Despite their busy schedules, celebrities still try to make their relationships work despite the distance.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry met on Instagram in July 2016 and their relationship turned long-distance when Markle flew back to Toronto while Harry stayed in London.
“We had to get to know each other before the rest of the world and the media joined it,” Markle explained in the couple’s Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, in December 2022. Harry added that as he “got to know Meghan more and more” he began falling in love with her. “So despite my own fear, I just opened my heart to see what’s going to happen,” he said.
The duke also shared that the couple “never went longer than two weeks without seeing each other.”
“I think we were able to really have so much time just to connect,” he told the BBC in a November 2017 appearance. “So [that’s how] we made it work.”
Keep scrolling to see more celebrity couples who had successful long-distance relationships:
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry
After meeting over Instagram in July 2016, Markle and Harry were in a long-distance relationship before tying the knot in May 2018.
“At the beginning, our relationship was this guarded treasure,” Markle said on an episode of their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan which was released in December 2022. “It was long distance from the beginning. Everything was just texts or FaceTimes and we’d talk for hours. And it just felt exciting, which was so weird because it wasn’t exciting in the way I think people would assume it would be. It was just relaxed and easy. We just got to know each other, truly, like any other couple.”
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Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox
The duo — who began dating in May 2020 — tackled long-distance dating in August 2022 when Kelly went on tour.
“MGK is on tour for the next few months, so he’s really focused on that. Megan is by his side when she can be and when she’s not, they’re constantly communicating over the phone,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly at the time, adding that the pair are “spiritually connected” and “have this deep-rooted love for each other that’s unbreakable.”
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Anna Taylor-Joy and Malcolm McRae
Joy has been with her boyfriend McRae since 2021 and the couple have made long-distance work.
“It’s also kind of great because when you’re together you’re really valuing the time that you have,” she told Vogue in March 2022. “Everyday activities are so full of joy. I love going to the petrol station with him and filling up the car and going to get breakfast.”
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Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick
Parker said the key to her and Broderick’s successful 20-year marriage is having lives that allow them to “be away and come back together.”
“His work life takes him here, and mine takes me there. In some ways, I think that that’s been enormously beneficial because we have so much to share in a way,” she told Entertainment Tonight Canada in January 2018. “Anytime that any relationship is hard, it’s the point in which you’re deciding, ‘Is this worth the investment getting through whatever that thing is?’”
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Ashley Graham and Justin Ervin
Graham — who tied the knot with Ervin in August 2010 — shared how the couple make their LDR work.
“We have a rule. We don’t go longer than two weeks without seeing each other,” she told ET in November 2016. “It’s absolutely fabulous. I love it. We just meet in L.A. or New York. We meet in Paris, Miami. It’s pretty sexy.”
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Troian Bellisario and Patrick J. Adams
The duo — who tied the knot in 2016 — entered into a long-distance relationship pretty early on into dating as they were both filming different shows.
“It’s constant coordinating,” Bellisario explained in an October 2013 interview. “It’s really hard to be away from the person you love, especially when they’re your rock and support system.”
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Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid
Cox and McDaid — who began dating in 2013 — make their relationship work even if they are across the country from each other.
“As long as you have trust, then I think it doesn’t matter where you are,” Cox said on The Drew Barrymore Show in March 2023. “You can be yourself and yet be excited when you see each other.”
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Sarah Hyland and Wells Adams
Although the couple may have tied the knot in August 2022, Hyland shared that they did long-distance when he lived in Nashville and she lived in L.A.
“I think the longest we’ve gone without seeing each other is like two to three weeks, because five days is already too much for us. So we always try to make sure to see each other,” Hyland told Us Weekly in March 2018. “I don’t think [long-distance is] hard if the love is there.”
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Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy
The pair — who have been married since 2009 — spent some time apart when Danes was living in North Carolina to film Homeland while Dancy remained in New York City.
“That was tough,” Danes told Porter magazine in February 2020. “That distance is corrosive, and I’m just bad at it. And I don’t particularly want to get good at it. We learned along the way how essential it is for us to be physically together as often as possible.”
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Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg
The duo tied the knot in 2015, but still spend a lot of time apart due to their careers.
“I guess we’re not in the normal sense of a normal couple because we’re not with each other that much. It’s really a long-distance relationship when you think about it,” Greenberg told Us in December 2017. “But for us — I can’t speak for other people or other relationships — there’s just a lot of trust and enjoying the times that we have together and being present.”
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Simone Biles and Jonathan Owens
Biles shared that she and Owens started long-distance “less than a week” after their wedding in May 2023.
“Right after Cabo he went to Green Bay and signed, and two days later, he was up there, so it’s been different,” Biles said on the Today show in September 2023. “At least we’re both busy and focusing on our respective sports. It’s been nice.” She also added that the time apart allows them to “cherish the moments that [they] get together.”
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G Flip and Chrishell Stause
The twosome — who tied the knot in May 2023 — always make their relationship work despite the distance.
“Me and my wonderful partner, we make our schedules work and sometimes she comes on the road with me on tour or she’ll come to Australia,” G Flip told Us in October 2022. “But we always make it work and definitely [have] a lot of phone calls and FaceTimes [whenever we’re apart].”
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Rachel Lindsay and Bryan Abasolo
The Bachelorette alum tied the knot with Abasolo in August 2019 and received backlash over her bicoastal marriage.
“What people don’t realize is we were pretty much long-distance before [we got married] with all the traveling that I was doing pre-COVID. I didn’t actually have a place somewhere else, but I was never at home because I was always traveling,” Lindsay exclusively told Us in November 2020. “And so for us, you know, we know how to work this out and navigate it, and obviously we have an end goal in mind. This is not a forever situation.”
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Nina Dobrev and Shaun White
The couple — who went public with their relationship in 2020 — became pros at making time to see one another even with their busy schedules.
“We have a nice little system of how to stay in touch,” White told Us in October 2021. “Plane tickets are pretty much booked for any opportunity that we can go see one another. So, I know during the holiday break, we’re going to meet up, and we’re going to meet up again probably around Christmas time. Anything that happens in between, then I’ll jet over and see her. You just make it work.”
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Paige DeSorbo and Craig Conover
The Bravo stars confirmed their romance in October 2021 and have managed to tackle long-distance dating.
“We actually love long-distance. We’re two people that are very independent and have so much going on during the week,” DeSorbo told Us in October 2021. “When we get, like, Monday through Friday to get all of our things done and then I hop on a plane Friday morning, it’s fun. I feel like we’re more present with each other when we are together. We’re not on our phones and we plan and do fun things.”
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Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade
The couple tied the knot in 2014 and have learned to navigate long-distance because of their careers.
“I come home every weekend. I fly back and forth,” Union explained on the Today show in February 2015. “We figure it out and make it work and a lot of compromise.”
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Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian
Williams and Ohanian got married in 2017 and did long-distance for a while.
“I think it’s really important, especially in a long-distance marriage that you make the most out of the opportunities that you have,” Ohanian shared with Us in July 2018. “When I think of the most romantic things I’ve done for my wife, I actually think they’re the times when I was just there as a father to our baby, or as a husband.”
