A-listers who shocked the world by marrying in secret - from Beyonce to Bennifer

Fans did not even know Jay-Z and Beyoncé were engaged when they flew to Scarsdale in New York with the aim of procuring a marriage license.

Less under the radar was the couple's not-so-secret ceremony.

On 4 April 2008, the music royalty married in front of 40 guests on Jay-Z's seventh-floor 13,500-square-foot New York penthouse, surrounded by 70,000 white dendrobium orchids, Beyoncé's flower of choice.

Shape of You singer Ed married his childhood sweetheart in January 2019 but there was no fuss, no bother, and certainly no press to record the special moment.

"Our actual wedding was a tiny, tiny event with no one there”  he told Jessie Ware on the Table Manners podcast.

“We did it at night, on a random day in the middle of January in the middle of nowhere, and no one knew, no one came to it. We lit candles, we got married, we went back and had a curry, that was it."

The couple opted for a larger and “less private” wedding party a few months down the line which Ed said was "more of a celebration of us and our friends”. However, he still didn’t want pictures getting out, and was “amazed” they didn’t.

Jessie, who was a guest at the party, said "the security" helped keep the event private with a no-phone rule. "It was amazing. It meant that everyone talked to each other."

Ed agreed: "Everyone was just very present, which was good."

Oscar-winner Emma and Saturday Night Live segment director Dave were one of the many couples whose wedding plans were disrupted by the outbreak of Covid-19. The ceremony, which remains shrouded in mystery, took place in September 2020, a few months later than intended.

Emma did share a mishap which may have altered her wedding day appearance somewhat.

"The week that I got married, I opened a refrigerator and the handle broke off and I got a black eye," she revealed on the SmartLess podcast.

Musician Benji and Charlie's Angels actress Cameron wed in an intimate ceremony at their Beverly Hills home in 2015 after just seven months of dating.

"We got married in our living room in front of our friends," Cameron told Andy Cohen in 2016. "Had a little party in our backyard on the tennis court and yeah. Otherwise, it would have been something else."

The couple share two children, Cardinal and Raddix, born via surrogate.

The Hunger Games star kept her nuptials to art gallerist Cooke under lock and key as they wed in the glamorous location of the Belcourt of Newport mansion in Rhode Island. Guests present included Kris Jenner, Adele, Amy Schumer, Emma Stone and more.

It was quite difficult to keep the ceremony a secret with so many celebrities present, but the couple were snapped outside the Manhattan Marriage Bureau in September 2019, one month before their ceremony, sparking reports that the couple were already legally married.

Barbie actress Margot blended work and family when she married producer Tom and the couple set up a production company together.

"We were friends for so long. I was always in love with him, but I thought: 'Oh, he would never love me back. Don’t make it weird, Margot. Don't be stupid and tell him that you like him.' And then it happened, and I was like: 'Of course, we're together. This makes so much sense, the way nothing has ever made sense before,'" she told Vogue.

They married in 2016 in a private ceremony in Byron Bay, a coastal town in Margot’s native Australia.

Gossip Girl star Leighton had a whirlwind romance with Nobody Wants This actor Adam in 2013. The couple had previously been co-stars in 2011’s The Oranges, but only became romantically involved two years later.

Their secret wedding took place in California in a small ceremony with family and friends present, and they now have two children together.

Thomas and Amanda met while performing onstage as love interests in 2015 in The Way We Get By, but it was not until the following year that the pair confirmed their relationship, as both parties had been in relationships when they met.

In 2016 the Mamma Mia! star unexpectedly fell pregnant with their first child, and in March 2017 they wed in Topanga, California, while Amanda was nine months along.

She later told Porter the reason for the nuptials: "I really wanted to have rings on in the hospital. What if something goes wrong, and he's not legally my husband?" 

The couple went on to have another baby together and remain happily married.

Penelope and Javier first met while working together in 1992 but it took another 15 years before their initial chemistry turned into something more.

They worked together in 2007 but neither made a move. "I don't know if we were shy or trying to be too professional. Anyway, it got to the very last day of filming and nothing had happened. So I thought, 'F***! We better get drunk!' Luckily a friend of ours threw a wrap party and, well, the rest is history. Thank God!" Javier told GQ.

The couple married three years later in a private ceremony in the Bahamas, attended by family only.

It was a highly publicised relationship from the start, when singer Joe and Game of Thrones star Sophie were first linked after Joe messaged Sophie on Instagram.

They announced their engagement in 2017 but fans were taken by surprise when the couple married mere hours after the Billboard Music Awards in May 2019 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.

The impromptu wedding was livestreamed by Diplo. Joe told GQ: "We had to get legally married in the states, so we thought it'd be really fun to get all of our friends, invite them out, and do an impromptu wedding. And we actually had some people that I didn't really even know that well there."

While the Jonas Brothers were all in attendance, Joe revealed he forgot to tell his parents about the wedding.

All was well, however, as Sophie and Joe retied the knot in a traditional ceremony in France.

The couple welcomed two daughters but separated in 2023.

The German supermodel married her musician boyfriend, Tom, two months after he popped the question in bed.

Tom reportedly asked Heidi's four children from her previous marriage for their blessing beforehand. They married two months later in February 2019.

James and Lisa met in 2016 on set of The Split when Philadelphia-native Lisa was working as the director's PA. In the same year, James announced his split from wife of 11 years, Anne-Marie Duff.

His Dark Materials actor James had a wedding so secret that it wasn't confirmed until a few months later, in 2022. A consistently private person, James told The Guardian he would not reveal any more details "for fear of creating tabloid fodder".

Fans were completely unaware that the Queer Eye star had married partner Mark until they posted a lengthy Instagram caption about the highlights of 2020: "I got married to my best friend & have a loving partner to continue building my life with."

They appeared to share a photograph from the special day and their Queer Eye co-stars were quick to offer congratulations.

"Yay!! That was a hard secret to keep!! love you Mark and Johnny!" wrote Bobby Berk, while Karamo Brown commented: "Yay! We can finally celebrate it publicly!! So happy for you!!!!!! One of the most Beautiful couples in the world. Love you & Happy New year @jvn."

After meeting in 2006 on a blind date through mutual friends, Gisele and Tom announced their engagement in January 2009 and were married a month later.

While the marriage of a supermodel and NFL player would normally be front page news, the ceremony was kept hush-hush as they tied the knot in the St. Monica Catholic Church in California.

In fact, the ceremony was kept so quiet that the famous duo only shared photographs of their special day nine years later.

There were immediate fireworks when Oscar-nominated actress Zoë met her future husband, artist and producer Marco, on a flight to New York in 2013.

They wasted no time, tying the knot in the summer of the same year. The couple chose to keep all details of their happy day a secret, including location and any pictures.

Zoë and Marco now share three children.

Almost a decade on from their initial romance on the set of The Last Song, Miley and Liam married in secret. The on-again, off-again couple were first engaged in 2012, then again in 2016.

The wedding came as a complete surprise for fans, revealed when a friend of the Hemsworth brothers posted a video the day before Christmas Eve with a 'Mr & Mrs' balloon in the background.

Miley confirmed the news herself a few days later, sharing a photo of what she described as the couple's "one-millionth kiss".

The romance did not last, however, as they separated eight months later.

While the second reunion of Noughties ‘It Couple’ Bennifer did not work out, they learnt from their hugely scrutinised first engagement, which was called off because of intense media attention, and kept things secret for the second.

In true Hollywood style, the A-list couple first married in an intimate Las Vegas ceremony, a few months after announcing their engagement. A second, much larger ceremony, involved three Ralph Lauren gowns, monogrammed napkins and beautiful white flowers followed. Sadly the couple parted ways in 2024 when Jennifer filed for a divorce which was settled in early 2025.

Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse has long been private about her relationship with Slow Horses actor Jack, and that privacy naturally extended to their low-key nuptials, held in the Edinburgh Central Registrar's Office.

Jack grew up in Scotland, which may have been part of the reason for the location, and the couple now reside in West Cork.

The marriage of two iconic on-screen vampires should have been front page news but instead of making a splash, Nikki and Ian opted to keep their wedding as quiet as possible.

In 2015, a few months after announcing their engagement, the Twlight actress and The Vampire Diaries actor said 'I do' in Topanga Canyon in Malibu, California.

Using tactics of deception, guests initially thought they were attending a housewarming, but were mysteriously shuttled to the hillside location where they enjoyed live music and a surprise wedding.

The bride wore a custom-made Claire Pettibone lace dress, while the groom wore a white suit.

While the couple's first meeting took place in 2007, it wasn't until 2011 that romance rumours began to fly. A year later, Jennifer and Justin were engaged but made it clear they wanted to keep the special day tightly under wraps, telling Ellen DeGeneres that even their friends didn't know when the day was.

It was four more years before the acting duo tied the knot in Bel Air, California, in the presence of 70 family and friends. Jennifer's Friends co-stars Lisa Kudrow and Courtney Cox were also in attendance, while Jimmy Kimmel officiated.

To keep the star-studded event a surprise, guests were told that the wedding was a birthday party for Justin.

The couple separated three years later but remain friends.

It was love at first sight for Anne who met her producer husband in 2008. When they met, the Oscar-winning actress said to a friend: "I'm going to marry that man. I think he thought I was a little nuts, which I am a bit, but I'm also nice", she told Harper's Bazaar.

The couple kept it very low-key for their 2012 nuptials: a private wedding with 150 guests in Big Sur, California. Anne wore a custom-made Valentino gown and a floral headpiece, complete with a veil.  

The Aquaman star met fellow actor Lisa Bonet in a jazz club in 2005 and it was fireworks at first sight. They welcomed two children, Lola and Nakoa-Wolf in 2007 and 2008 respectively, but it wasn't until almost a decade later that they tied the knot.

In a top-secret ceremony in Topanga, California in 2017, Jason and Lisa made things official. The news leaked, even though Jason had been hoping to keep it quiet.

"You know what, I've been married to my wife for 12 years. It's just a gathering of our families and celebrating our love," he told Entertainment Tonight.

After 17 years together, Jason announced that they were "parting ways in marriage" via Instagram, but remained committed to coparenting their children.