On-set romances don’t only go down between the leads! Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart, Harry Styles and more stars have been linked to the director of their respective projects over the years.
Williams, for her part, was married to singer-songwriter Phil Elverum when she started working on the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, which Thomas Kail directed.
“It’s messy behind the scenes,” an insider told Us Weekly in January 2020, noting that the filmmaker split from wife Angela Christian sometime in 2019. “[Michelle and Thomas] fell hard and fast for each other.”
The Dawson’s Creek alum and Elverum, who secretly wed in July 2018, called it quits in April 2019 after less than a year of marriage. News broke in December of the same year that Williams was pregnant and engaged to Kail. They made their red carpet debut at the Golden Globes in January 2020 and the actress gave birth to their first child together that June. They also wed in 2020. (Williams also has a daughter, Matilda, with the late Heath Ledger.)
While Williams and Kail have stayed mum on the origins of their romance, Stewart was forced to comment after she was caught cheating on then-boyfriend Robert Pattinson with her Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders, in 2012. Us Weekly published exclusive images of the actress and the director, who was married to model Liberty Ross at the time, making out.
“I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I’ve caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected,” the actress said in a statement at the time. “This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry.”
Sanders and Ross, who share two kids, subsequently split and finalized their divorce in 2014. Pattinson and Stewart also called it quits amid the scandal, but later reconciled. They split for good in May 2013.
More recently, Styles was seen holding hands with Olivia Wilde, who is directing him in the upcoming film Don’t Worry Darling. In addition to attending a wedding together in January 2021, the pair were spotted outside of the singer’s Los Angeles home that same month. News of their romance came after Wilde split from longtime love Jason Sudeikis in November 2020. The former couple, who share son Otis and daughter Daisy, got engaged in 2013 after two years of dating.
Scroll through for a list of stars who dated their director: