Elizabeth Taylor is famously known for having been married seven times. But only one of them was worthy enough of a proposal. The lovely Hollywood icon asked British actor Michael Wilding to marry her. He, of course, said yes, and the handsome couple got hitched in a low-key ceremony in 1952. They ended up having two sons, Michael Howard and Christopher Edward, before calling it quits in 1957. Rumor has it that Wilding had brought a few women into their home while she was shooting the movie, Giant. Ultimately, the couple divorced in good terms.
It’s hard to imagine Kristen Bell and Dax Sheppard not being totally crazy in love with each other. But once upon a time, the actor had some reservations about his wife. During an interview on the TV show Off Camera with Sam Jones, Sheppard said he wasn’t sure about the couple’s future. Eventually, the couple grew stronger, but instead of moving along with marriage and kids, Bell and Sheppard decided to tell the world they wouldn’t get married until everyone could (legally speaking!) Once the Supreme Court’s historic ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) took place, Kristen popped the question. She even tweeted, “@daxshepard1 will you marry me? Xo #marriageequality #loveislove.” Unsurprisingly, he said yes.
The lovely Haley Lu Richardson is starring in the upcoming romantic movie Five Feet Apart. But romance has always played a major role in her life. Richardson has never considered herself a major romantic. But after dating Jane the Virgin actor Brett Dier for years, she decided someone needed to step up their game and pop the question. “I just asked,” she told Busy Phillips during an interview by Busy Tonight. The setting was pretty casual as well, as the couple was just lying on the couch. “He was sitting there eating a pizza and he was telling me a joke that Shia LaBeouf had said in an interview, and he was, like, pretending to be Shia LaBeouf explaining this joke and for some reason, I just cut him off and was like, ‘Wanna marry me?'”
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline were one of the most toxic couples in pop culture history. Their romance was pretty chaotic from the get-go. But that didn’t stop Spears from kicking everything she’d worked for to the curb in order to be with Federline. Sadly, their love for each other quickly fizzled out. But before these two were tangled up in scandals and custody fights, a very starry-eyed Spears proposed to Federline in 2004 when they were flying from Ireland to NYC. “All of a sudden I said, ‘What if you want to get married?’ And I kind of went from there to asking him if he would marry me.” Surprisingly, he said no. But only because he wanted to be the one who proposed. He said, “I’d known for a while that she’s the one.” The couple ended up calling it quits three years later.
The late actress Zsa Zsa Gabor paid her own bills and chose her men, not the other way around. You could say this Hungarian-American socialite was years ahead of her time. She supposedly proposed to all nine of her hubbies. The first guy was a Turkish diplomat, and she popped the question when she was just 15!
In a recent interview, Pink told The Guardian that her marriage is by no means perfect, but it’s worth fighting for. In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, Pink talked about how difficult staying in a monogamous relationship can be. But she claims she’s head over heels in love with how amazing her husband Carey Hart is as a father. In a way, it kind of makes up for their relationship woes. “He’s just the kind of dad I thought he’d be and then some,” she said. The couple has been on and off for years. But in 2005, Pink decided to propose to motocross soon-to-be hubby, Hart during the Pro 250 class finals. As he was doing his third lap of the race, Pink held a board with the message, “Will You Marry Me?” Then, when Hart didn’t pull over, she followed it by one that read, “I’m serious!”
Fashion icon and business tycoon, Diane von Fürstenberg rejected seven proposals. But then she had a change of heart. Her husband, Barry Diller, had been wanting to tie the knot with von Fürstenberg for years, but clearly, she wasn’t in any rush. She knew she wanted to spend her life with Diller, but the relationship had torrid beginnings. In 1980, the couple even broke up for a few years. von Fürstenberg started a new relationship with a bearded man named Paulo, whom she’d met in Bali. But her heart belonged to Diller, and eventually, the couple tied the knot in 2001. One day, von Fürstenberg and Diller were going around NYC when they spotted a lovely old couple. “And we both thought the same thing: that we wanted to be that couple someday,” she told Oprah in O magazine. “We said it to each other right then.” A few years later, von Fürstenberg decided to ask Diller to marry her on his birthday. “You know, if you want, for your birthday I’ll marry you.” But his response would make most of us chuckle, “Let me see if I can arrange it.” von Fürstenberg and Diller exchanged their vows in an impromptu wedding ceremony at New York City Hall. The legendary fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz, who’s a longtime friend of the couple, captured the iconic moment.
Anything Jennifer Hudson’s boyfriend did, she could do better, and she proved that on his birthday. In 2009, her boyfriend, David Otunga proposed to her on her birthday. But being the total boss that she was, she proposed right back five months later on his birthday. She even offered him a five-carat engagement ring! You go, girl!
The courtroom TV star and voice of reason known as Judge Judy asked her husband Jerry Sheindlin to marry her in the 70s. She told Dujour, “I did propose to him.” Judy was getting kind of tired of being in a relationship that wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, she felt Sheindlin was beating around the bush and not giving her a straight up answer. “I said to him, ‘Where is this relationship going?’ And he tried to weasel out of it, with his, ‘Well, you know, why do we have to get married?’ Whatever. He finally capitulated. I told him to pick a date. He picked Flag Day.” Judy and Sheindlin ended up divorcing, it only ended up lasting a year. The TV star ended up remarrying him after she came to the conclusion that “most men are alike.” Well, she kind of has a point!
Real Housewives of Orange County TV star, Gretchen Rossi, cried tears of joy when she asked Slade Smiley to marry her. And Smiley put a smile on her face when he accepted the proposal. Rossi had broken up with him in the past as she felt things were getting too serious. But she ended up realizing that he was the one and only for her. “With this ring, I hope you’ll say yes, and I hope you’ll marry me, and I hope we’ll have a wonderful, fabulous, maybe not perfect, but happy life together,” she told him. Smiley got on one knee and told her it’d be a privilege to marry her. Awww!
Queen Victoria not only reigned supreme as a monarch in the UK, but also ruled in matters of the heart. In her diary, she wrote that proposing to her cousin, Prince Albert, in 1839, was by far the happiest moment in her life. She was obviously one queen who didn’t mind bending a few Royal protocols for true love.
