We Asked 7 Couples to Share Their Love Stories With Us
And for our seventh installment we tapped our own talent network to photograph select couples from the absolutely stacked guest list of our inaugural Cosmopolitan Love Ball—hosted in partnership with Bumble and BOOM at The Standard, High Line—to coincide with Valentine's Day!
We asked them about how they met, how long they've been together, and exactly what makes their relationships work. Our takeaway after chatting with these clearly obsessed with each other pairings? We've got further proof that true love does, in fact, exist.
35, writer, actor, comedian, and It Boy + 34, TV personality and It GirlYears together: 2
Robby: It's unbelievable what I've pulled here. She's the biggest fish in the sea.
Gabby: After our first date, she pulled over, turned on some music, and was like, 'We're gonna kiss.'
Robby: If you like it, we continue. If you don't, you go home. Why are we wasting any more time?
Gabby: She knew I would like it, of course.
34, model and TV host + 36, filmmakerYears together: 2.5
Lauren: This is Hayley's first time at BOOM. It's always fun to be on top of the city for a night of partying.
Hayley: We're here supporting Willa Bennett's first issue of Cosmo!
Lauren: I'm so excited to see what she does next.
Hayley: It's the magazine that taught everyone about sex.
Lauren: It's everything I could have ever asked for. And now it's being run by a lesbian! Um, hello?
31, publicist and casting director + 27, content creatorMonths together: 8
Tom: We met at a warehouse party in Brooklyn when I was in town for work.
Benton: I didn't want to go, but when I got there, he caught my eye right away.
Tom: Same for me but even earlier: His name and photo had come up on my colleague's computer.
Benton: When I saw him, I looked at my friend and said, 'How much is that one?'
Tom: The energy between us was powerful.
32, Broadway actor + 32, Broadway actorYears together: 10
PJ: We were friends with benefits for a long time. I had to prove myself over and over again.
Julia: It was a good six months of me being like, Well, I guess he's pretty good in bed....
PJ: Then she set me up with one of her friends.
Julia: But I got really, really jealous.
PJ: She finally was like, 'Hi, I think I'm in love with you.' And I was like, 'Hi, I've been in love with you this whole time.'
39, marketing strategist + 32, dancer and studio ownerYears together: 1.5
Mal: We met at a Bumble event that I was working.
Sammy: I came looking for Mal. I literally showed up just to meet her. No one else.
Mal: She'd seen me on The Ultimatum: Queer Love on Netflix. But what's funny is I had also seen her before, when she was on tour with Summer Walker.
Sammy: She didn't realize I was the same person at first.
Mal: It didn't occur to me that she was the dancer with that gorgeous red hair. I just thought I had a type.
22, director + 24, sound designerYears together: 3
Zeema: We met on Instagram.
Neo: I moved here for her. This is my love. And my heart feels so acquainted with New York—the fact that she lived here was fate. Kismet.
Zeema: We're twin flames.
Neo: She has such a go-getter mindset.
Zeema: I'm a fire sign!
30, actor + 29, actor and comedianYears together: 1.5
Veronika: He was kind of my first fan is truly how it happened.
Kyle: We were friends for a year and a half before we started dating. It was like, 'Do we risk it all?' Which was scary because we had a great friendship going.
Veronika: It was terrifying. But there was so much tension that we had to make a decision. And then, yeah, we got drunk on tequila and kissed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Prince William, Kate Middleton moving to new family home for ‘fresh start' after scary cancer battle
It's a royal move. Prince William and Kate Middleton, both 43, are relocating to a new family home with their three kids, Prince George,12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7. 10 Prince William, Princess Kate and their three children on April 23, 2020. BBC Children in Need/Comic Relief via Getty Images 10 Forest Lodge, formerly known as Holly Grove, in Windsor Great Park, Berkshire. Getty Images 'The Wales family will move house later this year,' a spokesperson at Kensington Palace confirmed to People on Aug. 16. The royal couple moved to their current Adelaide Cottage home in Berkshire in 2022 to be close to their children's Lambrook School. Now, they are reportedly relocating nearby to a $21 million eight-bedroom property called Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park. 10 The façade of Prince William and Princess Kate's rumored new Forest Lodge home. PA Images via Getty Images 10 The park around Forest Lodge. Getty Images 'Windsor has become their home,' a royal insider told the Sun. 'However, over the last few years while they have lived at Adelaide Cottage there have been some really difficult times.' 'Moving gives them an opportunity for a fresh start and a new chapter; an opportunity to leave some of the more unhappy memories behind,' the source added. Unlike Adelaide Cottage, William and Kate are said to see the move to Forest Lodge as a 'long-term' move into their 'forever home.' 10 The entrance hall of Forest Lodge. PA Images via Getty Images 10 A reception room, mid-renovation, inside Prince William and Princess Kate's rumored new Forest Lodge home. PA Images via Getty Images The royal pair are also reportedly using their own money to pay the full cost to renovate their new dream house, and insiders claimed that they will also not have any live-in staff. William and Kate were living at Adelaide Cottage, which is not far from Windsor Castle, when the princess was diagnosed with cancer last year. 'In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous. The surgery was successful,' Kate announced in March 2024. 'However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present,' she added at the time. 10 Kate Middleton announced her shocking cancer diagnosis in March 2024. BBC 10 The royal couple shared a sweet snap to celebrate Valentine's Day. princeandprincessofwales/Instagram After several months of grueling chemotherapy, the Princess of Wales revealed that she was finished receiving cancer treatment in September. 'The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family,' Kate said Sept. 9. 'Life as you know it can change in an instant, and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown.' 'The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you,' she added. 10 Prince William and Princess Kate with their three kids on the Buckingham Palace balcony during Trooping the Colour on June 17, 2023. Getty Images 10 The royal couple and their three children in Bracknell, England, on September 7, 2022. Getty Images But despite finishing treatment last year and announcing that she was in remission this past January, Kate is still struggling with her post-treatment recovery. 'You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment. Treatment's done, then it's like, 'I can crack on, get back to normal,' but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult,' she said in July. 'You're not necessarily under the clinical team any longer, but you're not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to,' William's wife added last month.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Groom and His Dog Share Special 'Father-Dogter' Dance at Wedding (Exclusive)
The groom's pet Australian shepherd, Murphy, "loves attention and loves people, so she was grinning from ear to ear," the groom tells PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW Instead of a traditional father-daughter dance, a groom named Michael had a "father-dogter" dance with his pet Australian shepherd, Murphy "Murphy loves attention and loves people, so she was grinning from ear to ear just enjoying everyone watching her," Michael tells PEOPLE The dance was to the tune of Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart," the same song Michael selected for his American Idol audition in 2020 Instead of a traditional wedding father-daughter dance, one groom had a "father-dogter" dance with his pet dog. Lauren and Michael tied the knot on July 29, 2023, with their beloved Australian shepherd, Murphy, in attendance. In honor of their second wedding anniversary this year, the couple recently reposted clips from Michael and Murphy's wedding dance on the pup's Instagram page. The DJ encouraged guests to gather around the checkered dance floor by announcing, "It is time for the father-dogter dance." As Michael picked up Murphy into his arms, wedding guests laughed in the background. The pair happily swayed to "You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins. For their grand move, Michael lifted Murphy up into the air, causing everyone to cheer. "We love Murphy. She's our best friend, part of the family and everything, so we knew we wanted to incorporate her in our big day," Michael tells PEOPLE. While most couples incorporate their dog into their wedding through signature cocktails or decorations, Michael and Lauren wanted to do something more "special" and "unique." "Murphy's at that perfect small-medium size, where I can still pick her up and kind of move around," Michael explains. "I dance around with her a lot in the apartment, just one of our goofy little things, so we had this idea of maybe doing a father-dogter dance." The dance went perfectly. "Everyone sort of huddled around us, and it's funny, Murphy loves attention and loves people, so she was grinning from ear to ear just enjoying everyone watching her," Michael remembers. "It was super fun." For their dance song, Michael chose "You'll Be in My Heart," which was played in the 1999 Disney animated feature Tarzan, because "it's about the bond between a parent and a kid, even across different species." He also used this "human interest angle" for his American Idol audition in 2020, which was a "big punishment" assigned to him by his friends after he lost his fantasy football league. During the audition, which was virtual that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy made an onscreen appearance. "I was like, 'I recently got this puppy, and she's changed my world, taught me that you got to go for your moment and seize the day when you can,' " Michael says, noting that he did not move on to the next round of auditions. A video compilation posted on Instagram shows Michael and Murphy practicing their dance lift over time. "The lift they practiced for three years..." Lauren wrote in an onscreen text overlay, adding in the caption, "To this day Murphy still thinks she's the one who married him!" "I didn't realize, that I would be doing a little moment on my wedding day, but when we decided it, I already kind of knew my beats," Michael tells PEOPLE. "I had lifted her in that position countless times before." "He got her comfortable with it," Lauren adds. "I feel like a lot of dogs are less comfortable with A) that much attention or B) with, like, being carried, but Murphy was pretty used to it at that point. I honestly think their father-daughter dance was better than my and Michael's first dance." Murphy joined her owners as they were getting ready the morning of their wedding. A dog chaperone took care of her for the remainder of the day. "It was really special," Lauren says. "I think it was a memory that we'll cherish forever. It was nice to have all of our people, including Murphy, there with us. It was really sweet even to see people who have never met her before get to meet her in person at the wedding, and see why she meant so much to us." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Lauren and Michael adopted Murphy, now 5, in August 2020. The night before the couple picked up their new pet, they watched Interstellar. In the sci-fi film, Murphy's Law is reinterpreted not as "anything that can go wrong will go wrong," but as "whatever can happen, will happen." With Lauren always having wanted a dog, and it finally happening, she thought of the Australian shepherd as a "Murphy's Law dog." Despite Murphy traditionally being a male name, the couple felt it was a fitting name for their new pet. Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Hayley McNeff, bodybuilding champ, dies at 37: 'Bright light has left this world'
Hayley McNeff, a prominent bodybuilder during the mid-2000s, has died unexpectedly. She was 37. McNeff died last Friday, Aug. 8, and her funeral will be held Saturday, Aug. 16, according to her obituary. A Massachusetts native, McNeff won several bodybuilding titles throughout her career, including the 2009 East Coast Classic and 2009 NPC Delaware State, according to bodybuilding website RXMuscle. "Such a bright light has left this world too soon," her obituary states. It goes on to say, "Hayley was known for her quick wit and constant sense of humor, she had a gift for making those around her laugh and feel welcomed. Her energy and determination was a constant in her life and she always accomplished what she set out to achieve. She treasured her friendships and nurtured strong, lasting relationships with those who knew her best. Hayley will be deeply missed by her parents, siblings, extended family and friends." More news: Hiker dies after venomous snake bites him at Tennessee state park McNeff was a respected figure in the bodybuilding community In the early aughts, McNeff was featured in the "Raising the Bar" documentary series, in which a film crew provided an inside look into her gym routine as she prepared for the 2009 NPC Delaware State. After winning the 2009 NPC Delaware State and 2009 East Coast Classic, McNeff was cast on the reality television show "Iron Maidens," which was pitched to follow a group of prominent female bodybuilders. However, the series never aired. McNeff attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. In addition to bodybuilding, she was an accomplished equestrian, board diver, and skier as a child and young adult, her obituary states. Following her bodybuilding career, which peaked in 2009, McNeff pursued graduate studies in psychology to better understand and help others, her obituary states. Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@
