 2002, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Men have also become more likely to approve of premarital cohabitation. Less than 25% find it problematic, compared with 32% in 2002. Societal pressures for couples to be married before moving in together have lessened greatly over the last 20 years.

Hollywood on Marriage and Relationships

For those in Hollywood, it goes one of two ways: celebrities get married as often as the seasons, or there are those who we thought would be eternal bachelors/bachelorettes. For example, take one of the most famous cases: George Clooney. Fans thought he would  be single forever following his divorce. Before meeting his now-wife, Amal, the Ocean’s Eleven star’s first marriage was to actress Talia Balsam from 1989 to 1993. While it admittedly took George quite some time to settle down, tying the knot in 2014 at the age of 53, he previously revealed that the long wait provided him with a level of maturity that makes him the perfect partner for the human rights lawyer. After almost a decade of marriage in the books, Clooney, now 62, said the couple has never been in an argument. In his older age, George has learned to prioritize what matters most in life. He said in 2022, “Let’s find all the things that we have in common and not worry about the little things.” The couple shares twins Ella and Alexander George, who were born in June 2017.

Keep scrolling to see what stars got married later in life.

• Amal and George Clooney

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  George Clooney was fairly certain he'd never get married again — that is, until he met his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin). When they were introduced by a mutual friend over dinner at George's home in Italy in 2013, there was an instant connection between the pair. One year later, the pair got married. George was 53, and Amal was 36. In 2017, Amal gave birth to twins Ella and Alexander George.

• Britney Spears and Sam Asghari

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  The singer and fitness trainer were first romantically linked after meeting on the set of her "Slumber Party" music video in 2016. A few months later, the two went Instagram official, and it wasn't before long that they got engaged in 2021. Asghari supported the pop star as she battled her conservatorship for years. In June 2022, the couple tied the knot. Britney was 40 at the time. But by August 2023, Asghari filed for divorce. This was Spears' third marriage, having been married for less than three days in 2004 to her childhood friend Jason Alexander, who attempted to crash her wedding to Asghari. She was just 23 at the time. Then, Spears married her backup dancer Kevin Federline that same year. Their marriage lasted three years and they share two teenage sons, whom he has custody of.

• Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst

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  This couple is one of many who met on set. The duo first worked together in 2015 when they played a married couple during season 2 of the FX hit series 'Fargo.' They bonded over being former child stars that "made it out okay." They began dating a year later, and got engaged in 2017, with Dunst pregnant with their first child together, son Ennis Howard. In 2021, Dunst gave birth to their second son, Robert. By July 2022, the couple finally got married; Dunst was 40 at the time.
• Sunny Ozell and Sir Patrick Stewart

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  The 'Star Trek' actor and the musician met in 2008 at a restaurant in New York City, where Ozell was working as a waitress at the time. After several years of dating, the couple got married in 2013. Stewart was 73 at the time. Ozell is Stewart's third wife; the actor was previously married to Sheila Falconer from 1966 to 1990, with whom he shares two children, and Wendy Neuss from 2000 to 2003. "I've never met anyone like her before," Stewart said about Ozell in 2022. "She is so smart and so informed. And her intellectual accomplishments are extraordinary. She remembers everything."

• Jon Hamm and Anna Osceola

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  The 'Mad Men' alum is another actor who we thought was going to be an eternal bachelor. Hamm actually met Anna on the set of 'Mad Men' in 2015 after she had a small role on the final episode of the show. They began dating in 2020 before getting engaged in early 2023. A few months late in June, the couple tied the knot. Hamm was 52. "Ideally, [marriage] gives you and your partner a sense of stability and comfort and an identifying capacity that is better, deeper, richer than ‘it's my girlfriend’ or ‘my boyfriend’ or what have you," Hamm said.

• Jeff Goldblum and Emilie Livingston

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  The actor and the Olympic athlete met at the gym one day in 2011. The 'Jurassic Park' alum recalled, "I saw her from across a crowded room, and I marched up to her, entranced, and began some kind of conversation." They got engaged three years later and tied the knot in November 2014, with Jeff being 62 years old at the time. They share sons Charlie Ocean and River Joe. Jeff has been previously married before, to Patricia Gaul from 1980 to 1985, then Geena Davis from 1987 to 1991.
• David Foster and Katharine McPhee

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  The music producer and the singer first met on 'American Idol' in 2006 when McPhee was a contestant and Foster was a guest mentor. They became friends and Foster even played the piano at McPhee's first wedding to actor and producer Nick Cokas in 2008. McPhee and Cokas divorced in 2016, while Foster's marriage to his ex-wife Yolanda Hadid ended in 2017. The two made their red carpet debut as a couple in 2018 and tied the knot a year later, with Foster being a few months shy from his 70th birthday. They welcomed son Rennie David in 2021. McPhee said of their 35-year age gap, "We all have the ability to label things and to look at something for the way that it looks or face value and make a judgment... but things are never as they appear, things are never exactly as they appear and I'm in love with our love story and that's all that matters."

• Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart

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  The two actors began dating after meeting at the Golden Globe Awards in 2002. The 'Shrinking' star was 60 years old at the time and 22 years older than Flockhart. They got married eight years later in 2010, when Ford was 68. Ford had been married twice before and has four children from his previous marriages. He later adopted Flockhart's son Liam, whom she adopted in 2001. A year after dating Flockhart, Ford said, "I'm in love," Ford said, "Romantic love is one of the most exciting and fulfilling kinds of love and I think there is a potential for it at any stage of your life. I was not surprised that I was able to fall in love, and I wasn't surprised that I did."

• Dennis Quaid and Laura Savoie

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  Quaid was 65 at the time he began dating then-26-year-old Savoie. He said of their age gap, "I didn’t go out looking for an age gap or someone really younger than me. I met her at a business event and then the relationship developed. You have no control over who you fall in love with." They tied the knot in 2020. Quaid had been married three times prior, to P.J. Soles from 1978 to 1983, then Meg Ryan from 1991 to 2001, and shares son Jack with. He then wed Kimberly Buffington from 2004 to 2018, and share twins Thomas and Zoe.
• Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault

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  The two reportedly met sometime in 2006. “It’s such a romantic, amazing story, but it is mine,” Hayek teased in 2019. “I don’t want to vulgarize it by making it into a story to make myself interesting.” A year later in March 2007, the pair announced their engagement and that they were expecting their first child together, daughter Valentina. Pinault has son François and daughter Mathilde from his first wife Dorothée Lepère, and son August from his previous relationship with Linda Evangelista. Hayek and Pinault tied the knot on Valentine's Day in Paris in 2009. Salma was 42 years old at the time.

• Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker

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  After being friends for years, the Poosh founder and Blink-182 drummer began dating in 2021. Later that year, the pair got engaged and tied the knot three separate times. In June 2023, 44-year-old Kourtney announced she was pregnant with the couple's first baby, a son. Kourtney shares three children Mason, Penelope, and Reign from her former relationship with Scott Disick. Travis has two children, Alabama and Landon, from his ex-wife Shanna Moakler. Stepdaughter Atiana is from Moakler's ex-, Oscar de la Hoya.

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