First-Time Celebrity Brides Over 40: Stars Like Kourtney Kardashian Who Waited for ‘Mr. Right’ to Marry

Cameron Diaz

Hollywood’s hottest bachelorette took herself off the market in 2015 when she wed Good Charlotte guitarist Benji Madden. The actress was 41 at the time. In explaining why she waited so long to get married despite a long list of handsome boyfriends, Cameron told pal Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, “I think it’s a matter of — I just hadn’t met my husband, you know? I had boyfriends before. And there’s a really, really distinct difference between husbands and boyfriends. And I have a husband who is … just my partner in life and in everything,” she said in 2017.

“Talk about two very different people, we are so different from one another, but we share the same values … we’re totally two peas in a pod. We’re both just weird enough for each other,” Cameron added. The couple announced on Jan. 3, 2020, that they welcomed their only child, daughter Raddix,

Salma Hayek

Salma stunned fans when her rep announced in 2007 that not only was she engaged to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault, the couple were expecting a child. The actress was 41 when she gave birth to their daughter, Valentina, in September of that year. However, the couple later called off their engagement. They eventually got back together and wed in Paris on Valentine’s Day in 2009. Salma was 42 at the time, and the couple remain happily married today. She had previously dated actors Josh Lucas and Edward Norton.

Rachel Weisz

The Oscar winner spent nine years with director Darren Aronofsky, and their relationship produced a son, Henry. But the pair never tied the knot. Instead, shortly after the two broke up in 2010, Rachel and her longtime friend and Dream House costar Daniel Craig began to fall hard for each other. They wed in 2011 when Rachel was 41 years old and 10 years later, are still happily married. The ultra-private couple welcomed a daughter in 2018, although her name and any details about the child have never been released.

Mariska Hargitay

Captain Olivia Benson got her man! Mariska met her husband, Peter Hermann, when he guest starred in 2002’s season 3 of her long running NBC procedural, Law and Order: SVU. The pair dated for two years before tying the knot in Santa Barbara, California, in 2004, when Mariska was 40. She gave birth to their son, August Miklos Friedrich Hermann, at the age of 42 in 2006. The couple has since adopted two children, daughter Amaya and son Andrew, within months of each other in 2011.

Amy Adams

Amy and Darren Le Gallo met in an acting class in 2001. A year later, he finally got up the nerve to ask her out. After six years of dating, Amy and Darren got engaged in 2008, but waited a long time before marrying. The couple welcomed a daughter, Aviana, in 2010, and in 2015 when Amy was 40, the pair finally wed after 13 years of coupledom, tying the knot at a close friend’s house outside of Santa Barbara, California.

Julianne Moore

The Oscar-winning actress met Bart Freundlich in 1996 when he directed her in the film The Myth of Fingerprints. Sparks flew immediately, and the pair welcomed their first child, son Caleb, on December 4, 1997. In 2002 Julianne gave birth to their second child, daughter Liv.  The couple didn’t marry until the following year, tying the knot in 2003 when Julianne was 42 years old.

Julianna Margulies

Julianna’s handsome lawyer husband Keith Lieberthal celebrated six months of dating when she took him to the premiere of her popcorn flick Snakes on a Plane in 2006. In her 2021 memoir Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life, Juliana recalled, “At dinner, I was like, ‘Wow, if he could sit through that and still see me for who I am, I would marry this guy if he asked me tomorrow.'”

The Good Wife star got her wish, as the couple wed the following year when the actress was 42. A year later they welcomed their only child, son Kieran, in 2008.

Jessica Chastain

The stunning Oscar nominee wasn’t interested in marriage when she began dating Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo in 2012. The couple eventually tied the knot in 2017 in his native Italy after five years of dating when Jessica was 40 years old.

“He knew that marriage wasn’t something I was interested in,” the Zero Dark Thirty star told The Wall Street Journal in 2018. “And then as we got to know each other, the idea of marriage shifted for me. There are some things worth celebrating — and he’s worth celebrating.”

She added, “I actually love being married. I never thought I would, but this is a spectacular human being, and I am celebrating that I get to share my life with him.”