21 Celebrity Pairs That Played Family Members On-Screen But Ended Up Dating Behind The Scenes

Kind of weird, but if it works, it works!

Sophia

• Published in Film & TV
• June 23, 2022

In Hollywood, it's not really a surprising nor a weird thing for two actors who play a romantic couple or love interests to each other to fall in love in real life. Many people even dig that kind of trope, as it just makes the whole project more exciting, given that the actors fell in love through the course of it.

Plenty of cases are scattered all over Hollywood wherein celebs always seem to date their co-stars. Some relationships have already ended, but plenty of these actor pairings actually had their happily ever after and have been in bliss ever since they tied the knot.

Let's face it, as an actor, it's not that quite hard nor surprising to fall in love with someone you keep kissing and cuddling on screen. Take Blake Lively, for instance, before he tied the knot with Ryan Reynolds, she once fell in love with Penn Badgley while working together as Serena van der Woodsen and Dan Humphrey in Gossip Girl.

That being said, if there's one thing that's kind of weird in the context of two actors falling in love with each other, it's that they did not play as romantic lovers on screen, but as family members. Since there is no romantic or sexual connection between them on screen, it's hard to imagine how they hit it off, and it's also hard to keep watching the show when you know that the siblings or parent-child duo you are looking at are screwing behind the scenes!

You get used to it, though. Now, without further ado, here are some of the actor pairings that played family members on-screen but actually hit it off behind the scenes:

1. Evan Rachel Wood and Shane West played as brother and sister on Once and Again, when Shane was 21 and Rachel was just 12 back then. When they reunited nine years later, the pair started dating.

The pair were seen holding hands at a club. When asked about their status, Evan said, “I think you can put two and two together. I won’t confirm or deny it, but I don’t think I have to.” 

2. Diana Hyland played John Travolta's mother in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble. They started to date in 1976, up until Diana's death just the following year.

John was 23 and Diana was 41 when they were dating. Diana, who had a double mastectomy for breast cancer, "didn’t know she was going to die for sure until two weeks before."

3. David Arquette and Drew Barrymore were siblings in Never Been Kissed. David then revealed later on that they actually dated two years before it, but Drew denied.

The pair had actually known each other for a while before they starred in Never Been Kissed. David told PeopleTV, “We also dated, but she denied it on Howard Stern. But we dated, Drew!"

4. Amy Poehler and Will Arnett married in 2003, but they played siblings in Blades of Glory.

The pair met back in 1996 after Will saw Amy perform, and they officially started dating four years later. They've appeared in  Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Horton Hears a Who!, but the couple got divorced in 2014. 

5. Maggie Grace and Ian Somerhalder played stepsiblings Shannon Rutherford and Boone Carlyle on Lost, then began dating after their characters were killed on the show.

They broke up in 2007. In 2016, Maggie told New You that she and Ian "are still very good friends."

6. Bill Hader and Anna Kendrick played siblings in Noelle and started to "quietly" date.

"They met years ago. She's hosted Saturday Night Live and they've done a movie together, but they got together well after the movie. They are both very private people, and with the pandemic, it was easy to keep it quiet. They're both hysterical, so they must keep each other laughing all of the time. She's really, really happy," a source told People magazine.

7. Lauren Graham and Peter Krause played brother and sister (Sarah and Adam Braverman) in Parenthood, and the two started to quietly date during the course of the show after years of Peter in the friend zone.

They already met in 1995 on the set of Caroline in the City, but they didn't date until they starred in Parenthood together. Lauren told Good Housekeeping that she was keen on not dating any actor she worked with and tried to keep Peter in the friend zone.

She then admitted that their friendship evolved over time. She said, "It was like, 'You like me, and I like you.' It gave me an understanding of life: This is how things happen, and it's completely random."

8. Michael Emerson and Carrie Preston have been married since 1998, but Carrie played Michael's mother on Lost because of a joke.

"It was supposed to be just a couple of episodes — but then he turned into the main villain. So I thought of Hawaii as the place that stole my husband. Of course, nobody can stay mad at Hawaii, so I thought, I've got to figure out how I can spend more time out there. I used to joke, 'Wouldn't it be hilarious if I played your mom in a flashback?' Michael shared that joke [with] the producers, and the next week, there was a phone call to my agents: 'Can Carrie play Michael's mother in a flashback [on a Season 3 episode]?' We were howling. We thought, This is insane and a little freaky, but the fans are gonna love it. Sure enough, I've gotten many Oedipal jokes, jokes [like], 'I've always mothered him, but now I get to really do it on television.' I got to go out in the jungle and simulate giving birth to my husband. Not many people get to say that."

9. Eleanor Tomlinson and Harry Richardson played siblings in Poldark. They dated for about a year until they broke up in 2018.

The two were first spotted together during the summer of 2017 when the show's third season was airing. 

10. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were brother and sister in Sleepless in Seattle five years after they got married in 1988.

This pair met on the set of Bosom Buddies in the early '80s, and then got reunited years later on the set of Volunteers. They began dating shortly after.

They've worked on The Bonfire of the Vanities, That Thing You Do!, and Larry Crowne. The two eventually got married in 1988.

11. Maureen McCormick and Barry Williams played sister and brother (Marcia and Greg Brady) on The Brady Bunch. They then dated for a bit in real life, and Barry was actually Maureen's first kiss!

In 2013, Barry revealed to Oprah Winfrey that he and Maureen, his onscreen sister, actually dated in real life. Greg said, “In fact, I was her first kiss. And that was in Hawaii while we were filming those episodes. We snuck away, it was a full moon, we walked along the sand. Well, I knew where that was headed. Of course, I set it up.”

12. David Cassidy and Susan Dey played brother and sister on The Partridge Family. Susan had a huge crush on David, and he eventually dated her but revealed that he "couldn't think of her as anything but [his] sister" and regretted his decision.

In his memoir, David said that Susan "lacked the slutty aspect of a female" that he found attractive. He said that Susan was so determined to be with him that he finally gave in, and he ended up regretting his decision.

He said, "She was sweetness and innocence, a good girl, and I couldn't think of her as anything but my sister." 

13. Georgia Moffett was David Tennant's daughter on Doctor Who. Rumors of them dating started to circulate in 2008, and then they got married in 2012.

Georgia's father actually played the fifth Doctor from 1981 to 1984. She guest-starred on the show, which was how the couple met.

They now have five kids together. 

14. Katherine Heigl and Jason Behr played siblings on Roswell and dated after meeting on set.

The two dated for the majority of the show's run, but they eventually broke up in 2002. 

15. Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey played bother and sister in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but started secretly dating while finishing the film.

Jennifer said, "It started while we made the film. It was tricky because it was a secret. No one knew.” When they were on a vacation together in Ireland, they got into a tragic car accident that killed two people and also left both of them with severe injuries and chronic pain.

They then broke up shortly after. 

16. Emily VanCamp and Chris Pratt played the sibling-duo Bright and Emily Abbott on Everwood, and they then dated for three years.

Chris said to the TV Guide, "Yeah, we've pretty much gotten used to the response of, 'Ew, that's weird. That's creepy.' The people who know us are happy and probably expected it to happen eventually. But yeah, every once in a while we get that one person that's like, 'That's really creepy. You just kissed your sister.'"

17. Kirstie Alley and Parker Stevenson got married in 1983, before they went on to play siblings on North and South: Book II.

18. Shannen Doherty and Jason Priestley played siblings on Beverly Hills, 90210, and years after the show ended, Jason briefly revealed that he dated Shannen along with some of his other costars.

Jason revealed that "various combinations of people slept with each other over the years," but "nobody ever got attached."

19. Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall played siiblings on Dexter, got married in 2008, divorced two years later. They still had to continue playing the roles until 2013, and when they returned for the 2021 revival.

20. Tamela and David Mann got married in 1988 but starred as a daughter-and-father duo in the movie and TV versions of Meet the Browns. They have reprised their roles in some Tyler Perry projects.

The pair has worked professionally together on several projects, including their BET reality show It's a Mann's World. They have five children together and have 13 grandchildren in total.

21. Milo Ventimiglia was Hayden Panettiere's uncle on Heroes; they started to date while the show ran in 2007 and stayed together for about two years.

Dating someone you work with is awkward enough, what more for these actors who decided to date their family member on-screen? It may sound weird, but hey, at least they aren't breaking any social norms in real life!

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Sophia