- Married or not, relationships in Hollywood are notoriously difficult.
- These 11 couples are still together despite never tying the knot.
- Some, like Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham, even claim that if they had gotten married, they wouldn't have lasted.
- Many have kids together, like Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson, who have four children.
- Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.
Marriage is just a piece of paper, isn't it?
For some couples, tying the knot isn't the key to a long, healthy relationship. Some long-term couples even claim that if they had gotten married, they'd be divorced already.
From Hollywood golden couples like Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, to more low-key relationships like Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova, these 11 pairs haven't felt compelled to walk down the aisle together.
Keep scrolling to see which celebrity couples have foregone marriage altogether.
Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale: 7 years
The two actors began dating in 2012, and have two sons together, Rocco and Rafa, who were born in 2016 and 2017 respectively.
While the two aren't married, Byrne has been known to call Cannavale her husband from time to time. "He's practically my husband, so calling him that is easier," she told ES Magazine, "The formality isn't a draw for me, but we'll do it one day."
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes: 8 years
This uber-private couple has been together since 2011, when they filmed "The Place Beyond the Pines." They have two daughters, Esmeralda and Amada.
Mendes told Women's Health that, before Gosling, she wasn't keen on becoming a mother, but that "Ryan Gosling happened. I mean, falling in love with him. Then it made sense for me to have … not kids, but his kids. It was very specific to him."
Shakira and Gerard Piqué: 8 years
Shakira and her soccer star beau met on the set of her music video for "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)"— fittingly, the anthem for the FIFA World Cup back in 2010. They first sparked relationship rumors in early 2011.
They have two songs together, Milan and Sasha, born in 2013 and 2015 respectively.
When asked by Glamour back in 2014 if they had any plans to marry, the singer explained, "We already have what's essential, you know? We have a union, a love for each other, and [babies]. I think that those aspects of our relationship are already established, and marriage is not going to change them."
Robin Roberts and Amber Laign: 14 years
The news anchor simultaneously revealed that she was gay, and had a "long-time girlfriend, Amber," in a Facebook post back in December 2013.
Laign is massage therapist, and doesn't enjoy the limelight, but Roberts occasionally speaks about their relationship publicly. "She's very, very supportive, and she's been right there beside me every step of the way," Roberts said during an appearance on "Ellen."
The two met on a blind date in 2005.
Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez: 17 years
The designers behind Proenza Schouler have been together since their college years. They teamed up during their senior year at Parsons in 2002, for their thesis, and have been together both personally and professionally ever since.
When asked by the Hollywood Reporter if they had any plans to get married, Hernandez rolled his eyes, and responded "No comment."
John Corbett and Bo Derek: 17 years
The "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" star was set up with Derek in 2002 by his agent Norby Walters. Corbett didn't have a date to an Oscars party Walters was throwing and his agent graciously helped him out.
Derek told Fox News that the two probably won't ever get married. "I don't know if we'll ever get married," she said. "We don't have children. There isn't that tradition to follow. Marriage, I don't know. It feels funny. It's not necessary for us. We're not proving our love, we're not starting a new generation together of families coming together. "
Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson: 18 years
Rudolph and Anderson have been together since 2001 and share four kids together, but have never tied the knot. She does, however, refer to the director as her husband, because she felt "ooky" about calling him her boyfriend after the birth of their first child.
Rudolph calls him "husband" because"people know what that means. It means he's the father of my child, and I live with him, and we are a couple, and we are not going anywhere," she told the New York Times.
Enrique Iglesias and Anna Kournikova: 18 years
The "I Like It" singer and tennis pro met in 2001 on the set of Iglesias' music video for "Escape." They're so notoriously private that fans didn't even know they were expecting children until they announced that they had welcomed twins in 2017.
Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham: 33 years
Winfrey first met Graham in 1986 at a charity event, and the two been together ever since. Just a year later, Graham made his first appearance on Winfrey's talk show, albeit a surprise one. He called in to see what, exactly, Winfrey had told her bestie Gayle King about him.
Though the two announced their engagement in 1992, wedding bells never followed — and according to Winfrey, that's a good thing.
"We would not have stayed together, because marriage requires a different way of being in this world. His interpretation of what it means to be a husband and what it would mean for me to be a wife would have been pretty traditional, and I would not have been able to fit into that," she told Vogue.
Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn: 36 years
While these two first met when Russell was 16 and Hawn was 21, they didn't begin dating until years later, in 1983, while they were filming the movie "Swing Shift." According to them, they started living together after their first date.
Three decades later, they're still smitten. Russell told People in 2015 that happiness is"when I have a good day with Goldie, my grandkids, and my kids."
Hawn once told Oprah that her and Russell believe that "if you leave the door open, you'll never walk out of it." She adds that closing the door could add a "sense of finality," and that many people feel that their "spirit is squelched" by the legal act of marriage.
Ricky Gervais and Jane Fallon: 37 years
Comedian Gervais, famously an atheist, and novelist Fallon, don't really see a point in marriage as an institution. "We are married for all intents and purposes, everything's shared and actually our fake marriage has lasted longer than a real one ... but there's no point in us having an actual ceremony before the eyes of God because there is no God," the comedian told The Sunday Times in 2010.
- Read more:
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- The biggest love song the year you were born
- THEN AND NOW: Here's how the longest celebrity couples evolved over the years