2023 is the yr of the celeb relationship breakdown.
Hugh and Deborra-lee Jackman took steps to finish their marriage, Joe Jonas filed for divorce from Sophie Turner and, bizarrely, each Meryl Streep and Jada Pinkett Smith revealed they’d been separated from their respective husbands for years and easily by no means talked about it. And that’s simply to call a number of.
However at the least one celeb couple seems to be going robust — musician Enrique Iglesias and former tennis star Anna Kournikova, who’ve been collectively for 21 years.
How Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias met
The pair met in 2001 on the set of Iglesias’s music video for Escape, wherein Kournikova was making a cameo because the love curiosity.
On the time, Iglesias appeared on MTV’s Making The Video, telling the present: “I’ve by no means met her earlier than, however I’m an enormous fan.
“I’m positive lots of guys need to meet her. I’m certainly one of them. She’s stunning, gifted, nice tennis participant, you already know, and I’m positive she’s going to be nice within the video.”
By the top of the enduring early ‘00s video, the soon-to-be couple had locked lips in a membership lavatory, a automobile and a live performance corridor — all interspersed with some critically of-the-era particular results.
Earlier this week, Iglesias confirmed the connection, which they’ve stored famously personal, was nonetheless going robust.
“[The video changed my life] in ways in which I didn’t even take into consideration,” he instructed Folks.
“After we met — though she got here from the sports activities world — in a means, we sort of bought one another.
“She knew what my world was like. I sort of knew what her world was like. In order that understanding helped loads.
“We simply began connecting little by little and bought stronger and stronger and stronger.”
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias engagement rumours
The couple went public the yr after they met, in 2002, after they appeared on the MTV Video Music Awards hand-in-hand.
On the time, Iglesias was a pop sensation and Kournikova, a tennis star. She had received a slew of competitions within the late 90s, principally in doubles competitions, however would retire in 2003 because of accidents.
Engagement rumours adopted in 2003, after Kournikova appeared at an exhibition tennis match carrying an enormous pink diamond ring. It was even rumoured the couple had wed at a secret ceremony in Mexico.
However the whispers had been rapidly dispelled by representatives of the duo, who stated they had been neither engaged nor married.
Iglesias bantered in regards to the rumoured wedding ceremony in an interview a number of years later, but it surely appears the joke didn’t land.
Talking with Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in 2007, he bizarrely stated he and Kournikova had not solely secretly been married, however had now additionally gotten a divorce.
“I’m single now, however that‘s OK. I don’t thoughts being alone,” he stated, devastating followers.
His workforce rapidly put out a press release to substantiate that Iglesias’s feedback had been, actually, “only a joke”.
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias don’t have any marriage plans
Jokes apart, each Kournikova and Iglesias have in later years revealed their plans to make a life collectively with out marriage.
Talking with reporters, Iglesias stated: “I all the time strive [to propose] however she pays me no consideration.”
Kournikova, in the meantime, instructed Peopletheir determination wasn’t private.
“I’m by no means getting married,” she stated. “Every thing is nice.”
Iglesias reiterated the place in 2012, telling Parade: “I’ve by no means actually thought [it] would make a distinction.
“Possibly it’s as a result of I come from divorced mother and father, however I don’t suppose you’re keen on somebody extra due to a bit of paper.
“These days, it’s not taboo to have youngsters and never be married. What makes a distinction is that you simply’re a superb mother or father, interval.”
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias youngsters
Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias principally preserve their three youngsters out of the highlight.
The couple welcomed twins, Nicholas and Lucy, in 2017, adopted by a 3rd youngster, Mary, in 2020.
Iglesias spoke with Folks about life as a mother or father.
“You’ve gotten your good occasions, your unhealthy occasions, and if you may get by means of the unhealthy occasions, you’ll get to the actually good occasions,” he stated.
“Lots of people say, ‘Oh, nicely, I do know that is the individual I’m going to spend the remainder of my life with.’ I do sort of agree with that, however on the similar time, you actually by no means know the place life goes to take you and what can occur.”
And, in a full-circle second, he revealed the youngsters had already watched the steamy ‘00s music video that threw their mother and father’ relationship into the highlight.
“I believe my youngsters have already seen — nicely, no, I do know my youngsters have already seen that video,” Iglesias instructed The Jess Cagle Present in 2021.
“They usually’re placing two and two collectively. Like, ‘Oh, actually?’
“Each time they hear certainly one of my songs they will truly recognise my voice, which is fairly cool.
“However after they watch that video, I believe it does throw them off just a little bit. ‘What’s Mother doing there? With Dad? When was this?’”
“It’s truly unimaginable to observe the expression on their faces. It’s fairly cool.”
