The longest A-lister relationships without getting married

One of the most enduring celebrity couples in Hollywood, it’s easy to forget that Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have actually never married. The pair have been together for over 40 years, and have a blended family of four children, including acting stars Kate Hudson and Wyatt Russell, but have no plans to ever wed.

Goldie opened up about the couple’s decision to CNN in 2023, saying, “We have been married, and when it doesn’t work out, it ends up to be big business…it’s always ugly.” The Death Becomes Her actress also values her freedom, adding, “I think ultimately staying independent with independent thinking is important."

Media mogul Oprah Winfrey was once engaged to her longtime partner, businessman Stedman Graham, but the marriage never came to fruition. The pair have been together since 1986 but later decided they didn’t need a formal marriage to define their love.

In a 2020 article for Oprah Daily, the acclaimed host described the couple’s relationship as a “spiritual partnership," sharing how she realized she didn’t actually want to get married. “I wanted to be asked,” she confessed. “I wanted to know he felt I was worthy of being his missus, but I didn’t want the sacrifices, the compromises, the day-in-day-out commitment required to make a marriage work."

Comedian Ricky Gervais and his partner, author and producer Jane Fallon, have been together since they met at university in 1982, but marriage is not in the cards for the pair. “We are married for all intents and purposes, everything’s shared, and actually, our fake marriage has lasted longer than a real one,” Ricky previously told The Times, adding that also his views on religion don’t align with the idea of traditional marriage.

The longtime couple have also never had children, something Jane shared her reasoning behind in a candid article for The Guardian. “I’ve never regretted not having kids,” she wrote. “Being a mother wasn’t who I was meant to be."

Though the pair have since broken up, former acting power couple Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber never married during their 11-year relationship, though have since gone on to tie the knot with their respective current partners. The duo shares two kids, son Sasha and daughter Kai, and were rumoured to be previously engaged sometime around 2009, but marriage was never a top priority.

"We're very much together. We just don't have that certificate, and that's okay with both of us," the Mulholland Drive star told Easy Living Magazine in 2012. "Maybe one day, we'll just wake up and go 'Hey, let's do this.' And maybe not.” The couple remain on good terms, and have a positive co-parenting relationship.

After meeting on the set of Bull Durham (1988), Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins were together for over two decades but never married. The pair share two sons, Jack and Miles, and although the couple have been broken up for over 15 years, it’s a split many people have not taken lightly.

"I still run into people who were devastated when we broke up," Susan told The Times in 2024. The Thelma & Louise actress is not opposed to working with her former flame again, and revealed they remain on good terms, adding, “You have kids…you don’t have any choice."

Former SNL comedienne Maya Rudolph has been in a committed relationship with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson since 2001, with the pair sharing four children. Although she refers to the One Battle After Another director as her husband, the pair have never formally tied the knot.

During a 2018 interview with The New York Times, Maya revealed she started referring to Paul as her husband after the birth of their first daughter in 2009, because it felt “ooky” to continue saying boyfriend. The star also shared that her definition of “husband” means “he’s the father of my child, and I live with him, and we are a couple, and we are not going anywhere."

While the couple had a 13-year high-profile romance, before splitting in 2000, Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley never opted to marry. 

Elizabeth told The Guardian in 2000 that the couple realized there “had to be something lacking," because after over a decade together they “still didn’t really want to get married and start a family." Both actors went on to get hitched with their respective partners in the future — though Elizabeth has since gotten a divorce. Despite Hugh and Elizabeth's split a while back, the two remain close to this day, even being godparents to each other’s children.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis were together for 14 years before their separation in 2012, and reportedly never felt the need to sanctify their union. The pair share two children, including actress Lily-Rose Depp, and ended their relationship “amicably,” according to Johnny’s publicist.

The Pirates of the Caribbean actor shared his reason for never marrying Vanessa with Extra TV in 2010, commenting, "I never found myself needing that piece of paper…marriage is really from soul to soul, heart to heart. You don't need somebody to say, ‘Okay, you're married.'"