These 40 Celebrity Couples Eloped

The Hollywood actors held a press conference to announce their nuptials after they eloped in 1939. It was Carole Lombard's second marriage and Clark Gable's third. They were happily married until the actress's tragic death in a plane crash in 1942.

Rita Hayworth look overjoyed receiving her marriage license in Santa Monica, California with Orson Welles. For her second wedding, the bride wore a simple suit and veiled hat with a fan brooch on her lapel.

The press flooded San Francisco's courthouse when news traveled that film star Marilyn Monroe and famous baseball player Joe DiMaggio were eloping in a civil ceremony. Sadly, they were married for less than a year.

Henry Fonda was introduced to Italian baroness Afdera Franchetti while he was filming War and Peace in Italy. Not long after meeting, they got married in Fonda's New York apartment. Franchetti was Henry's fourth wife.

Hollywood had a major celebrity scandal on their hands when Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher eloped in Las Vegas in 1959. The news of their affair was already in the tabloids, as Taylor was good friends with Fisher's wife, Debbie Reynolds. The couple tied the knot on the same day his divorce papers came through.

For her second marriage, Brigitte Bardot skipped the wedding gown and big church ceremony. Instead, the actress wore a pink gingham dress for her civil ceremony at city hall with French actor Jacques Charrier in Louveciennes, France.

Despite a nearly 30-year age difference, Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow wed on July 19, 1966. They got married in a small ceremony at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas and had an intimate reception at Bill Goetz's nearby estate afterward.

Brigitte Bardot and her third husband, German businessman Gunter Sachs, walk through the airport after eloping in Las Vegas in 1966 a few weeks after they met. They were married for three years.

Friends of the newly-married couple throw rice at actress Jane Fonda and French director Roger Vadim, as they exit town hall in Saint-Ouen Marchefroy, France. The couple got married by a judge in a civil ceremony.

Raquel Welch wore a white croquet sun dress to the courthouse in Paris to marry American film producer Patrick Curtis. The elopement was flooded with photographers who spotted the couple, ruining any chance of keeping it a secret.

While their first wedding in 1957 was beautiful, the union ended in divorce. Both parties moved on, with Wood marrying and having a child with Richard Gregson. But in 1972, Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner rekindled their relationship and remarried in a small ceremony on a 55-foot yacht.

Melanie Griffith met Don Johnson when she was only 14 years old, but it wasn't until she turned 18 that Don proposed. "Melanie called at about 4 or 5 in the morning. We professed undying love and flew to Las Vegas and got married," Don told PEOPLE. They divorced that same year, but remarried in 1989 and were together until 1996.

Although their relationship was highly publicized, their elopement when they married for a second time was a low-key affair. The couple said "I do" (again) in an outdoor ceremony in Botswana with just an official and a witness joining them.

After just three months of dating, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis called a reverend from Las Vegas's Little White Chapel and said "I do" in a suite at the Golden Nugget hotel. The couple had three daughters together, but split in 2000.

The actors started out as an on-screen couple on All My Children, which also blossomed off-screen. Their TV characters got married in an elaborate church ceremony, but Mark Consuelos and Kelly Ripa eloped in Las Vegas. "Right before we got married, we broke up," Kelly revealed in a Comments by Celebs podcast. "We broke up and we got back together the day before we went off and eloped."

After a whirlwind two month relationship, Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie shocked the world by eloping in Las Vegas in 2000. The couple — who first met on the set of Pushing Tin — kept it casual, opting for blue jeans and t-shirts.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin announced that they were expecting on December 3, and news of their elopement leaked just a few days later after they obtained a marriage license from the Santa Barbara courthouse. The secret wedding didn't include any family or friends and the couple honeymooned in Mexico shortly after.

When Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott decided to say "I do," they jetted off to Fiji for their big moment. Tori and Dean, who were both married when they met and became involved, got hitched on a private island a year after meeting.