We’ve all got achievements that we’re particularly proud of. Maybe it’s an award you won in school or the birth of your first kid. Or maybe it’s that celebrity you dated back in high school that you have no concrete proof ever happened but swear to all your eye-rolling friends that it really did! Why is it that the best achievements are always the hardest to show off?
These Redditors came together to share stories of times they or ones they know dated celebrities, and what it was like. Believe ‘em or not, here are 42 stories of average Joe's and Josephine's who dated celebrities.
1. Magical Text Message
I have a family friend who dated Daniel Radcliffe. I was seven at the time they dated, and a huge Harry Potter fan. I don't remember much aside from the fact that he was a really sweet guy. On my eighth birthday, my family friend told Daniel it was my birthday and he texted me a personal happy birthday message despite never having met me. Absolutely made it the best birthday ever.
2. Few Pickles in Paradise
My Aunt went on a date with Jimmy Buffett. She said he picked her up, stopped at a gas station, bought a jar of pickles and then drove to the beach. They ate pickles and he took her home.
3. Oh, Wow
Was seeing Hannah Murray (Gilly on Game of Thrones or Cassie on Skins) for a while around 10 years or so ago. Just when season two of skins came out. Turns out a girl I worked with knew her, I fancied her, and so we orchestrated a meeting between us. She organized a coffee with her, and I just so happened to stumble into the cafe. We hit it off and we ended up having a little thing for 5 months or so.
We went to the cinema, ate, and drank. She is highly intelligent, very perceptive and really quite funny. I was young and rubbish at dating and am guessing she wasn’t too experienced either. In the end she called me one day after a week of silence and dumped me because she was going to Uni. Fair enough. I’m super happy for her and think she’s a great actress.
4. Please Tell Me It Was a Lincoln
My aunt dated Matthew McConaughey before he was famous. He ended up getting invited to her wedding to my “normal” uncle and proceeded to pass out drunk in the back of my family’s car. He refused to leave, and now my dad refuses to watch his movies!
5. Bullet Dodged
This is the closest I got. There's a chick on Teen Mom 2 who lives in the area I grew up and apparently was on Tinder. About 5 years ago, in my desperate days, I always swiped right just to see my options. One day she messages me about something in my bio, some stupid joke. We talk a little bit, but I was always pretty direct. If I wanted to meet up, I'd say so. She goes into some rant about how she's 'famous' and wanted to make sure I wasn't playing her.
I literally had no idea who she was and that she even had kids before this stream of messages. She started thinking I was lying to play dumb and it got weird as heck. I cancelled our meet up and that's about it.
6. Remember Tiger Cruise? Me Neither
My brother briefly dated/hung around Hayden Panettiere right after her first Disney movie came out (Tiger Cruise, it was one of my favorites at the time!), before Heroes or anything. Apparently, she had family who had a lake house in our hometown, and they met at a party and started to hang out when she would visit her family.
She even came to the strawberry festival with me and my brother (mind you, I'm ten years younger so I was like seven or eight at the time) and was really nice to me because I was so awestruck to be meeting a Disney actress. She even made a DIY candle with me at a festival booth that I kept for years afterward. Nicest girl he ever introduced me to, second only to his later fiancé.
7. All Brawn
I briefly dated an NFL player. I didn’t realize that the gym I went to at the time was where most of the local not-so-famous professional athletes went. They didn’t all necessarily play for the local teams. I did once ask in the sauna why they were always talking about football. Apparently, that was cute. One asked if I was married and whether we could get to know one another.
I gave him my google number. He was offended that I did that. He was also offended that I didn’t know who he was or which team he played for. Once he decided it was okay to do something super inappropriate: he fully licked my breasts in public. Yes, I was showing some cleavage but that is not an invitation to do such a thing in public!
He expected me to follow commands basically. Once he actually said, “you sound like you have a lot of stuff going for you.” I kept being me and he lost interest. I sometimes get curious and I don’t see him or his stats online. My pal who is a football fiend looked him up and explained his position etc. No trace of him. Oh well, I’m married now anyway.
8. Bad Guy Jones
My uncle hooked me up to see Foreigner in 1981, including two backstage passes. I took a girl I really liked but she ended up meeting Mick Jones and disappearing with him into a dressing room. I didn't see her again that night. So, I guess you could say I got screwed by Mick Jones.
Her side of the story was that she went with him into another room where people were drinking and he ignored her after that. She said she stayed there for 20 minutes, then left and couldn't find me, and thought I had ditched her. So just to be clear, I'm not accusing Mick of doing anything inappropriate. That's her story and her mother believed it enough to call my mother to complain about it, so yeah that's what must’a happened.
9. A Different Kind of Celebrity
Had a brief friendship/relationship with a former adult entertainment star, I did not know of her former work when we met but she was honest about her past. Think she had done 25 to 30 scenes, but the internet is forever.
She was a really nice woman and her "fame" did not cause any problems. Every now and then someone would go wide eyed when they saw her. Men tended to just look and if they had friends they would point at her, not subtle at all. Women were much more upfront, did not happen often when I was with her, but she said women would say things like I loved that scene with you and whatever guy(s) and they would usually say a particular position that was their favorite.
10. More Than Long Hair
A few years ago, I was getting on a flight back to San Diego after my cousin's wedding. I was very hungover and judging people as I walked to my gate. I see this long-haired man stride by me in a purple button down and think... who’s this cupcake? (Not a sexuality comment just a shirt color comment). As he walks by, my jaw drops... holy, that’s Fabio!
A bit later after getting a snack, my brazen and probably still drunk self saw him sitting at his gate and just sat down next to him. I look away, then right at him and say... “you’re ummm Fabio,” and he says so coolly, “Yes I am,” and shakes my hand.
We proceeded to talk for 30 minutes until he had to leave. He was so intelligent! Discussed cancer therapies in depth, and I recall thinking, “just nod and smile Fabio is way smarter than you just nod and smile”. Before leaving he asked for my number and texted me the next day for a date. Nothing ever came of it but I still have his number in my phone.
P.S. my dad followed up for weeks to make sure I wasn’t dating “the man on every romance novel cover”.
11. Not-So-Whack Date
I went on one date with Hannibal Buress. He was in my city briefly after doing a benefit gig elsewhere a few years ago and we matched on Tinder, met up for a drink before his flight left later that evening. He’s a cool dude, I had fun. Did not sleep together, sorry to disappoint. Apparently, he’s pretty notorious for being on Tinder so I feel like a lot of people probably have a similar story lol.
12. Once a Politician, Always a Politician
My mom went on a few dates with Ted Cruz in college. They were both in college republicans at different schools and met at the ‘94 RNC. She ended up not calling him back after a few dates because she said he always talked like he was giving a speech, but apparently, he was planning on running for president even back then in his 20s.
13. THIS… IS… A MISCOMMUNICATION
My friend's aunt went on a blind date with Gerard Butler, circa 300 (the movie, not the year). There was a big miscommunication, because he was looking for a hookup and she's a kindly French-Canadian woman in her fifties, but they both had a laugh about it and enjoyed supper with each other. She said he was very kind, and very muscular.
14. The Sand-Man Returns
Adam Sandler went to the same middle school and high school as me (at a different time). He dated my 8th grade teacher’s daughter for a while before he moved to New York for Saturday Night Live. He was well liked, and he even called my 8th grade teacher to wish her well on the day she reached retirement, some 20 years later.
15. Worth Bragging About
About 15 years ago, when the show The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie was popular I made out with Paris Hilton at a night club in Baltimore. Essentially, they were filming them doing all sorts of random jobs around the country and staying with local families all for the culture clash laughs. One of those families ended up being my friend and her family.
Being a close friend, and a well-known admirer of Paris at the time, I was invited over and got to hang with her and Nicole Richie a good amount while they were in town. Both of them were super sweet, and a lot smarter than they played for the camera. Paris was a great kisser and this story is always a hit with my friends. A few months later, her phone was hacked and nudes were leaked. My number was in her phone book and I got spammed with prank calls from 4Chan, or something.
I imagine it was a lot worse for anyone who was actually famous. Anyhow, basically lost total contact after that. But still a fun story!
16. Steve’s House
I dated the guitarist from Taking Back Sunday briefly and was good friends with Steve Buscemi’s son through college. I didn’t date his son but my friend did and my boyfriend at the time was in a band with him so we would hang out at Steve’s house a lot. Eh?
17. Did I Mention I Dated Spiderman?
I had a co-worker who spent the night with the current guy who plays Spider-Man (sorry I don’t know his name). She would ALWAYS be saying stuff about it and would try to find excuses to bring this up. In fact one day she said, “today I’m wearing the underwear I wore the night I was with [guy who plays Spider-Man]." Girl, we're at work. Calm down.
18. Sweet Al Yankovic
My aunt dated Weird Al Yankovic when she was in her mid 20s. One of my much older cousins actually has a signed guitar that Al played in a live show. My aunt and Al met from my dad being a radio DJ as a teenager, and he met a lot of celebrities through that. Mostly 90 and early 2000s pop and country stars, but anyways, the station my dad worked at threw weird Al a birthday party, and my aunt just happened to be there. They ended up together for a decent amount of time.
Every once in a while Al will come into town to say hi to her. Even though they aren’t together they are still friends. And no Al isn’t cheating on his wife with my aunt, my aunt's a strong married Christian, and I’m more than 100% sure she wouldn’t do that. One of these days I might end up meeting him, which I think would be pretty cool. Apparently, he's a genuinely funny person in a way you wouldn’t expect.
19. Rocky Relationship
My aunt was married to Van Morrison briefly. They were even together on one his album's artwork. They were in love, but he was always gone so it just didn't work out. I was told that he would play guitar for the fam on Christmas get togethers.
20. Never Underestimate a Nerd
My high school English teacher went to high school with Bill Nye. He asked her to the prom and she turned him down for the most ridiculous reason: because “he was a nerd." I hated that teacher.
21. Glass Walker
I dated Dickey Betts (for younger readers, he founded the Allman Brothers Band) many, many, many years ago. He was unfailingly thoughtful and kind. He was going through a crazy overindulging in drugs and alcohol phase, but somehow never forgot to make sure I felt safe and taken care of. He assigned me a roadie to make sure I was taken care of while he was on stage.
Once he had a bit of a break down and started destroying a hotel room. When he saw I was getting worried, he picked me up and carried me to the door of the suite, then called the road manager to come get me. He walked barefoot across broken glass with me in his arms.
22. Looking Good
A friend of mine banged Matthew McConaughey. She’s a costumer in Hollywood and was hanging out in the bar at Chateau Marmot when Matt comes up to her and says, “How about you and me walk 30 feet and get naked?” Her initial response was “lol no” but by the end of the night her friends convinced her she had to do it. This was peak 2000s Matt when he was ripped and constantly shirtless.
So, she went up to his room at the hotel and they banged. Apparently, it was sweaty, mostly from behind, and he preferred to watch them (mostly him) in the mirror. Same girl also dated McGee from NCIS, but apparently, he was a total sweetheart.
23. He Won’t Blow Up
My mom had a dinner date with George Clooney in the 90’s. She didn’t really say much apart from the fact that he’s an interesting and charismatic guy, but she honestly didn’t think he was going to blow up.
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24. Wrestling Pains
Won't name her, but she was a former pro wrestler/actress. She was nice but very insecure and definitely enjoyed the attention of one creep who used to work at IGN and was obsessed with her, to a stalker level.
Anyway, out of the blue, she blocked me from contacting her in any way and I could never reach her at home. She came out as bipolar months later but that genuinely hurt me because to this day, I still have no idea why she broke it off, and that hurts. I swore off relationships ever again after that, I prefer (and openly state when I meet women) casual hook ups. Never want to go through that again.
25. You Know What
My aunt was in an off again on again “relationship” with David Bowie. She was probably about 20 years younger than him. But he first saw her at a party in LA and a woman came up to her and asked her if she wanted to meet David. He would put on her shoes and dance around. She said it was very sad to watch him throughout the years as he became addicted to cocaine.
She was also on the 1980 playboy cover with Steve Martin, they went out for drinks a few times after that and said he was mostly shy and very quiet. She has a signed copy of the magazine from him, and his message was pretty funny. It said, “Thanks Amy, for you know what.”
26. Hood-Rat Stuff with Pink
Not me, but my uncle dated the singer Pink in high school for a little while. They went to Central bucks in Pennsylvania. Pretty neat fun fact but it always feels a little awkward when someone brings it up at gatherings because he is happily married now. This is also why I don't have any stories to share lol. Apparently, she was super chill and down to earth. My uncle was the type of kid to create napalm in his backyard and set the neighbors pool on fire, etc., so I've always imagined she probably acted similar at the time, but I could be way wrong.
27. Madness, I Tell You
Just hang on this will go somewhere—
My mom claimed to me when I was a kid that she used to always buy pizza for people she really liked. And she told me one time she bought pizza for the entire school football team in high school. She also told me that after a concert she bought pizza for the band Madness (if you don’t know they made that our house in the middle of our street song). And went on a date with the drummer.
Then as an adult my mom told me she slept with the drummer from Madness. Everything started piecing itself together in my head. And now I’m worried that “buying pizza” was a euphemism for sleeping with people and I’m too scared to ask if my mom slept with the whole football team.
28. Funny Guy, Kind of a Jerk
One of my dad's close friends is Jim Carry's first wife. Apparently, he turned into kind of a mean guy when he got famous (shocking, I know). I remember a decade or so again when their grown kid's band was trying to make a living with their music, she really wanted Jim to help them get bookings and stuff and he was all, "they need to make it on their own." Then he got a new girlfriend who told him to help his kid out and he did. First wife is still salty about that.
29. The Real Roxanne!
My mom lived in Key West in the early-mid 80's where she met Sting. They actually ended up dating for a while, but everything derailed when they went on a sailing trip. Sting had a really nice yacht, but over the course of the trip, he realized my mom is complete psycho (she is). He ended it right after. Sometimes to screw with my Dad I'll start singing Roxanne or Message in a Bottle.
Wikimedia Commons, Yancho Sabev
30. Superbad Date
Jonah Hill awkwardly slid me his number when I worked in a hotel he was staying at. We went to coffee once and he got super clingy. Asked me for nudes every day. I was 20 and a virgin. He wanted to throw me a 21-st birthday party in Palm Springs and when I politely declined he turned real nice-guy. He wasn’t even funny.
31. Muddy Waters
A family friend of ours is a flight attendant that met Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd on a flight and started a relationship with him a couple years after he got divorced. Whenever she had a few days in LA, she'd meet up with my family (including my grandparents) for a dinner. One time, we were out at some BBQ joint and her phone rang. It was a nightmare.
It was Wes, demanding to know where she was and why she wasn't at his place. When she told him she was having dinner with us, he started screaming at her over the phone that he didn't believe her while we were all at the table. Yeah, that relationship didn't last much longer than that. It wasn't long after that he had that weird meltdown on stage that caused everybody else to leave his band and him to cancel his tour.
Looking at his Wiki page, that dude needs help.
32. The Model Life
I have an ex-girlfriend who was a moderately well-known model. There was nothing too crazy about it other than she really didn't understand that she was treated differently because of how she looked. For example, the barista in her local coffee shop gave her a free latte every morning and she thought he did it because he was just a nice guy. One time, she called me while she was going through security at an airport and I heard the TSA guy exclaim how beautiful she was and she giggled, then said thank you.
She also had a lot of much older, single male friends who were obviously waiting for her to become single so they could try to pick her up. There was one dude who was bald, fat, and not a nice guy. She'd slept with him once out of pity when he was going through a divorce and ever since that night, he'd become obsessed with her. The guy was a total jerk to me every time that I saw him and she would always just laugh it off.
Also, she was incredibly insecure and didn't believe that men and women could be platonic friends. I have a few female friends who are just pals and she always accused me of secretly wanting to sleep with them, which wasn't the case. Looking back, the relationship was a nightmare, but I was pretty crushed when she cheated on me with another guy and it ended.
33. Can’t Buy Happiness
My wife briefly dated Louis C.K. back in 2012, before news broke about him being creepy. She says it seems kind of awful to be famous. Any time they went out to eat or were in public they were just constantly interrupted or stared at. He came to her birthday party at some little bowling alley in Brooklyn though and was pretty cool. The story that always sticks with me is that one day he went out and bought a $150,000 watch because he felt sad.
34. Won’t Let That One Go
One of my best friends dated Miley Cyrus (then Destiny Cyrus) back in Middle School. We all went to the same elementary school then started middle school together. Mind you this is all before Hannah Montana was created. Back then her and her brother (Trace Cyrus, of Metro Station Fame) were just Billy Ray Cyrus's kids which didn't mean much too us back then.
They dated for all of our 6th grade year until she moved away to start pre-production on a Disney show, which we would later find out to be Hannah Montana. He wasn't too beat up about it as he described her as being kinda crazy. One story I remember is that after a mutual friend of theirs was broken up with by her boyfriend, Miley tried to get my friend to make out with her to cheer her up, which he refused to do.
Also, after the show came out and her face was all over Tiger Beat and 17 magazine, we would rip out the pictures of her, cut a hole in the mouth, hold them up to our face and chase him around saying, "I miss you *****, come to Hollywood and be with me!" We probably could've been a little nicer about it.
Wikimedia Commons, Angela George
35. Dodged a Knife There
My aunt got asked out on a date by O.J. Simpson. My grandfather was a very racist man at the time and put a stop to it.
My sister also dated Elijah Woods when she was in middle school/freshman year. She doesn’t really like to talk about it much except for when she’s drunk. But that's when the truth comes out. She said all they ever really did was ice skate and hold hands.
Wikimedia Commons, Gerald Johnson
36. Pink Strikes Again
“Dated” Pink in high school. The quotation marks because I was a moron in high school, and even though I really liked her I didn’t really know how to go about things right. So I was sort of a bad kid in high school and even though CB West was a big school, everyone pretty much had some idea of who everyone was.
Being an idiot sort of became my high school personality and oddly enough it never hurt my chances with girls. Well Alicia (Pink) was pretty much the female version of me. Whenever I got called to the principal office, she was almost always there too. That’s how we even really struck up convo. So I ask her to hang out finally and basically, I tried to play the bad-boy role...it didn’t work at all.
Only lasted a few weeks of what amounted to after school hanging out and nothing more. We even got sent to an alternative school around the same time for “troubled” teens. She barely went before she kind of vanished. Years later when she was a star, she hit me up on FB once, briefly had a convo and that was it.
37. Times Change
My dad dated Emma Thompson in the 80's (my dad was more famous than Emma at the time - she was a student at Cambridge and my dad was doing okay as a model). He met Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, and the whole crew. He's sketchy on the details but I heard from my mum that Emma dumped him. We're not really allowed to talk about it, but the rumor in the family is that my uncle cheated on her.
Last year I talent walked Kenneth Branagh and his wife at a BAFTA thing, and it took everything in me not to mention to his lovely wife (who I had a lot of alone time with while Sir Ken walked the carpet) that actually we were connected in a weird way. I also see Hugh Laurie around and I always tell my dad (who is now a very mild semi-retired architect) and he ALWAYS tells me to say hi to him (I never have). These people won't remember you Dad, sorry.
38. Allman Strikes Out
My mom went to an Allman Brothers show in like ‘79 or ‘80, which would’ve made her 20 or 21 at the time. She told me that she didn’t really know who they were, but her friend had asked her to go, so she went. So, after the show, she’s standing outside having a smoke and this guy walks up behind her and taps her on the shoulder. She says that he said,
“You’re gonna come home with me tonight,” (or something along those lines that’s equal parts creepy and pompous).
So, mom goes, “Uh, no I’m not.” Then turns back around to her friend (who is apparently awestruck, and mom doesn’t know why)
So, the guy steps around and is like, “Do you know who I am?”
And mom goes, “No? And I really don’t want to.”
Then she drops her smoke and stamps it out and grabs her friend and goes to the bar.
Anyway, apparently that was Gregg Allman. She told me that story a few years ago, and I lost my mind. At one point, I even said, “Mom?! I could’ve been his kid?!” And she laughed and told me not to tell dad.
39. Mrs. Pavilion
I dated the DJ Flux Pavilion for seven years. It was great, so we got married in January. I enjoy my own company so the touring isn't really a problem.
It’s nice to share my life with a person so creatively fulfilled. I love hearing whatever he’s worked on that day when he gets home. I get to tag along to cool places, and it’s sweet to see how much people care about his music. I generally don’t try to explain what he does when I meet new people because they either won’t get it and don’t care or they do get it, care too much, and then only want to talk to me about his music. Largely though, just a normal happy marriage; He judges me when I listen to radio 1. I judge him when his phone isn’t on silent. His job isn’t much of a factor in our daily life. I married Josh not Flux Pavilion, really. He’s an excellent husband for myriad reasons, and his musical talent is only one of those.
40. CW Famous is Still Famous
I dated Tiera Skovbye who is currently a regular on CW's Riverdale (she plays Polly Cooper). We dated some years ago when she was younger. She was a fairly successful model and actor at the time, even more so now. We met while working on the same television show and I asked her out. Didn't expect her to say yes as she was way out of my league.
But she did and we hung out for a month or so. She eventually went back home and we tried long distance for a few weeks before deciding that it wouldn't work. We've talked once or twice over the years, but she is firmly in a different social stratum now. Overall, she was very nice and fairly intelligent but very focused on being an actor/model and didn't really know any other lifestyle.
41. Beware of Child Stars
I dated a former child star for a short time (he was in his mid-40s at the time). It was super SUPER not fun. He wasn't a child star who'd moved on to fame as an adult like Jodie Foster or Ron Howard - after age 15 or so, he just became a regular guy and he couldn't handle it. (And no, I'm not saying who it is. I want to keep that aspect of it private, so please don't ask me). Among the many things:
- First of all, his house was a shrine to the show he used to be on.
- He was a semi-celebrity in the small town he lived in, so on this one wall of a local restaurant, they had a framed picture of the cast of his show that he'd autographed. And if we couldn't get a seat at the table near his photo, he'd get all mad.
- One night, he dragged out this big shopping bag full of fan mail he'd gotten when he was a kid, and we had to sit and read through it.
- He would lie in "Where Are They Now?" type interviews, and say that he was just SO grateful to have a normal life, that he was SO glad to not be famous anymore, that he'd see the huge level of fame for someone like Brad Pitt, and just "feel so sorry" for them that they can't have a normal life. But in reality, he desperately wanted fame back. There was a supermarket opening in his town, and they asked him if he'd go to it, and he said yes. I was embarrassed for him - I was like, "Don't do this. Just be a normal guy, please don't embarrass yourself at a supermarket opening."
- He got an invite to one of those "Where Are They Now?" has-been fan fests. The organizers made it clear that they only wanted him AND one of his co-stars, who didn't want to do it, because she actually had moved on and actually did have a totally normal life. He called her up and just pathetically begged, near tears, for her to please, please, please go to this with him, that he needed her there with him because they didn't want just him. She said, "Ehh, no, dude - you know, then I have to take my kids out of school, book plane tickets for me and my family, pay for a hotel room, etc., and for what? To make a few hundred dollars charging for autographs?" So, she wouldn't do it, and he freaked out on her over the phone.
- There was another child actor who was on a show that was much, much more popular than the one he was on. They were about the same age, but it was a totally different level of fame. So, this other actor, as an adult, briefly starred in a new television show. It was totally boring, but of course, the guy I dated made us sit and watch each episode, every week. And he'd sit there and literally say, "Why him? Why not me? We're about the same age. We were both famous about the same time. Why did HE get this break and I didn't." Which made his interview about how he was "SO GLAD" to not be famous and have a normal life so much more pathetic.
42. Luke, I Am Your Date
I had an English teacher that went on a date with Mark Hamill just after he finished filming Star Wars in the 70's. She said he was a nice guy and was very humble, he said he was a small-time actor and said he had just finished a new movie that he thought might be successful. They only went out once and she never heard from him again. Saw him in Star Wars a few months later and had her mind blown.
Sources: Reddit, ,
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