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Celebrities Whose Partners Didn't Know They Were Famous

Buzz Feed

19 hours ago

Entertainment
Buzz Feed

Celebrities Whose Partners Didn't Know They Were Famous

It sounds like something out of a fanfiction — you fall in love with a beautiful stranger who just so happens to be famous. While it sounds more like a trope than true-to-life, it's surprisingly more common than you'd think! Here are 19 celebs whose partners had no idea they were famous: Maggie Gyllenhaal's husband, fellow actor Peter Sarsgaard, told People, "I met Maggie at a dinner [in 2001], and I didn't even know she was an actress. I knew nothing about her, but it was instant. Then Secretary came out maybe six months later, and I was like, 'Oh, whoa. Okay. She's not like any other actress in the world.'" Olivia Munn and NFL player Aaron Rodgers dated from 2014-2017, but she "had no idea" who he was at first. She told Conan, "When I met him, I said, 'So what do you do?' And he said, 'Oh, I play football.' And I go, 'Cool. What college?' He's like, 'Oh, no. I play professional.' And I was like, 'Cool, what position?' He's like, 'Quarterback.' 'Cool.' That was kind of it, not knowing that he's, you know, Super Bowl MVP or any of those things, but all I saw was that he was, like, really attractive. I didn't really care what he did. I was like, 'You are such a big man!'" Likewise, Aaron Rodgers's ex-fiancé, Shailene Woodley, whom he was got engaged to in 2021 but broke up with in 2022, wasn't really familiar with his career when they first met. She told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, "I never thought I'd be engaged to someone who threw balls for a living. I never thought as a little girl, 'Yeah, when I grow up, I'm going to marry someone who throws balls, yeah!' But he's really just so good at it, and I'm very impressed... Before I met him, I'd never seen one football game before." She continued, "I didn't really grow up with sports, especially American sports. It was never really on my radar. When we met, also, I knew he was a football guy, but I didn't know what kind of a football guy he was... I don't know him as a football guy. I know him as, like, the nerd who wants to host Jeopardy. … He just happens to also be very good at sports." Tom Pelphrey didn't realize that his fiancé, Kaley Cuoco, starred in The Big Bang Theory — which was extremely popular, long-running, and multi-award winning — until his mom's partner kept calling her by her character's name. He actually "hadn't seen Kaley in anything" because he "was living in upstate New York, on a dirt road, in the middle of the woods, without much Wi-Fi" before they met. Tom told W magazine, "When I first brought Kaley to New Jersey to meet my family and friends, my mom's partner — who apparently was a Big Bang Theory fan — was there, and he kept calling her Penny. I had no clue what was going on. So I pulled Kaley aside, like, 'I'm sorry, I don't understand what's happening. Why does he keep calling you Penny?' She's like, 'That's my character in The Big Bang Theory.' I was completely unaware. I've watched a few episodes with her since, and, obviously, she's fantastic." When Richard Gere and his wife, publicist and political activist Alejandra Gere, first crossed paths, she knew he was famous, but she mistook him for a different celebrity! He told Elle Spain, "She had no idea who I was when we met. None. She didn't see movies, which was great. I was very happy about that." Alejandra cut in, "No, wait a minute. Richard, I knew who you were. I didn't see many of your movies." He added, "She thought I was George Clooney, but other than that, she knew exactly who I was." In 1976, Henry Winkler and his wife, publicist Stacey Weitzman, met at a Beverly hills clothing store. He told People, "She was wearing purple parachute pants, and she had red hair, and without her even saying a word, I thought, 'Woah, beautiful woman standing in front of me.' I came back to the store the next week, and [she] was there. And within 10 minutes, I learned how strong she is. I said, 'Would you like to go for a soda? I just have to make a quick stop to buy a wedding gift.' And she said, 'I am not a gift service!' But then she changed her mind, and we went across the street and had ginger ales." At the time, Henry was in his third season of starring as Fonzie on Happy Days, but Stacey had no clue. He told AARP Magazine, "She wanted to go to the movies. And I told her that might be difficult. She wanted to know why. I said, 'I don't know how to describe it to you.' When we got to the theater, I told her we should sit in the back. She didn't understand, so we sat in the middle of the theater. And the entire theater came over and said hello. And Stacey said, 'Oh!'" Simone Biles met her husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, on the celebrity dating app Raya. He "honestly didn't know who she was" because he "never really watched gymnastics before [he] first started talking to her." On Simone's Facebook Watch docuseries, he said, "That's how I would tell people, and they're like, 'Simone Biles?! You for real, the gymnast?!' And I'm like, 'Man, she's good like that?!' Like I didn't [know]." Serena Williams first met her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, when he sat at the breakfast table next to hers at a hotel in Italy. Annoyed that he didn't pick one of the many empty tables further away, one of her friends told him he shouldn't sit there because there was a rat. She told Vanity Fair, "We were trying to get him to move and get out of there. He kind of refuses, and he looks at us. And he's like, 'Is there really a rat here?' 'No, we just don't want you sitting there. We're going to use that table.' 'I'm from Brooklyn. I see rats all the time.' 'Oh, you're not afraid of rats?' 'No.'" At that moment, Alexis was "98 percent sure" who she was. However, he'd "never watched a match on television or in real life." He told VF, "It was literally the sport — even if ESPN was announcing tennis updates, I would just zone out... I really had no respect for tennis." They talked about the tech conference he was in town to speak at, and though she didn't know what Reddit was, she pretended she did and claimed she'd been on it that very morning. They changed topics to her website, which he offered to help with. Her agent invited him to that night's tennis match, and he and Serena better connected when she later invited him to another match in Paris. Shaun White "actually didn't know anything about" his fiancé, Nina Dobrev, when they both presented at an event in Florida in 2019. Afterwards, they grabbed food together. He told People, "The place was packed. And she was like, 'Let me go see if I can get a table.'" As she spoke with the blushing host, Shaun wondered to himself if Nina had told her, "There's an old gold medalist over there who wants a table." However, when a group of employees walked over, they asked, "Can we get a photo ... with her?" Shaun said, "And I was like, 'What's happening? What's going on?' It was actually really funny." When Kristen Bell first met her husband, Dax Shepard, at a mutual friend's birthday dinner, he'd recently risen to fame on Punk'd. However, unaware of who he was, she wondered, "Is that one of the guys from Jackass or something?" On Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist, she said, "The only thing I remember is that he talked so much... There were no sparks whatsoever... Two weeks later, we both met at a hockey game... We saw each to flirt. Then a day after that, I get a text that says, 'Hi, my name is Dax. I violated your privacy and got your number from Shauna [Robertson]. How do you feel about that?' And I was like, 'Excuse me? You sound stimulating.'" Model and designer Camila Alves knew who Matthew McConaughey was and had seen his movies, but when he came into the West Hollywood club where she was hanging out, she didn't recognize him. She told Access Hollywood, "We had two interactions at the bar. The first interaction, I did not know who he was. At the time, he had a really long beard, and he had this Rasta hat. He was all covered up, and I didn't really realize who he was." However, she realized who he was after spotting Lance Armstrong, Matthew's close friend at the time. She continued, "Lance came to talk to me. You knew they were always together, so I'm like, OK, I'm outta here. I'm going to the other side of the room!" Even though she moved away, she caught his eye. Matthew told The Howard Stern Show, "So I'm healthily single at a club on Sunset. I'm not even a club guy, but this night I was a club guy. And I'm making margaritas at the end of the table, and this figure moves across the room, and I remember to myself, I go, 'What is that?' I didn't say, 'Who is that?' I said 'What is that?' ...She sits down, and I can't get my eyes off her, and I'm waving, trying to get [her attention], 'Hey, over there!' Finally catch her eye, and as soon as she looks at me, the Jiminy Cricket in me says, 'Boy, get off your ass, this is not the type of woman you call across the room.' I go over and introduce myself. I do the smart thing of inviting her and her friends over." Alexa PenaVega and her husband, Big Time Rush member Carlos PenaVega, met at a Bible study at their mutual friend's house. Their friend had invited Alexa, but Carlos had actually been invited by an ex he was hoping to rekindle a relationship with. Carlos told The War Cry, "I had known of Alexa, but she was just 'that chick from Spy Kids.' She had no idea who I was, though, and when we first met, I was completely smitten. I became so nervous I actually started quoting Spy Kids, which did not work because she told our mutual friend I was so weird." Their friend had actually been trying to get them to meet for years! Alexa said, "It was our mutual friend, Andrew, who invited us. I've known him since I was 13 years old, and Carlos has known him since he was 18, and all this time, Andrew would tell us that we were very compatible. He would always say things like, 'You have to meet. You two just have to meet,' but the timing never worked out. We were either in other relationships or just not ready to date at all. So, Andrew had invited me to his Bible study quite a few times. It was a Bible study at his house that he led, and just this one particular time, I decided, 'You know what? I'll go check it out,' and this is after a couple years of him having this Bible study, that I finally decided to go. It just so happened to be the night Carlos showed up as well." Hairdresser Danielle Jonas "didn't know who the Jonas Brothers were" when she met her husband, Kevin Jonas, on a family vacation in the Bahamas in 2007. After they first crossed paths, he saw her walking down the beach, a flower tucked in her hair, and decided to pursue a relationship with her. During his best man's toast at their 2007 wedding, Kevin's brother Joe reportedly said, "I'm the one responsible for getting them together. I hit on Danielle first." Lena Dunham's husband, musician Luis Felber, "had to Google" her before their blind date. He told The Sunday Times, "Then I went on her Instagram, and I saw her dancing to a song called 'Red Hot Pussy' in her garden in LA. Lena puts herself out there in a really special way. That was all I had to go on at the time." Rapper Cordae dated Naomi Osaka from 2019-2025, but, when they met at an LA Clippers basketball game, he wasn't aware she was a huge tennis star. He told GQ, "It's not my sport. If you asked me about tennis, before being immersed in it because of Naomi, I could only give you Venus and Serena Williams, you know? Because they're just a part of the culture." Julianna Marguilies was already known for her starring role on ER when she met her husband, attorney Keith Lieberthal. She told People, "He honestly didn't know who I was. I mean, if he had seen my work, he didn't know. He was in law school. I was like, 'There's a couple movies I don't want you to see.'" Alfonso Ribeiro met his wife, blogger Angela Unkrich, at a hotel in Beverly Hills. In a joint interview, she told Yahoo Lifestyle, "I called him my stalker. I didn't know who he was at the time. He told me he was a director, which you were. And I was very much in the 'I don't want to date anyone in entertainment' [phase]." After he made "first, second, third moves," she agreed to go out with him and made a reservation at a restaurant. However, unbeknownst to him, she actually planned to ditch the date early so she could go home and watch the new Grey's Anatomy. She said, "I don't think it was more than 10 minutes that went by, and I was like, 'Huh, he's different than I thought.'" Lily Allen and her husband, David Harbour, whom she separated from in 2025, met when they matched on Raya. She told the Jonathan Ross Show, "It was the first time I'd been on this dating app. I was scrolling through and landed on David's profile and pressed accept. I didn't know who he was. I thought he was just, like, a sexy policeman from a reality TV show. He was wearing a policeman's uniform. It was a still from Stranger Things. I'd never seen Stranger Things." And finally, while Michael Cera was promoting Arrested Development in Paris, he met his wife, Nadine Cera, in a bar. In Paris to study, she had no clue who Michael was. He told the Guardian, "We trip out about that all the time. It's completely unlikely that we would ever meet... She thought I was Swedish until we spoke. I didn't know if she would speak English, and if we would even have a chance to talk, and it was very lucky that she did because we wouldn't have a son, we wouldn't have a relationship." Do you know of any other celebs whose partners didn't know they were famous? Tell us in the comments!

80-year-old ‘SuperAger' brain operates like that of a 50-year-old. Here's why

CNN

3 days ago

Health
CNN

80-year-old ‘SuperAger' brain operates like that of a 50-year-old. Here's why

The human brain shrinks as it ages, affecting the ability to remember — it's part of life. Yet there are a lucky few, called 'SuperAgers,' who possess a brain that fights back. For these people, memories stay as sharp as they were 30 or more years in the past. Carol Siegler, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Palatine, is a SuperAger. At 82, she won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for her age group, which she said she entered 'as a gag.' 'I've auditioned twice for 'Jeopardy!' and did well enough on it to be invited to the live auditions. Then Covid hit,' Siegler told me in 2022, when she was 85. Today, Siegler is still going strong, well on her way to her 90th birthday, said Tamar Gefen, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Mesulam Institute for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease at Northwestern University in Chicago. Gefen conducts research at Northwestern's SuperAging Program, which is currently studying 113 SuperAgers. Over the past 25 years, however, 80 SuperAgers have donated their brain tissue to the program, which has led to some fascinating discoveries. CNN spoke to Gefen about those decades of work. She is a coauthor of a new analysis of the research that was published Thursday in Alzheimer's & Dementia, the journal of the Alzheimer's Association. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. CNN: How do you define a SuperAger, and what have you found out about their behavior over the years? Tamar Gefen: To be a SuperAger in our program at Northwestern, a person must be over 80 and undergo extensive cognitive testing. Acceptance in the study only occurs if the person's episodic memory — the ability to recall everyday events and past personal history — is as good or better than cognitively normal people in their 50s and 60s. We have screened close to 2,000 individuals who think they may be a SuperAger and less than 10% meet the criteria. Over the past 25 years, we have studied about 300 SuperAgers — a number of whom have donated their brain for research. One key trait of SuperAgers is that they seem to be highly social people. They value connection and are often active in their communities. This is interesting because we know isolation is a risk factor for developing dementia, and so staying socially active is a known protective feature. Another common thread in all SuperAgers is a sense of autonomy, freedom and independence. They're making decisions and living their lives the way that they want to live. I feel very strongly that successful aging is not just about sociability. If a person feels trapped, tethered or burdened, especially in a vulnerable state like poor health or older age, I think it can encroach on their entire psychosocial being. But as far as healthy behaviors, SuperAgers run the gamut. We have SuperAgers with heart disease, diabetes, who aren't physically active, who don't eat any better than their similar age peers. There is one SuperAger who drinks four beers every night. He laughs and says, 'Maybe it's done me wrong, but I'll never know.' He doesn't have an identical twin to compare his behavior to, so would he have lived to 108 instead of 98? We don't know. CNN: Many of your most intriguing discoveries have come from studying donor brain tissue. What have you discovered about the memory center of the SuperAger brain? Gefen: Our studies have shown that an area of the brain that is responsible for attention, motivation, and cognitive engagement — known as the cingulate cortex — is thicker in SuperAgers, even compared with those of people in their 50s and 60s. In the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, we found SuperAgers have three times fewer tau tangles when compared to their 'normal' peers. Abnormal formations of tau proteins are one of the key signs of Alzheimer's. In Alzheimer's disease, tau also targets the neurons of the primary neurons of the cholinergic system — which is responsible for sustaining our attention in daily life. But that doesn't happen in the brain of a SuperAger. Therefore, the cholinergic system appears to be stronger, and likely more plastic and flexible for reasons that we're not sure about. That's interesting, because I see SuperAgers as focused. They can pay close attention, engage and actively listen. How else could they recall 13 out of 15 random words after 30 minutes? I picture them engraving the words on their cortex with a chisel. SuperAger brains also have bigger, healthier cells in the entorhinal cortex, an area essential for memory and learning, that has direct connections to the hippocampus. The entorhinal cortex, by the way, is one of the first areas of the brain to get hit by Alzheimer's disease. In another study we examined every layer of cells within the entorhinal cortex of SuperAgers, and we painstakingly measured the size of the neurons. We found that in layer two, which is the layer that is most important for information transmission, SuperAgers had humongous, plump, intact, beautiful, gigantic entorhinal cortex neurons. It was an incredible finding, because their entorhinal neurons were even larger than those in individuals who are much younger, some even in their 30s. That told us there is a structural integrity component at play — like the architecture, the bones, the skeleton of the neuron itself is sturdier. We're expanding the studies of these neurons to understand their biochemical signatures, determine what makes them special, and see if these signatures are found in other types of neurons in the brain of SuperAgers. Are these same neurons particularly vulnerable in those with Alzheimer's disease, and if so, how and why? CNN: What have you learned from your research about how the brain of a SuperAger reacts to injury, disease and stress? Gefen: We're looking at the inflammatory system in the brain of SuperAgers, with the goal of understanding how the immune cells in their brain respond to disease and adapt to stress. Inflammation, once it crosses a certain threshold, is a major component of cell loss in Alzheimer's disease and nearly all other neurodegenerative diseases. Compared with the brain of same-age peers, SuperAgers have fewer activated microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, in their white matter. White matter is the brain's super highway, transporting information from one part of the brain to another. Here's how it works: Microglia are activated because there is some kind of antigen or disease, typically something destructive in the brain. In some cases, however, microglia and other immune cells become hyperactive and go into overdrive, thus causing inflammation and possible damage. The brain of a SuperAger, however, has fewer activated microglia. In fact, the levels of microglia were on par with people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. That could mean there is less junk or disease in the brain of a SuperAger so the microglia have no need to be active. Or it could mean microglia are responding efficiently to in clearing out disease or toxins, and because they are more plastic and adaptable, the microglia are able to activate, respond and then calm down. All of this is fascinating — it may be that at the cellular level, the immune system of a SuperAger brain could be stronger or more adaptive, much like the layers of cells we found in the entorhinal cortex. CNN: Whether or not you were born with the right genes to protect your brain sounds like the luck of the draw. What does that mean for the future? Gefen: Genetics are tricky. It's not just whether you have a gene or not, it about how your internal and external environment works together to influence how a gene is 'turned on,' or expressed — some may be more highly expressed, some will have lower expression. This is the epigenetic part of the puzzle. There is a list of candidate genes that we are starting to study very carefully, these are genes that also have a role in aspects of longevity, senescence, cell repair and cognitive reserve to name a few. I'm excited about that, not only for the genetics that are heritable from parents, but also genetics at the cell level, that enable each neuron or immune cell to carry out its respective job within the brain. With the technology that's advancing so rapidly, I'm certain we're going to get to a point where prevention or modification at the genetic level will be part of the playbook. Clearly, there is not a one target resolution for Alzheimer's disease. I know we all want that one easy fix but it's just simply not going to happen. It's going to take many teams and many specialists to come together and create a kind of personalized cocktail for prevention or treatment. I think it's possible, but it's going to take time.

What Was Final Question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that Took Ken Jennings to Top of the Game? Know Here

Pink Villa

31-07-2025

Entertainment
Pink Villa

What Was Final Question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire that Took Ken Jennings to Top of the Game? Know Here

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire season 4 episode 2 aired on July 30, with Jimmy Kimmel taking over the hosting duties. The episode titled In the Hot Seat: Matt Damon and Ken Jennings; Jordan Klepper and Ronny Chieng gained a high viewership, as the host and the celebrity guests kept the audiences entertained. Kimmel first welcomed the host of Jeopardy, mentioning that it was an honor to have him on the set. Soon after, Matt Damon joined, as he too played the game alongside Jennings. Jimmy Kimmel's introduction of Ken Jennings won hearts Jimmy Kimmel began the episode by greeting the audience. He then went on to welcome the celebrity participants of the game show. First up, the talk show host introduced Ken Jennings. Kimmel announced, "We are in for a special treat. Our next player may be the greatest game show contestant of all time. He won so many games on Jeopardy that they asked him to host the show. Please welcome the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Ken Jennings." As the Jeopardy star stepped in, Kimmel claimed that it is an absolute honor to have him on the set. However, in response, Jennings confessed that he was nervous. Before beginning with the questions, the talk show host went on to say to Jennings, "You told me when we ran into each other at an event, and you said you think that Millionaire is actually harder than Jeopardy." The latter jokingly claimed that the former was not allowed to say that out loud. Matt Damon's surprise appearance on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the final question presented While Kimmel and Jennings chatted a bit before starting with the questions, Matt Damon made a surprise appearance on the show. As the actor walked in, he said, "I finally made it on your show.' Seeing Jimmy in confusion, the AIR actor clarified, "I'm going to tell you what's going on. This is what's going on. This is like if you challenged me to a pickup basketball game and I showed up at the park with Michael Jordan. 'Coz this dude is the Michael Jordan of trivia." After all the catching up, the duo began with the game and mentioned that the amount they won would go out to the non-profit organization, The game commenced, and the duo played so brilliantly that they even went on to reach the final stage. As the last question appeared on the screens, it read, 'Which of these words is used to describe one of the most beautiful auditory effects on Earth, the sound made by the leaves of trees when wind blows through them?' The correct answer was 'susurrus.' While Jenning had an idea, Damon did not take the risk and took the 50/50 lifeline. With the final answer being correct, the celebrity players won USD 1 Million.

Did 'Jeopardy!' champion lose on purpose? Scott Riccardi speaks out

USA Today

30-07-2025

Entertainment
USA Today

Did 'Jeopardy!' champion lose on purpose? Scott Riccardi speaks out

This "Jeopardy!" champion is speaking out about the shocking end of his 16-game winning streak. Who is … Scott Riccardi? On July 25, the engineer from New Jersey lost on the game show after 16 consecutive wins due to a surprising miss on Final Jeopardy! Riccardi subsequently took to Reddit to explain what happened, after some on social media who'd claimed he lost on purpose. The clue that Riccardi answered wrong was in the category of 20th Century Names. "According to one obituary, in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, 8 radio stations, 2 movie companies & $56 million in real estate," it read. The correct response was William Randolph Hearst, but Riccardi incorrectly guessed "Who is Howard Hughes?" Riccardi was in the lead going into Final Jeopardy!, but his opponents both gave the correct response, including Jonathan Hugendubler, who came from behind with the win after wagering $9,601. Some "Jeopardy!" fans expressed surprise that Riccardi didn't respond correctly. As is often the case when a winning streak ends, there were even claims that he threw the game because he was tired of being on the show. "Does anyone think he lost on purpose because he didn't want to come back next season?" one commenter on Instagram read. Did Scott Riccardi's 'Jeopardy' winning streak continue? But on the "Jeopardy!" Reddit, Riccardi chimed in to explain the thought process behind his answer. "My mind unfortunately went straight to Howard Hughes, mostly due to overestimating the importance of the movie companies part of the clue; any previous FJs that had come to mind immediately had worked out, so I trusted my initial response on this," he wrote. Ken Jennings on 'Jeopardy!' Tournament of Champions, 'misogynistic' Mayim Bialik critics Riccardi continued that Hearst "wasn't on my mind at all," adding that "several information near-misses and a poor understanding of the timeline in the clue really piled up to prevent me from getting what I now understand to be a very gettable clue." Some defended Riccardi by arguing the clue was worded in a confusing way and could have been read to mean that the obituary was written in 1935, which would rule out Hearst. Hugendubler appeared as surprised as anyone by his win, with host Ken Jennings remarking, "He can't believe it!" A visibly stunned Hugendubler immediately walked over and shared a hug with Riccardi, who finished his run on the show with a hefty $455,000 in winnings. Riccardi, who will return in the "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions now ranks number eight on the game show's all-time leaderboard in terms of highest winnings in regular-season play. With $2,520,700, Jennings, who competed on "Jeopardy!" in 2004 before becoming the show's host, remains number one.