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8 Celebrity Couples Who Said They Wouldn't Get Married Until Gay People Could

We're reeling from the news of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's recent nuptials—mostly because they managed to keep the news quiet for five whole days.

But also because we remember them saying something about not tying the not until same-sex couples could.

We're not gonna demonize Brangelina for making it legal—they've got, like, 36 children between them, and need to make sure they're all provided for. But it got us thinking about all those celebrities who made similar promises about not getting married until gays and lesbians could put a ring on it. With marriage equality sweeping America (and the globe), how many of those stars have stuck to their guns?

8 Hollywood couples who said they wouldn't wed until same-sex marriage was legal


brangelina brad angelina

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Brangelina have been supporters of marriage equality since they first hooked up in 2005: “To be in love with someone and be raising a family with someone and want to make that commitment and not be able to is ludicrous. Just ludicrous,” Pitt said at the time, adding that the two wouldn't tie the knot at least until same-sex couples could.

Followup: The Pitt-Jolies got engaged in 2012 and made it legal this past weekend in France, which does have nationwide marriage equality. So in a sense they did keep their word.


The new and improved Brangelina (Getty)

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard

Though engaged for more than two years—and proud parents of baby Lincoln Bell Shepard—the celebrity couple told CNN in 2012 that they wouldn’t get married until their gay friends could.

“We’re not going to have a party when half of our friends… can’t do that thing we’re doing," said Shepard. "We’re not going to ask them to come celebrate a right they don’t have. That’s just tacky! Forget like anything else, it’s like really tacky for us.”

And, believe us, he knows from tacky.

Followup: After the Supreme Court scrapped the Defense of Marriage Act on June 26, 2013, Bell asked Shepard to marry her via Twitter and the two were wed at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's Office on October 17, 2013.In June 2014, the two revealed they were expecting their second child.


Screen Shot 2014-08-28 at 2.16.37 PM

Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied

The Black Swan star once claimed she wasn’t a fan of matrimony, at least not how it's recognized in the U.S.: “Why are they making rules that say my lover can stay in the United States if they’re foreign," she asked. "Or share my health care benefits because I’m straight,  but if you’re gay, you can’t have that?”

Followup:  Portman and her ballet babydaddy got hitched in March 2012. FYI, he converted to Judaism.


jason mrazJason Mraz and Tristian Prettyman

In 2010, The "Remedy" singer asked Tristan Prettyman to marry him, but the couple held off setting a date: “The wedding would be nice for our family, our friends, our community—our moms especially— [but] we can’t get married until marriage is legal and equal.”

Followup: Mraz ended things with Prettyman broke up in 2011, just six months after they announced their engagement. She later wrote a song called “I was Gonna Marry You."

Ouch.


Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend

At a marriage-equality rally in 2009, Theron said she and her longtime beau, Betrayal actor Stuart Townsend, believed "the institution of marriage feels very one-sided."

"I want to live in a country where we all have equal rights,” she said. “I have so many friends who are gays and lesbians who would so badly want to get married, that I wouldn’t be able to sleep with myself.”

Followup: Theron and Townsend broke up in 2010—she's now reportedly dating Sean Penn, who has his own checkered history with the institution.


Howard Stern and Beth OstroskyHoward Stern and Beth Ostrosky

After divorcing his first wife, Alison, in 2001  Stern swore off marriage, seemingly forever. Even after Ostrosky walked into his life, the King of All media swore in 2007 that he wouldn’t get married again “unless gays can get married.”

Followup: Stern and Ostrosky married in 2008.


Ricky Martin and Carlos González Abella

In 2010, Martin said he was waiting to wed to wed longtime hombre Carlos González Abella until gay marriage was legal in Puerto Rico.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the option of marriage in our country. We could go to Britain or Spain or Argentina and do something symbolic, but that’s not what I want," The "Cup of Life" singer explained. "I want to have the rights of anybody else in my home country. I don’t want to be a second-class citizen.”

Followup: Martin and Abella tied the knot in New York City in January 2012, but announced their split in January 2014.


Morty Coyle jodie sweetinJodie Sweetin and Morty Coyle

The Full House star made a stand for same-sex marriage when she got engaged to boyfriend Morty Colye in 2012. “We are in no hurry as far as dates or anything like that,” she told the press. “We want to wait until there’s equality for everybody to get married.”

Followup: Coyle and Sweetin's daughter, Beatrix Carlin Sweetin-Coyle, was born August 31, 2010. Sweetin and Coyle got engaged in January 2011 and married on March 15, 2012. Sweetin filed for legal separation from Coyle in June 2013.

 

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