I've always found the word "cute" to be somewhat patronizing. "Cute" is a word to describe babies and puppies, not adults. However, there are certain adults who really do deserve to be described as "cute": celebrity couples who I really like. The cutest celebrity couples have a je ne sais quoi that endears the public to them — unlike this year's Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr. and fiancée Lauren Burnham. (I'm sorry, I don't know if I'll ever be able to stop sending this shade.)
So how exactly does one quantify what makes a pair the "cutest"? What is that X-factor that makes us all go "aww!"? It could be how genuine a couple's love seems in public. Important: I would not measure this by the amount of egregious PDA, but by the amount of joy certain couples seem to have on the red carpet. Or maybe the cutest couples are the couples with the sweetest love stories? Or maybe being "cute" is as subjective as falling in love with someone is?
For the sake of this article, I'm going to take celebrities' social media presences at face value, while acknowledging that we all put enhanced versions of ourselves on the internet. (Even celebrities — they're just like us!) Full disclosure: I thought Anna Faris and Chris Pratt would be together forever, so take my interpretations with a grain of salt. And with that, here are the nine cutest couples of 2018:
The OG cute couple. John Legend and Chrissy Teigen seem genuinely in love — there's no way this is some watered-down, publicist-approved celebrity pairing. As for their love story: they started falling for each other via text, according to Harper's Bazaar. Legend said he "started to fall in love with her over the phone because she is good with those 140 characters," which feels very post-aughts to me. Plus, I'm obsessed with Chrissy's ability to troll trolls on Twitter (earning her a block by the president himself). Basically, they are goals.
Miley and Liam have been on-and-off since 2009, but they always get back together, which makes me feel like they really adore each other. They initially broke off their engagement only to realize that they, in fact, were meant to be — this feels like something regular plebes like us might do, and thus, makes them an even more endearing couple to me. On social media, I appreciate how vocal Miley is about issues that matter to her, like LGBTQ+ rights and treatment of animals. Plus, they're both really, really, ridiculously good looking, so there's that.
Ryan Reynolds has one of the most hilarious Twitter presences around, and he makes it very clear that loves his wife. Meanwhile, Blake Lively is a beautiful unicorn who loves to joke right back with her husband, making them a great match. This is the kind of couple I wish would adopt me. (Please?)
This couple snags a spot on the list mostly in part to their unbelievable love story. Samira Wiley of Orange Is The New Black fame met her now wife, Lauren Morelli, while Morelli was writing on the show. At the time, Morelli was married to a man, but has said that working on OITNB helped her realize she was gay. Cheers to this fantastically happy couple!
I included Serena, so I have to include Blair as well. This super-private couple gets a spot on this list because it is too cute that Gossip Girl's Blair Waldorf and The O.C.'s Seth Cohen ended up together. Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, thank you for fulfilling my high school TV show dreams.
How satisfying is it when two people you wanted to get together on screen get together in real life? Stranger Things stars Natalia Dyer and Charlie Heaton seem extremely hip, extremely into each other, and extremely adorable. On-set romances are undeniably sweet.
If you don't follow actor and writer Jenny Mollen on Instagram, you are missing out. IMO, she is one of the most hilarious and real personas on the internet. (Her Twitter header picture is of her pumping breast milk.) Jason often graces her Insta stories, and they seem super in love. I'm weirdly a giant fangirl of this duo.
At first, Kimye seems like a less-than-obvious choice for "cutest" couple. Most glam? Yes. Most famous? Duh. But cutest? Well, sort of. First off, Kim needs someone like Kanye and Kanye needs someone like Kim — the two are huge celebrities with enormous personalities, but with two different vibes. Plus, on The Life of Pablo, it seems like Kim brings out Kanye's softer side. For a very public couple, they seem very genuinely in love and aren't afraid to gush about it. Kanye told Harper's Bazaar that his favorite part of Kim's body is "her heart." This is so sweet it makes me swoon.
The duo behind this year's hit (and Oscar nominee) The Big Sick has an incredible love story — one that is stranger than fiction, as the rare sickness Gordon was diagnosed with in tandem with the pressure Nanjiani faced from his Pakistani parents created the real life story behind the script. This couple seems perfectly genuine, exceptionally talented, and I would vote them "most likely to make you laugh and cry at the same time."
