Who the Actors Behind Famous TV Couples Actually Married in Real Life

John Krasinski & Jenna Fischer

Considering the natural chemistry between John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer's Jim and Pam on The Office, it's no wonder fans have always trouble wrapping their heads around the platonic reality. Speaking to Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin on the series, Fischer explained that she felt as though she needed to "justify" why she and Krasinski weren't actually in love.

"I don't know how to explain it, because it's a little bit like telling kids there's no Santa," she said on Baumgartner's podcast An Oral History of The Office in 2020. "The bottom line is that we were playing characters, but I know that if people think of us as John and Jenna, then it's destroying some of the magic of Jim and Pam."

Off screen, both Krasiniski and Fischer have their own unscripted magic in their relationships. Krasiniski met Emily Blunt in 2008, and claims to have been obsessed with the actress in her 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. He later revealed to Blunt that he'd seen the film over 70 times. "I'm lucky enough that she stayed with me and didn't realize that she had really married her stalker!" Krasiniski told Glamour in 2016.

The duo married in 2010, and together they share daughters Hazel, 8, and Violet, 7. They're coworkers, too: Blunt and Krasinski costarred in A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place II, both of which Krasinski directed.

Coincidentally, Fischer and her husband, screenwriter Lee Kirk, also married in 2010 and share two kids together: daughter Harper, 8, and son Weston, 11. In 2011, Fischer spoke to Redbook about her introduction to Kirk, when he rejected a film she'd pitched to him but still offered her alternative ideas.

"I was having weekly script dinners with Lee, and I realized, I'm looking at basically the perfect man. It doesn't get better than this," she said of their romantic beginnings.

Dick Van Dyke & Mary Tyler Moore

Dick Van Dyke and the late Mary Tyler Moore played such a convincing couple as Rob and Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show that some fans forgot it was fiction. "People assumed we were married," Van Dyke told PEOPLE. "I'd check into a hotel with my [real] wife, and they would say, 'Who's this?' "

Though she might've been unfamiliar to hotel employees, Margie Willett, to whom Van Dyke was married while starring on his sitcom, played a significant role in his life. The actor and Willett, who died in 2008, were wed in 1948 and divorced in 1984. During their 36 years of marriage, they welcomed four children together: sons Christian and Barry, and daughters Carrie and Stacy.

For more than three decades, Van Dyke was involved with actress Michelle Triola until her death in 2009. A few years later, the Mary Poppins star found love again with makeup artist Arlene Silver (pictured with Van Dyke on the right), whom he married in 2012.

Moore (pictured with Van Dyke on the left) was married to CBS executive Grant Tinker while working on The Dick Van Dyke Show. They married in 1962, shortly after Moore divorced her first husband, Richard Meeker. Moore and Meeker shared one son, Richard Jr., who tragically died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 24 in 1980.

Moore married cardiologist Dr. Robert Levine in 1983, and they remained together until her death in 2017. After her passing, Van Dyke paid homage to his former costar on Twitter: "There are no words," he wrote. "She was THE BEST! We always said that we changed each other's lives for the better."

Adam Brody & Rachel Bilson

The love between Seth Cohen and Summer Roberts might've been part of The O.C.'s script, but real-life romance blossomed behind the scenes, too. Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson dated for three of the four years they spent filming the Fox series. Though they split in 2006, just before the final season, Bilson (pictured with Brody on the right right) looked back on her relationship with her on- and off-screen beau with gratitude.

"Because of what the show was and how young we all were, going through it with someone experiencing the same thing and having that kind of support was really awesome," the Hart of Dixie actress told Nylon in 2021.

Brody went on to find love with another teen drama star, Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester. Though they'd met a few times before, Meester and Brody didn't get close until they filmed the 2011 flick The Oranges. Even then, it took another year for them to exit the friend zone. In 2014, a source confirmed to PEOPLE that the couple tied the knot in an intimate ceremony. Today they share a daughter Arlo, 7, and a son who was born in 2020.

The other half of Seth and Summer shares one daughter, Briar Rose, 8, with actor Hayden Christensen, from whom she split in 2017. She dated Bill Hader in 2019, and though their relationship was brief, she has said that their breakup felt "harder than childbirth."

However, as of her September 2022 appearance on Alex Cooper's podcast Call Her Daddy, Bilson revealed that she is "not single," though she didn't divulge any identifying details about her current partner.

Max Greenfield & Hannah Simone

The unlikely duo that was New Girl's Cece and Schmidt not only got married, but also welcomed two kids together — on TV. Speaking to PEOPLE in 2016, Max Greenfield and Hannah Simone shared their personal excitement about their characters' nuptials in the two-part season 5 finale.

"Schmidt was this big player, but when the audience saw how much he loved Cece, they immediately started rooting for them as a couple," Greenfield said. "And I'm so glad we've been blessed with a show that has been successful enough to last long enough for us to get to this day."

As happy as the two actors were for their fictional selves, these two stars certainly have a lot to appreciate in their own romantic lives. Simone married former E! News personality Jesse Giddings in 2016, and they welcomed a son in August 2017. Greenfield was already hitched when he signed on to New Girl in 2011, having married casting director Tess Sanchez in 2008. They share two kids: 13-year-old daughter Lilly and 7-year-old son Ozzie.

Sterling K. Brown & Susan Kelechi Watson

Much like his character Randall Pearson on NBC's This Is Us, Sterling K. Brown met his real-life wife Ryan Michelle Bathe when they were in college. The Stanford grads married in 2006 and share two kids: Andrew, who was born in 2011, and Amaré, who arrived in 2015.

Despite his long-term relationship, Brown's chemistry with his on-screen wife Beth Pearson, played by Susan Kelechi Watson (pictured with Brown on the right), was nothing if not natural. Brown explained his authentic affection for Watson in conversation with E! News in 2021.

"I told my wife early on, I said, 'Ry, I want to say this to you in person because you'll probably hear me say this in different interviews, but I love Susan Kelechi Watson,' " Brown said. "I don't love her in a way that is disrespectful. I don't love her in a way that you have anything to worry about. I love her spirit, her soul, the way in which she approaches the work."

Since splitting from her fiancé Jaime Lincoln Smith in 2020, Watson has shared that she's single, but she's also implied that she is dating. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show in April 2021, the actress discussed online dating in conversation with the late Stephen "tWitch" Boss.

"I just skipped it a long time ago. I'm not good at choosing from the pictures and I just need it to be in person," she said of her experience with digital matchmaking. "It's a lot better for me now that the quarantine has sort of lifted a little bit and we know how to be safe, and we're testing and doing all the things ... That's better for me."

Dan Levy & Noah Reid

Fans were delighted to see David and Patrick end up married at the end of Schitt's Creek, and though their romance only existed on screens, the men do support each other in real life. Dan Levy showed up for Noah Reid's Broadway debut on the opening night of his show The Minutes. In a clip shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Levy (pictured with Reid on right) congratulated his former costar on his on-stage achievement.

"I knew what Noah was capable of long before he even did my show. And then what we were able to do through the show was really kind of flex his character and flex his skills in ways that showed off his theater capabilities," he said, adding that he "couldn't be prouder" of Reid.

As far as their love lives go, Reid followed a similar path to his character, Patrick, getting married in 2020. He and actress-turned-nurse Clare Stone welcomed their first child in 2022.

In 2015, Levy spoke to OUT magazine about maintaining his solo status in order to focus on his career. "I've been single for a bit. It's a strange thing," he said. "I don't know whether it's an excuse that I'm telling myself or whether it's just what it is, but I feel like this job has consumed my life. I feel like I only get one shot at this."

Levy continued: "I hope that I can find someone when it's all done, or when things are a little bit more smooth. But the eye has really been on making sure that the show is as good as it can be, so that I can be employed for another year."

Kyle Chandler & Connie Britton

On Friday Night Lights, Coach Eric and Tami Taylor showed how love can prevail no matter the obstacle, and Connie Britton even reassured fans that the married couple came out on top in a 2021 interview with ET. "Listen," she said, "that bond is tight. Airtight."

Kyle Chandler and his real-life wife Kathryn also appear to have an airtight relationship. The duo has been married since 1995, and they share two daughters: 21-year-old Sawyer and 27-year-old Sydney, who is following dad down the Hollywood path, starring as Violet in the 2022 thriller Don't Worry Darling.

Britton has been dating writer David E. Windsor since November 2019, when they were set up at his 50th birthday party, she told Andy Cohen in January 2023.

"I'm talking to my friend and he looks past me and he sees David across the room and he is like, 'There's someone here you have to meet,' " she recalled on the SiriusXM show Radio Andy, "And it was like, I'll never forget that moment because I turned around and I looked at who he was pointing at and I was like, 'Oh yeah, I wanna meet him.' "