Entertainment
First comes love, then comes baby carriage, then comes marriage? Pretty sure that old rhyme doesn’t describe as many families as it used to, and that could be thanks to pop culture. Today, plenty of people start happy families before heading down the aisle. Your favorite stars are no exception — there are tons of celebrities who had babies before marriage.
Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, noticed this trend while pregnant herself. She began a study of People magazine covers, and she found that celebs getting pregnant before tying the knot has helped break down the stigma around starting a family before getting married. Goldie Hawn was among the first famous women to do so in the '70s, and by the mid-2000s, magazine covers featured celebrity moms-to-be without their partners or husbands all the time.
Her data found that from then on, it became more common for celebrities to but children before marriage, and more importantly, they didn't apologize for it. Today, it's hardly noticeable when celebrity couples become parens before becoming spouses, but it's quite common. These 24 celeb duos all welcomed their child, or even multiple children, before heading on to wedded bliss.
4
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard
Bell and Shepard got engaged in 2009, and welcomed their first child, daughter Lincoln, in 2013. The pair famously promised they wouldn't marry until same-sex marriage became legal in California. (Aren't they the greatest?) They eventually got married in 2013, seven months after Lincoln’s birth, in a courthouse ceremony that cost only $142, as reported by CNN. Lincoln now has a younger sister, Delta.
5
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
While this classic couple is no more, they were mold-breakers when it comes to babies before marriage. The couple didn’t marry until August 2014, but by then they had a full-on family. At the wedding, sons Maddox and Pax walked Jolie down the aisle to Pitt while Shiloh and Knox took on ring bearer duties, according to Glamour. Their daughters, Zahara and Vivienne, took the roles of flower girls in their parents’ nuptials.
6
Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler
Cavallari and Cutler have been together since 2010, with a brief break in their engagement in 2011. The story goes that they reunited just before finding out they were expecting, and along came their son Camden, born in 2012, according to an article by People. The couple hitched in 2013 before adding two more little ones to the family: son Jaxon and daughter Saylor.
7
Nicole Richie and Joel Madden
Fashion designer Nicole Richie married Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden in 2010, reported InStyle, after having their two children, Harlow and Sparrow, in 2008 and 2009 respectively. They had a winter wedding at her dad Lionel Richie's Beverly Hills estate.
8
Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise
Suri Cruise, was born in April 2006, six months before her parents Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were married in November of that year, according to Insider. The world would soon find out that the relationship wouldn't last.
9
Madonna and Guy Ritchie
The Queen of Pop and director Guy Ritchie welcomed son Rocco in August 2000, and he was just four months old at his parents' extravagant castle wedding in Scotland. They went on to adopt a son, David, in 2006, but split in 2008, according to PopSugar.
10
Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves
Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves have three children together: Levi, Vida, and Livingston. Two out of the three were born before their parents' marriage in 2012, and actually participated in the ceremony as a flower girl and ring bearer, according to Oprah Magazine.
11
Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson
Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson had their children Ace and Maxwell before their nuptials. Per InStyle, the couple tied the knot in 2014 with Ace in the role of ring bearer and Maxwell serving as a flower girl, but the couple apparently had to put planning on hold twice.
Simpson told People, "I definitely look forward to the day that I can look into his eyes and make that commitment that we both really long for. He's just got to stop knocking me up!"
The two welcomed their third child, Birdie, on March 19, 2019, which the star shared on her Instagram.
12
Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied
Portman and Millepied reportedly met on the set of Black Swan, and InStyle described their relationship as a "whirlwind." The couple had a son, Aleph, in June 2011, and got married in California's Big Sur in August the following year, per the fashion outlet. Daughter Amalia joined the family a few years later.
13
Mark Wahlberg and Rhea Durham
Wahlberg and Durham share four children: Ella Rae, Grace Margaret, Brendan, and Michael.
The couple married in a small Catholic ceremony 2009, according to People, and at the time, Ella Rae was 5, Michael was 3, and little Brendan was 10 months old. Grace joined the family the following year.
14
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck
Garner was four months pregnant with their first daughter, Violet, when she and Affleck exchanged vows in 2005, reported Redbook. They later added daughter Seraphina and son Samuel to their family. The couple endured a long divorce which came to a close in November 2018, per People.
15
Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen
Hello! Magazine reported that Fisher and Cohen were married in March 2010 after their 2004 engagement and the births of two daughters: Olive in 2007, and Elula in 2011. The pair had a son, Montgomery, in April 2015.
16
Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer
By the time the now-divorced Spiderman actor and jewelry designer welcomed their first child, they already had their first child, daughter Ruby Sweetheart, in 2006.