5 Celebrities Who Married Their High School Sweethearts
And are still together, decades later!
Everett Collection / Shutterstock Yes, Hollywood marriages are notoriously short, but that doesn't mean every single relationship is doomed to implode. If an A-lister is lucky in love, they might just end up like one of the celebrity couples below, who only need to look across the dinner table whenever they want to reminisce about their high school sweethearts and first loves:
1. Ron Howard and Cheryl Howard
When former child star-turned-Hollywood-director Ron Howard was a high school junior, his parents, no doubt concerned about the intensity of his relationship, banned him from seeing his girlfriend Cheryl more than twice a week.
So, to get around the rule, Ron told his mom and dad that he had joined the school's cross-country track team and jogged over to Cheryl's house every morning before school. The couple got married in 1975, when Ron was just 21-years old, and have four children together, including daughter Bryce Dallas Howard.
2. Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley
A rock star who has been married to the same woman for over 22 years? It might be hard to believe, but Bon Jovi has defied the stereotype that musicians make terrible husbands. In 1989, at the age of 27, Bon Jovi took time off of touring with his band to secretly elope with his high school sweetheart and the now-mother of his four kids, Dorothea Hurley, at a Las Vegas wedding chapel.
3. Bono and Ali Hewson
Bono's wife, Ali Hewson is the first one to admit that being married to her U2 frontman husband hasn't always been easy, but that their shared memories as childhood sweethearts in Ireland is what keeps their relationship strong.
"Knowing someone's memories is when you really know them inside out — when you've grown up with them and made that journey through adulthood together," she once said. The couple wed in 1982, when Bono was just 22, and have been together ever since!
4. Mitt Romney and Ann Romney
The former Massachusetts governor and the current GOP presidential front-runner met his wife, Ann, in elementary school.
As teenagers, Mitt took Ann on their first date to see Julie Andrews twirling around on-screen in The Sound of Music. Later, during his high school prom, he informally popped the question! Four years later, the couple married in 1969 and now have five sons and sixteen grandchildren together.
5. Sarah Palin and Todd Palin
Another political couple who has weathered many ups and downs over the years, Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska and one-time vice-presidential nominee, eloped with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin, in 1988, when she was just 24.
We wonder if their love story perhaps inspired their oldest son, 22-year-old Track Palin, to marry his own childhood love, Britta Hansen?
Margeaux Klein is a freelance writer and digital strategist whose written for the Huffington Post, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Newser, New York Daily News, Time Out New York and others.