Romance doesn’t have to be reserved exclusively for Valentine’s Day and anniversaries. In fact, it’s the little everyday gestures that keep the spark alive in relationships. Like when your partner starts the coffee before you’re even out of bed so that you can wake up to a piping hot cup of joe, or that note you tuck into their bag that lets them know how much they’re loved.
But that’s not to say that the big gestures aren’t appreciated. After all, everyone loves feeling like they’re living in a rom-com. We’ve rounded up 16 of the most romantic gestures celebrities have ever done for their partners. Be warned: jealously may follow.
16. The Pie Smuggler
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are one of the cutest couples in Hollywood, and their romance frequently turns us green with envy. But there was one time Ryan really outdid himself — when he snuck his wife’s favorite pies across the Canadian border. He told the story on The Graham Norton Show, saying, “My wife is a foodie. She loves these apple pies that they make at this place in Vancouver where I grew up, so we grabbed a bunch of them and we were driving back down to the States. We were crossing the border — you’re not allowed to cross the border with vegetables. It’s illegal … My voice always gets really high when I’m lying. He’s like, ‘You got anything, any sort of fruit, any vegetables in there?’ And I was like, ‘Nooooo. Noooooo.’ I go, ‘That’s crazy!’ And basically, he just had me on the hook. He looks at me and he goes, ‘Hey, you remember that movie you did? That movie Just Friends?’ He was like, ‘You know that song at the end of it where you sing ‘I Swear’ by All-4-One?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Go ahead.’ Basically, he was saying, ‘Dance, monkey.’ … I danced. Oh man, I sang that thing in the best falsetto I have, and I was on my way through the border, eating pie by the next stop.” Aw!
15. The Billboards
Alexis Ohanian made his fortune as one of the co-founders of Reddit, and met his wife Serena Williams at a hotel in Rome. They had a whirlwind romance and were married in 2017, a few months after welcoming their daughter Alexis Olympia into the world. Understandably, in the midst of all of this love, Serena took some time off from the professional tennis circuit. But when she made her return in 2018 at the FedCup, Alexis Sr. made sure the superstar felt supported. He commissioned four billboards, featuring personal photographs of the tennis player and her daughter, which said, in succession, “Greatest-momma-of all time. Serena Williams G.M.O.A.T.–Alexis Sr. + Jr.” Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever heard?!
14. The Movie Date
We’ve heard time and again that finding privacy as a celebrity can be incredibly challenging, but this seems like a really over-the-top way to make sure you get a little quality time with your sweetheart. In 2011, when Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were in the height of their love, the Biebs rented out the entire Staples Center, the 20,000 seat arena that’s home for the L.A. Lakers, for a movie and dinner date. He set up a table for two, with steak and pasta from the Lexus Club (the venue’s fanciest restaurant), and had Titanic playing on the big screen. After the date, he tweeted, “Romance isn’t dead. Treat your lady right fellas.” How perfect is that!
13. Chicken and Waffles
Iman Shupert and Teyana Taylor kept their love on the DL for a long time. They began dating in 2014, welcomed daughter Junie in 2015, and were secretly married in 2016. They now have a reality show Teyana & Iman, and the attractive pair have become #couplegoals for so many of us. If you weren’t already jealous of them, you will be now: in a segment with People magazine, Teyana revealed that for a recent date night, Iman flew into L.A. to meet her “for a couple of hours,” and took her to Roscoe’s where they dined on chicken and waffles. It can be hard enough to get a boy to text you back — imagine having one fly across the country just to have dinner with you!
12. The Vineyard
Johnny Depp may not be so lucky in love these days. His split from Amber Heard came with some pretty heavy allegations and unacceptable behavior from the actor. But back in the day, Johnny could be a pretty sweet boyfriend. He dated French model/singer/actress Vanessa Paradis from 1998 to 2012, and after the birth of their second child, Johnny got his love a pretty sizable push present: a vineyard. That’s right. The actor didn’t buy his wine-loving partner a nice vintage or even a trip to wine country, he bought her a piece of wine country. This gesture is so romantic because it’s literally a gift that keeps on giving. Free wine for life, what’s sweeter than that!
11. The Museum Shut-Down
NFL star Russell Wilson and his wife Ciara are ridiculously cute. The couple seems like a perfect match, and the football player genuinely seems head over heels for the singer. How do we know that? Well for one date night, Russell shut down the Seattle Art Museum, dressed up in his finest, and treated his wife to a private tour, including some Instagram-worthy shots in the Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibit. Ciara shared some of the pictures on her social media, captioning them “When ya man shuts down the museum for #datenight. Still got my head spinnin’.” Ours too, Ciara! Where can we find a man like this?
10. The Anniversary Book
Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello are one of the steamiest couples in Hollywood. I mean, you can feel the heat between them just by looking at them. For their first wedding anniversary, Joe gave his actress wife the most romantic gift—a book he wrote. He told Cosmopolitan UK, “It [the book] was about how we met, as well as our courting, and was about 40-pages long. I love my wife a lot.” Next time a guy says he’s “too busy” to text you back, point him to this so he knows that there’s no excuse.
9. The Album
Robin Thicke and Paula Patton may not be together anymore, but their love story was a genuine fairy tale in the beginning. The couple met when Robin was only 14 and Paula was 16, and began dating two years later. They finally married in 2005 after being together for 14 years and remained married for nine more years until infidelity rumors began swirling. Days after they separated, in the middle of a concert, Robin dedicated “Lost Without U” to his estranged wife, telling the crowd he was “trying to get [his] girl back.” And months later, he released his seventh studio album Paula, saying that it was the product of “los[ing] the love of your life and you’re trying to figure it out in your head.” As romantic as the gesture was, it didn’t work out and the couple wound up getting divorced anyway. It seems a romcom-worthy moment can’t fix everything.
8. The Proposal
We couldn’t possibly leave out Kanye West’s proposal to Kim Kardashian. It might genuinely be the best proposal of all time. After dating for a few months, Kanye took Kim out to celebrate her 33rd birthday. At the end of the night, the couple strolled into AT&T; Park in San Francisco, where a 50-piece orchestra played Lana Del Ray’s “Young and Beautiful” and Kanye’s own “Knock You Down.” “PLEEESE MARRY MEEE” scrolled across the scoreboard, and after the rapper got down on one knee, all the of their friends and family streamed out from the dugouts. It literally sounds like a scene straight out of a movie (and was a scene straight out of Keeping Up With the Kardashians), and we’re not sure how it possibly could have gotten any more romantic.
7. Flower Deliveries
Joe DiMaggio was a center fielder for the Yankees in the 1930s and ’40s. Marilyn Monroe remains a household name, years after her untimely death in 1962. The two were also an A-list couple after they began dating in 1952. They eloped and had a pretty rocky marriage (she was too wild for him, he was too abusive for her), before calling it quits nine months later. But it seems that DiMaggio never stopped loving the actress, and after her death, he had half-a-dozen roses delivered to her grave twice a week for 20 years. It sounds like a scene that would have been perfect in The Notebook – you know, minus that history of abuse thing.
6. The Magazine Ad
Remember Bennifer – the first one? Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez met on the set of Gigli in 2003, while J-Lo was married to her backup dancer Cris Judd. Ben was immediately smitten with his co-star but was unable to convince her to leave her partner. In a last-ditch effort, he took out a full-page ad in Variety magazine, listing every quality of J-Lo’s that he admired (including things like “beauty” and “true grace”). Apparently, this super romantic gesture did the trick, and the two began a high-profile relationship shortly after. But it wasn’t enough to make the relationship stick, and after a short engagement, the two split up.
5. The Couch Jumping
This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch declaring his love for Katie Holmes. People have all sorts of different views about the infamous incident — some take it as a sign of the actor’s mental instability, while others see it only as a heartfelt passionate gesture. But either way you look at it, you can’t deny that there’s something a little romantic about your new boyfriend declaring his love for you on one of the most-watched TV shows in the world. Especially if you can forget about all the weird Scientology and controlling stuff that came after the declaration.
4. The Rose Room
Kevin Hart and Eniko Parrish are proof that love isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Right before the married couple was set to welcome their son Kenzo, reports surfaced the stand-up comedian had cheated on his pregnant wife with several other women. They seem to be working through it, and look as happy as ever from the outside, but that couldn’t have been easy. One thing that may have made it easier? Kevin’s super romantic club gesture. While spending the evening at a club with his wife and their friends, Kevin waited till Eniko stepped out to go the bathroom then filled their private room with 1,000 roses. The accompanying Insta post said, “I love making her happy simply because she makes me happier!!!”
3. The Heart-Shaped Island
This is one of those over-the-top romantic celebrity gestures that will never ever happen for any of us because none of us just have $12.2 million lying around. Back in 2013 when Brad Pitt turned 50, his partner Angelina Jolie bought him a private island that was shaped like a heart. The island is 50 miles outside of New York City and boasts two giant properties designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (reportedly Brad’s favorite architect). The couple intended to use the island as a family getaway and romantic retreat, because apparently, normal vacation spots were just too basic.
2. The Love Letter
Adorable couple, Ian Somerhalder and Nikki Reed welcomed their first son Bodhi in late 2017. After his safe delivery, Ian took to Instagram to write Nikki the sweetest love note of all time. He said, “Just a quick note to you my beautiful wife. You are briefly napping on the other side of the room after being an amazing mom all night so you’ll read this when you wake… seeing these images reminds me of those amazing 9 months that you sacrificed your whole being to grow our little one. The kindness, the beauty and organic nature of these photos makes me so very proud. You brought such fun and such power into our lives being pregnant but you literally brought the word sexy into pregnancy, we all see it. Thank you for being my partner in this life and thank you for inspiring not just me but all others who read, hear or see what your soul gives us. Love, Your husband” We’re not crying, you’re crying.
1. The Flight Surprise
Everyone loves Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell. The couple is almost too cute for words. They also apparently love trying to out-do each other with romantic gestures. Dax told People magazine about the most romantic thing he ever did for his wife: “She was doing a movie in Alaska and I was shooting Parenthood and I couldn’t go and she was going away for a long time. But then my schedule changed and I didn’t tell her, so I got the seat next to her on the airplane and then I sweet-talked the gate representative to let me on the plane early. So when she went to sit down, I was in her seat reading a newspaper and she kept going, ‘Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir. I think you’re in my seat,’ And then she noticed ‘those hands look familiar’ and then she started bawling when she saw that I was on the flight.” We can totally picture her bursting into tears – kind of like she did when Dax surprised her with a sloth (her favorite animal) on her birthday.