We’ve all heard stories about costars who fell in love. But what about when you fall in love with your onscreen sibling? Adding a layer of the taboo to the professional-personal crossover isn’t unheard of. Here are some actors who have dated their onscreen siblings.
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Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey
In the 1986 cult classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ferris and Jeanie Bueller continuously bump heads as brother and sister. But in reality, the onscreen siblings were… bumping something else? The two went on a “secret rendezvous” in 1985 while filming the movie.
“I was as surprised as anyone when our relationship morphed from onscreen sibling rivalry to off-screen illicit romance,” Grey wrote in her memoir Out of the Corner. At the time, Broderick had another lady he was seeing but he broke that off to be with Grey. In 1988, he proposed. But soon after, Johnny Depp came into the picture. “You have to understand Johnny Depp, 1989 Johnny Depp, so beautiful,” Grey later told Drew Barrymore. Depp proposed to Grey and that quickly ended things with Broderick.
Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader
Anna Kendrick and Bill Hader played onscreen siblings Noelle and Nick Kringle in the 2019 film Noelle, filmed in 2017. Their chemistry must have been pretty magical because they started dating a few years later. It was during the COVID pandemic.
“Anna has been dating Bill quietly for over a year,” an insider told People in January 2022. They added that the two actors waited until after the movie to begin a relationship. “They are both very private people, and with the pandemic it was easy to keep it quiet,” they added. “She’s really, really happy.” Unfortunately, the couple broke it off that June.
Ian Somerhalder and Maggie Grace
Ian Somerhalder and Maggie Grace played Boone Carlyle and Shannon Rutherford on Lost. The fictional step-siblings were known to incessantly argue and actually had a semi-incestuous one-night stand at one point.
According to Glamour, the two actors began dating in 2006 after their characters were killed off on Lost. They co-adopted a cat that they named Roo, but Maggie didn’t think she was ready for a serious relationship. “Ian’s great, I adore him, although I’m only 22 — far too young to even think about having a serious relationship,” she said. They split before they got too serious, and Somerhalder went on to date Nina Dobrev before marrying Twilight star Nikki Reed.
Chris Pratt and Emily VanCamp
Chris Pratt and Emily VanCamp played siblings Bright and Amy Abbott in the TV series Everwood. The show aired from 2002 to 2006 and the actors were an official item while filming. They dated for three years and yes, they did raise a lot of eyebrows.
Referring to VanCamp as his “lady,” Pratt admitted that people gave them flak all the time. “Yeah, we’ve pretty much gotten used to the response of, ‘Eww, that’s weird. That’s creepy,’” Pratt told TV Guide. “The people who know us are happy, and probably expected it to happen eventually. But yeah, every once in a while we get that one person that’s like, ‘That’s really creepy. You just kissed your sister.’”
Pratt added that they initially kept their relationship a secret. They also managed to separate their onscreen relationship from real life for the most part. But they did sneak a kiss on set every now and then!
David Arquette and Drew Barrymore
David Arquette and Drew Barrymore played Rob and Josie Geller in 1999’s Never Been Kissed. The siblings both find love — separately, of course — after Rob gives Josie a makeover. David Arquette alleges that they actually once dated in 1991, years before they filmed Never Been Kissed.
Arquette first revealed their old relationship to E News in 2014. “We used to date when we were very young kids. Well, not little kids!” he said. Arquette would have been 20 and Barrymore would have been 16 at the time.
However, Barrymore denied that they ever dated when Howard Stern asked her in 2018. But Arquette refuted her denial, insisting it was true. “We also dated but she denied it on Howard Stern,” Arquette said told PeopleTV’s Couch Surfing. “But we dated… Sorry, I got a big mouth. I talk. I say it like it is.”
Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall
Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall were actually married while filming the TV show Dexter. Carpenter played Debra Morgan, Dexter Morgan’s foster sister. The show ran from 2006 to 2013. The couple began dating well into the TV show, in 2007. They married in 2008 but divorced in 2010. However, they remained amicable despite their breakup and even returned as siblings in the 2021-2022 Dexter spin-off Dexter: New Blood.
Will Arnett and Amy Poehler
Will Arnett and Amy Poehler played sibling-spouse villains Fairchild and Stranz Van Waldenberg in the 2006 comedy Blades of Glory. Obviously, the dynamic came with a large dose of humor, as Arnett and Poehler actually used to be married back in the day.
Arnett and Poehler first met in 1996 but waited four years before they dated. They married in 2003 and had two sons together, Archie and Abel. Sadly, they separated in 2012, filed for divorce two years later, and finalized their divorce in 2016. Arnett later described the divorce as “brutal, brutal, brutal.”
“I was driving to the set one day and I pulled over to the side of the road and cried for an hour,” Arnett told The Guardian. He was filming Arrested Development at the time.
Jason Priestley and Shannen Doherty
Shannen Doherty and Jason Priestley played siblings Brenda and Brandon Walsh on Beverly Hills 90210. Priestly stayed on the show for its entire decade-long duration from 1990 to 2000. Doherty left after 1994. Priestly allegedly told Howard Stern that he and Doherty were romantically involved for a bit in the show’s early years. But his onscreen sibling wasn’t his only 90210 co-star that Priestly dated. He dated Christine Elise, aka Emily Valentine, for 5 years. And he was married to 90210 makeup artist Ashlee Petersen from 1999 to 2000.
It seems like Beverly Hills 90210’s sex appeal had some tangible real-life inspiration, because many of the cast members hooked up with each other. “There were multiple engagements on the show, with multiple people,” Priestly admitted to Access Hollywood. “Nobody ever got attached… We never let it get in the way what we were doing. I will let you know that nobody ever got — work always superseded everything.” He added that Tori Spelling was untouchable due to the fact that her dad was the boss.