Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka's Serendipitous Love Story

Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka are fairly actually two peas in a pod. “We have now the identical shoe dimension, physique dimension, top and weight,” Harris instructed Out magazine in 2012, adding that they share a wardrobe. “We’re both Gemini. We both like the idea of family — not a nuclear family, but a social family.”

But just as much as they’re similar, they’re also quite opposite in how they operate. Harris explained he’s “very introspective — thinker, rather than the doer. I tend to weigh options before making decisions, and David is the polar opposite of that.”

It’s both their commonalities and differences that have made Harris (best known for his stints on TV shows Doogie Howser, M.D. and How I Met Your Mother and as a four-time Tonys host) and Burtka (a cookbook author, chef and actor) such a perfect match — and a stable Hollywood couple, who went on their first date on April Fool’s Day of 2004.

Commemorating occasion in 2021, they swapped Instagram posts, with Harris calling Burtka “my prime precedence, my fixed inspiration, my child daddy, and my finest pal,” and Burtka returning the love with, “You could have given me the life I’ve dreamed of. I’m consistently amazed at your parenting expertise, how onerous you’re employed to offer for our household, how a lot we nonetheless chortle, that we haven’t misplaced ‘it’ within the romantic division and most significantly that we’re nonetheless head over heels in love.”

However the couple, who are actually mother and father to fraternal twins, daughter Harper Grace and son Gideon Scott, would have by no means met if it weren’t for an opportunity encounter on the streets of New York Metropolis.

Burtka was in a relationship once they met

Regardless of having been billed a teen heartthrob, gracing the covers of juvenile magazines within the ’90s, Harris didn’t all the time really feel fortunate in love. “I keep in mind being in my mid-twenties, mendacity in mattress pondering, I’ve by no means taken a bathe with anybody earlier than; I’ve by no means had any sort of long-term relationship. I keep in mind pondering that the remainder of my life can be solo,” he admitted to Out. “I wasn’t weepy after I thought that — it was only a realization that I had gone this lengthy being self-sufficient.” In reality, he was extra than simply enough. Harris had been incomes ardent reward because the Grasp of Ceremony in Sam Mendes’ model of Cabaret on Broadway in 2003.

Throughout that point, he bumped into his pal Kate on the road, who occurred to be with Burtka (who was coincidentally in one other Mendes manufacturing on the time, Gypsy). Harris assumed he was Kate’s boyfriend, remembering Burtka as a “brooding, James Dean–kind man in a leather-based jacket who gave me the top nod after which turned away,” Harris mentioned. In spite of everything, Burtka was already in a long-distance relationship.

Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka on the premiere of “Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay” on the Cinerama Dome on April 17, 2008, in Los Angeles, California

Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Photos

They first frolicked at an ‘American Idol’ get together

Harris was respectful but additionally didn’t wish to surrender hope. “I didn’t wish to be that man who was creating some form of romantic interference,” he instructed Out. “So I used to be all the time round when he was round, hoping the celebs would align.”

Their first actual hangout was when Kate invited him to an American Idol viewing get together. “I simply stammered round him,” Harris remembers. “I couldn’t take my eyes off him.”

They ultimately began hanging out as associates. “I assumed he was lovable…with these superb blue eyes which can be simply hypnotizing to me,” Burtka mentioned. Ultimately he broke up together with his boyfriend and he and Harris went on their first date the next week to the flicks to see Angelina Jolie’s Taking Lives.

One important subject that got here up on that first date: youngsters. “If he hadn’t wished youngsters, I don’t suppose we’d be collectively,” Burtka added. “I all the time thought that household was a very powerful factor in life, and it doesn’t matter what I do, whether or not being a chef or an actor or a dancer, being a dad is what I do finest.”

They moved in collectively simply months after they began relationship

From that first date, the 2 began seeing extra of each other. “We began hanging out each single night time, and after three months, it was simply continuous,” Burtka remembered, with Harris including, “As soon as we began speaking, we by no means stopped.”

They quickly moved in collectively, just because it appeared handy. “We thought if we had been each going to be paying $5,000 a month to make use of another person’s sheets and towels, we would as nicely do it collectively,” Harris instructed the publication of the shifting right into a “roomy and fairly priced” place in Harlem {that a} lady had lived in for greater than 4 many years.

Heading again to L.A. to pack up, their cross-country drive to their new dwelling in New York Metropolis symbolized the merging of their lives. They began by loading up the shifting truck with the inspiration of every of their lives they’d in storage, earlier than stopping in Harris’ hometown of Albuquerque to select up some issues after which to Michigan, the place Burtka’s household is, to get his household’s piano. “We went slowly throughout America, filling up this truck, and by the point we obtained to New York, we had a brand new life stuffed with furnishings,” Harris mentioned.

They’re sincere about their ups and downs

With that new life additionally got here a brand new degree of belief between one another — which included full openness, even when it wasn’t the straightforward strategy to go. “I initially fell for David more durable than he fell for me,” Harris admitted. “I keep in mind saying, ‘I believe I really like you,’ and he was like, ‘That’s very nice,’ which isn’t essentially what you wish to hear. However I appreciated his honesty in not leaping the gun and saying one thing as a result of he felt obliged to.”

Burtka says that the primary three years had been like a “honeymoon interval” after which they ultimately settled right into a vibe. “It turns into extra snug, however it turns into a necessity — one thing you’ll be able to’t surrender, like an addict,” he mentioned.

And like every couple, they’ve their disagreements. “Our fights final 5 minutes, then we’re over it,” Burtka mentioned. “[Since] we’re each Gemini — we have now an excellent twin and a foul twin, and the 4 of us get alongside rather well!”

Neil Patrick Harris (L) and David Burtka (R) with their twins, Gideon Scott Burtka-Harris and Harper Grace Burtka-Harris, in 2017

Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Photos

Burtka proposed on the road nook they met adopted by a proposal by Harris on Valentine’s Day

In the future a number of years into their relationship, the 2 had been on their strategy to an occasion exterior of New York Metropolis in a limo, when Burtka insisted on stopping. It turned out they had been on the road nook the place they’d their first likelihood encounter. “He obtained on one knee and proposed, and I used to be so freaked out by it that I mentioned, ‘Sure,’ however I didn’t know what it meant,” Harris mentioned. “Then I obtained the ring and cherished it, and a yr later, on Valentine’s Day, I proposed to him in Santa Monica.”

On the time, homosexual marriage hadn’t been legalized in New York, however they didn’t let that maintain again their plans to begin a household. “We each agreed that if we wished to have youngsters, we didn’t wish to do it tremendous late within the recreation,” Harris mentioned. “We wished our mother and father to benefit from the course of and to be younger and vibrant sufficient to throw a ball with them, or to chase them round with out utilizing a walker.” On October 12, 2010, that dream got here true, as they welcomed Gideon and Harper via surrogate.

The pair obtained married in Italy in September 2014

Because the household continued to develop, with each mother and father sharing updates on their social media, June 2011 grew to become a historic time. “It PASSED! Marriage equality in NY!! Sure!! Progress!! Thanks everybody who labored so onerous on this!! A historic night time!” Harris tweeted. The following day, he obtained extra private, tweeting: “David and I did suggest to one another, however over 5 years in the past! We have been carrying engagement rings for ages, ready for an obtainable date.”

Whereas elevating their youngsters undoubtedly saved their fingers full, it wasn’t till three years later, on September 6, 2014, that the couple of 10 years lastly obtained married in a small ceremony in Italy with just 45 guests, together with Kelly Ripa and Elton John, who additionally performed at the reception.

The ceremony was officiated by How I Met Your Mom director and producer Pam Fryman as the lads each wore customized Tom Ford tuxedos, People reported. Fireworks and magic had been a part of the festivities that had been held at a fort, Ripa shared on her show. She additionally revealed that each of the Butka-Harris youngsters had important roles, with Gideon — who wore a prime hat and tux — getting into the place of “orange boy” who handed out oranges as he walked down the aisle.