Some celebrity friendship pairings just make sense: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon or Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez. We know how these duos met, we’ve watched their friendship blossom, and we often don’t think of one without the other.
Then there are celebrity friends so unexpected and surprising that their relationship leaves us scratching our heads. That’s what brings us here, folks, where we’re getting to the origin stories of friendships like Ashley Olsen and Jonah Hill, Kris Jenner and Jennifer Lawrence, and many more.
Whether it’s an unlikely high-profile match-up like Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart or a pair we never see together like Adam Levine and Jonah Hill, some celebrity friendships are just hard to explain, so we’re doing that work for you.
Here are the most surprising celebrity friendships!
More from SheKnows
Best of SheKnows
Sign up for SheKnows’ Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Courtney Cox & Ed Sheeran
Courtney Cox & Ed Sheeran
Friends star Courteney Cox became friends with Ed Sheeran when he introduced her to Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid at a party in 2013. In a Sept. 2023 Instagram video, Cox shared a throwback picture of her and Sheeran, writing, “10 years ago, this guy introduced me to…” followed by a picture of McDaid and Sheeran, which said, “this guy.”
Sheeran even sang them a personalized version of his hit song, “Shape of You,” with the words, “Although your heart is fallin’ too / Johnny’s in love with your body / And last night you were in his room / And now his bed sheets smell like you / Every day, discoverin’ somethin’ brand new / Johnny’s beard is the shape of you.”
In May 2021, Cox even recreated “The Routine” dance with Sheeran in an Instagram video. That’s true friendship!
Pitbull & John Travolta
Pitbull & John Travolta
Pitbull makes music and John Travolta loves to dance — what more could you want from a friendship? These two go back years. The Grease star appeared at Pitbull’s hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in Dec. 2018, where he gave a beautiful speech to his friend.
“I’m here because I have the privilege to help celebrate and welcome my amazing friend to that rareified group of artists that have the opportunity to make history to do this,” Travolta said, per Metro. “Armando Christian Perez, also known as Pitbull, is one of the greatest entertainers of all time, and one of the most impactful humanitarians in the world.”
Travolta added, “I once told Armando that I wanted to be friends with him for the rest of my life and forever. Little did I know that we would be immortalized together at the Chinese theatre. Congratulations chico.”
In May 2023, Pitbull admitted that he helped convince Travolta to shave his head bald. In a May 2023 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Pitbull revealed, per PEOPLE, “I didn’t get him to shave his head but he did ask me if he could shave his head, and I said, ‘Why not? Absolutely.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Pitbull said, “I love to sit with him and just have conversations [about] everything he’s been through in life. It’s amazing advice. [It’s] powerful and priceless to be able to hang out and shoot the s— with Travolta.”
Travolta has even joined Pitbull on stage and danced with him in his “3 to Tango” music video.
Kylie Jenner & Rosalía
Kylie Jenner & Rosalía
In a May 2024 interview on TikTok, per Hello!, Rosalía detailed how she met Kylie Jenner.
“Kylie and I met because I knew her sister, Kendall” Rosalía said. “We started hanging out in Los Angeles and that was it.” These hangouts taught her a lot about her new friend, who she says is not superficial. “No, she’s very smart. She has a great sense of humor, she’s smart, she has her sensibilities. She’s special,” Rosaloia said.
Throughout the years, they’ve gone to Paris Fashion Week together, appeared on each other’s social media pages, and even attended birthday parties for each other.
Kris Jenner & Jennifer Lawrence
Kris Jenner & Jennifer Lawrence
The Kardashian-Jenner family matriarch and the Hunger Games star have had a sweet friendship for years. In a 2017 interview on Steve on Watch, Jenner detailed the story of how they met. “She was a big Keeping Up With the Kardashians fan,” Jenner said, per E! News. “And somebody from her team called me up and said, ‘Would you surprise Jennifer on her birthday and give her a birthday cake, like you’ll be the surprise.’ When I walked out with this cake, she was so excited… and we’ve had this little texting friendship from then on.”
Two years later, Lawrence even appeared on an episode of the series. When Jenner’s daughter Khloé Kardashian called her mom, Lawrence answered on FaceTime. “I am the new Kris,” she said in the episode, per Refinery29. “I love you all so much and you make me proud everyday. You’re doing amazing, sweetie!”
In a May 2022 interview with Access Hollywood, Jenner praised Lawrence. “She’s beautiful. She’s such a good friend and I’m so proud of her,” Jenner told Access Hollywood, per Us Weekly. “I really am. She’s like one of my kids. I’m so blessed to have her in my life, and she’s so happy [right now].”
Tommy Lee Jones & Al Gore
Tommy Lee Jones & Al Gore
Talk about an unexpected pair! Former vice president Al Gore and actor Tommy Lee Jones were once college roommates. Back in Aug. 2000, Jones gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention to nominate Gore for presidency.
“Al Gore has been one of my closest friends since the day we met, on the first day of college, 35 years ago. … He is a good, caring, loving man,” he said, per ABC News.
He went on to talk about their time in college together. “We shot pool and watched Star Trek, when maybe we should have been studying for exams. He’d challenge me to shooting contests,” Jones said. “We’d see who could hit a tin can from the farthest away. And it was usually Al.”
He also recalled a time he visited Gore at his home in Tennessee. “We did the complicated things you’d expect college students to do — catching a loose cow, going canoeing and hunting, and chasing through the woods with coon dogs in the middle of the night,” Jones said.
Alexander Skarsgård & Jack McBrayer
Alexander Skarsgård & Jack McBrayer
These BFFS have been warming our hearts (and making us laugh on the red carpet) for years.
“We met in New York, but we became neighbors in Los Angeles,” McBrayer told Associated Press in a Feb. 2019 interview. He added that they “always went to the same fancy, black-tie parties” when McBrayer was on 30 Rock and Skarsgård was on True Blood.
“’Like, hello, we’re very famous people,’” McBrayer joked, adding, “And we just hit it off. He is the sweetest guy in the world.”
McBrayer told the reporter to ask Skarsgård about his telescope, which Skarsgård explained in his interview. “He had a telescope fixed on my house, it was on the other side of a canyon. So I had to move to New York,” Skarsgård said with a laugh. He added, “I didn’t have a TV when I moved in and after a couple of months I got one and I turned it on and I get a phone call it’s like, ‘You got a television!’ So he’s been, yeah, a lot of time looking into that telescope.”
Ashley Olsen & Jonah Hill
Ashley Olsen & Jonah Hill
Apparently Jonah Hill has been friends with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for several years — since they were all teenagers together in Los Angeles. Who knew?
Ashley and Hill met up in New York City in April 2018, per Vanity Fair.
In November of the same year, both Mary-Kate and Ashley attended the WSJ Magazine’s Innovator Awards at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2018, where they supported Hill, who was honored with the Film Award. According to PEOPLE, the twins sat at Hill’s table and he thanked them in his acceptance speech.
They may both be private, but it seems like their friendship is important.
Michelle Williams & Busy Philipps
Michelle Williams & Busy Philipps
When Michelle Williams and Busy Philipps met on Dawson’s Creek, they hit it off — and have been best friends ever since. To give you an idea, it’s been two decades since they met!
“We just know each other and get each other in such a deep, fundamental way at this point,” Philipps told Page Six in March 2025. She shared that the duo had “been there through so many different moments in each other’s lives” that helped bond them.
“When you have a friend like that, you’re blessed. That’s all you can really ever hope for in this life,” she added.
Philipps also credits Williams for giving her great parenting advice. “The best piece of parenting advice I ever received was actually from my best friend, Michelle Williams, that when you have to have a really uncomfortable conversation with your kids, do it in the car,” she told SheKnows in June 2025.
“Because they’re trapped and you’re trapped, and you can also just focus on the road, and they don’t have to look at you if they’re embarrassed.”
Williams has previously praised Philipps in the press as well. In Dec. 2016, she told PEOPLE that Philipps is her “best friend,” adding, “I’m so in love with her. She’s proof that the love of your life does not have to be a man! That’s the love of my life right there.”
Excuse us while we wipe away our tears.
Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey
Jenna Fischer & Angela Kinsey
By no means were Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey’s characters on the award-winning NBC hit The Office best friends. But in real life? They’ve been soup snakes soul mates, both behind the scenes and ever since the show wrapped in 2013.
The two host the Office Ladies podcast, which doesn’t feel like work according to Kinsey. “It has just been such a joy for Jenna and I to do this,” she told Forbes in Dec. 2020. “We’ve been best friends for so long and we had this amazing journey together that was The Office. … To me, it doesn’t feel like work. Obviously, a podcast is a ton of work but the fact that I get to talk to my best friend and we get to talk about an amazing chapter in our lives. I have to quote Michael Scott, it’s like a win, win, win. It’s just the best.”
She added that they stay in touch via constantly communicating. “We have for years now, I mean years, we leave each other voice memo messages. We kind of journal out loud to each other when we’re traveling or get busy with work, life, kids. We always stay connected. We talk every single day, whether it’s on the phone or in these voice memos.”
And when Fischer was diagnosed with breast cancer, Kinsey was by her side. In an Oct. 2024 interview with TODAY, Fischer revealed her friend’s supportive words. “Right away she said, ‘Whatever you need, you tell me. I’m here,’” she said. “And I said, ‘I want to keep working and I don’t want anyone to know at work. At work, I want that to be a space where we go and we laugh and I’m not a cancer patient. I need that.’”
Fisher eventually lost her hair do to chemotherapy treatments and wore a hat and wig to work. “And she started wearing hats to work so I wouldn’t be the only person in a work meeting wearing a hat,” Fischer said of Kinsey. Talk about a best friend!
Tiffany Haddish & Barbra Streisand
Tiffany Haddish & Barbra Streisand
This is an unlikely and, yet, wholly delightful friendship development: Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish met icon Barbra Streisand in Nov. 2017, and Haddish didn’t hesitate to document the moment. Posting a super-cute selfie of herself and Babs, she captioned the moment with this cheeky sentiment: “Just so y’all know I taught my big sister about @CardiB today.” Oh, what we would have given to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation!
In an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in Dec. 2017, Haddish further detailed their relationship. “We found out we were both from the ‘hood, how we both ghetto chicks, except it’s different times,” she said, per The Hollywood Reporter.
In 2019, Streisand even sent Haddish a bat mitzvah gift when she turned 40. “Barbra Streisand presented a gift, this beautiful Star of David. It was the most magical, amazing experience,” Haddish told Los Angeles Magazine in June 2023.
Kate Winslet & Shailene Woodley
Kate Winslet & Shailene Woodley
These two stars bonded while on the set of Divergent. Woodley opened up about how she forged her lasting bonds of friendship with the Titanic actor and what it’s like to get the courage to talk to a woman you admire so much.
“One of the greatest gifts I’ve had in my life is to receive the sisterhood of Kate,” Woodley told Variety in Oct. 2017. “It’s easy to forget the amount of courage it takes to be someone like her, to stand up and talk to young women for as many years as she has about body image, self-confidence, being your own person and loving yourself.”
In a Sept. 2024 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Woodley credits Winslet for influencing who she is now. “We worked together. I was 21. I had all the influx of public life and being told, ‘You should look a certain way,’ or ‘You should be a certain thing,’ or ‘Don’t eat that,’ or ‘Do this,’ or ‘Dye your hair a different color,’” The Fault in Our Stars actress said, per The Hollywood Reporter. Winslet held her shoulders and shook her out of the moment.
“[She] was like, ‘No, no, that’s not who you are, this is the truth,’ and she gave me that moment,” Woodley said. “I would not be who I am today without her.”
Martha Stewart & Snoop Dogg
Martha Stewart & Snoop Dogg
This unlikely friendship was forged way back in 2008 when they made mashed potatoes together on Martha. It evolved into Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party. “I’ve never met anyone like Martha Stewart,” Snoop told Rolling Stone in 2016. “When we come together, it’s a natural combination of love, peace and harmony.”
“I hate to say it, but I think I’m a mother figure to him,” Stewart said about their relationship in an April 2022 interview with SheKnows.
“There are many millions of things that I know, that Snoop Dogg doesn’t know. But then, there is an awful lot that Snoop Dogg knows that I don’t know,” she continued. “That’s why I think we’re friends, because we both learn from each other every single time we talk. And my motto is, ‘learn something new every day.’”
Sounds like the perfect basis of friendship to us!
Jenny Slate & Mae Whitman
Jenny Slate & Mae Whitman
When Slate broke up with Chris Evans, Whitman was the first one to get an SOS text. She told Vulture in March 2017 what the message said: “I was just like, ‘Can you please help me? I’m so lonely.’ And she came and we got shitbombed, and I woke up the next morning and saw my headphones on my neighbor’s yard. I have no idea how they ended up there.”
And when she had to face her ex at the premiere of their movie Gifted, Whitman was at her side as her date. Whitman posted at the time, “So my incredibly talented beautiful intelligent friend @jennyslate is my dream date and she let me be around her to go see her new movie Gifted and if you don’t see it you’ll be sadder than you would have been if you’d seen it so… See it”
Adam Levine & Jonah Hill
Adam Levine & Jonah Hill
You’d think these two met at some pool party thrown on Leonardo DiCaprio’s yacht, but they’ve actually been friends since they were kids. They’re so close that Hill even officiated Levine’s wedding to Behati Prinsloo.
A source told E! News in July 2014 about the ceremony, “Jonah was hysterical. He was telling so many jokes, but then in the middle would be so sweet and sincere.”
The insider said that Hill mentioned how the duo knew each other for “such a long time,” calling Levine a “wonderful guy [who] has so much to give.”
“He also talked about how sweet Behati is and how perfect they are for one another,” the source continued.
Their moms dished more about their childhood friendship in a Nov. 2018 interview with PEOPLE. Hill’s mom Sharon Feldstein and Levine’s mom Patsy Noah first met in 1973. “Our kids grew up together, almost like brothers and sisters, and became people of note,” Noah told the outlet.
Penelope Cruz & Salma Hayek
Penelope Cruz & Salma Hayek
These two have been BFFs for decades. They met for the first time after Hayek picked up Cruz from the airport and wouldnt let her got o a hotel.
In a Jan. 2022 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Cruz recalled, per PEOPLE, “I was coming here [to Los Angeles] for two months and I didn’t know anyone here. And she picked me up and said, ‘You’re not going to the hotel. You’re coming to my house because this is hard at the beginning and you’re going to feel very lonely.’”
“So, she took me to her house,” Cruz recalled, adding, “That’s why now we’re like sisters.”
In Nov. 2023, Cruz told E! News that Hayek is “like a sister” to her. “It’s like we can tell each other everything. We really trust each other. I’ve known her for 30 years.”
Cruz interviewed Hayek for a May 2024 cover for Vogue Arabia, where they chatted about their bond. “We never lie to each other,’ Hayek explained. “When it came to work, we always told each other what we were doing. And we said: ‘OK, we want to get this movie, but if I’m not going to get it, I hope you do.’”
They’ve also gone through “different stages of life together,” which includes “dating, trying to have a career, dreaming together, falling in love, getting married, having children.”
“When I met François [Pinault, Hayek’s husband], you told me I sounded different when I talked about him,” Hayek said. “And the same with Javier [Bardem, Cruz’s husband]. I don’t know if I could call you anything other than family.”
Reese Witherspoon & Sofía Vergara
Reese Witherspoon & Sofía Vergara
Witherspoon praised her Hot Pursuit co-star Vergara in a May 2015 cover interview for InStyle. “As soon as I met Sofia, I said, ‘I want to make a movie with you,’” she recalled in the interview, per Daily Mail. “I think she’s the next Lucille Ball.”
“We represent two completely different cultures and kinds of women, but we just love each other,” Witherspoon continued. “We laughed so much. I couldn’t understand what she was saying half the time. She couldn’t understand what I was saying half the time. But we both love cake, clothes, kids and our families.”
In an interview with ABC News in May 2015, Vergara revealed that Witherspoon compared their relationship to famous besties Lucy and Ethel from I Love Lucy.
“I grew up watching Lucy and Ethel but it does feel sometimes like that relationship,” Vergara said. “Reese and I were doing mischievous things together and having fun.”
Vergara praised Witherspoon, adding, “I fell in love with her since the moment I saw her. And can you imagine, you know, to be able for me, I never dreamed of working with somebody Oscar-nominated, [who] won Oscars. I mean, it was such a treat for me.”
Courteney Cox & Jennifer Aniston
Courteney Cox & Jennifer Aniston
Instant BFFs since meeting on the set of Friends in 1994, Cox and Aniston have seen each other through marriages, divorces, career ups and downs and everything in between in the decades since.
At Cox’s Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremony in Feb. 2023, Aniston praised her long-time friend. “To be friends with Courteney is to be family with Courteney,” Aniston said, per PEOPLE. “She is responsible for all of that. From the beginning of when we met her, she was immediately inclusive, warm, loving, interested in everything about you.”
On her birthday in June 2024, Aniston shared a series of throwback photos and a sweet tribute to her friend. “Celebrating this powerful, magical, mystical, interesting, interested, ferociously talented girl today!!!” she wrote on Instagram. “My sweet CC @courteneycoxofficial… she’s funny like no other, STUNNING on the inside and out. … I can’t imagine a world without her. It’s one of my great honors to call her one of my best friends for life.”
In Feb. 2025, Cox wrote a sweet post for Aniston’s birthday. “Happy birthday to my friend for life,” she wrote on Instagram. “Never has there been a more generous, loving, beautiful, talented, funny, loyal friend. I feel so lucky to be growing up with you.”
Everything about their long-term friendship warms our hearts!
Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake
Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake
These two met in 2002 at the VMAs. Jimmy Fallon was hosting the show, and Justin Timberlake was about to perform solo for the very first time since splitting from *NSYNC.
“We’re super friends! I remember talking backstage during those VMAs,” Fallon told GQ in a 2011 joint interview with Timberlake, per E! News. “I was totally nervous and you were nervous and we both ended up having good nights. We’re good luck to each other — like each other’s rabbit foots.”
They went on to make “History of Rap” videos, collaborate on songs together, perform together, go on Saturday Night Live together, and so much more.
Katy Perry & Niall Horan
Katy Perry & Niall Horan
This unlikely duo have been friends since 2010, when Perry was a judge on X-Factor. She made the deciding vote that allowed him to continue to the next round, and the rest was history.
During the 2012 MTV Music Video Awards, they shared an on-stage smooth. The former One Direction member later said, “I don’t think there will ever be anything cooler than kissing her… until I marry her, maybe,” per E! News.
In June 2017, the “Teenage Dream” singer opened up about her relationship with Horan in an Australian morning radio show, per Entertainment Tonight. “I see [Niall] around all the time. He’s always trying to like, get my number, to like, maybe flirt with me but I’m like, ‘I could babysit you. I’m like your mom!’”
All jokes aside, she adores him. “Niall’s amazing, I love him, and I think we feel very connected in a way because I, like, helped him get through The X Factor to join his group,” she continued. “He’s become a big star and I’m like, ‘Cool, I guess that means I have taste?’ I don’t know what that means.”
Horan praised Perry in a Feb. 2023 interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden, where he recalled first meeting her on X-Factor. “The whole time I’m walking onto the stage, and I’m just thinking like, ‘That’s Katy Perry. That’s Simon Cowell,’” he said, per PEOPLE. “The whole thing, it looked like a postcard. It didn’t feel like it was real because I watched the show for so long on TV.”
“And Katy was at [her] peak, if we’re talking like Teenage Dream, five No. 1s that year. It was 2010 or 2009, whatever it was. So I was just blown away by that firstly.”
Then Perry gave him that deciding “yes” vote. Horan gushed, “She saves me. And it was just mind-boggling. Little did I know what was to come afterwards. But if it wasn’t for Katy… When we see each other still we have an embrace of thanks.” So sweet!
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
