Love Stories: How a shared childhood experience brought Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons together

When Kristen Dunst and Jesse Plemons met, they laughed about the fact they were two child actors who both "made it out OK".

Dunst famously filmed Interview with the Vampire and Little Women at age 11, while Plemons booked his first TV commercial as a two-year-old.

The actors met in 2015 while shooting the second season of the highly popular Fargo series.

They were cast as husband and wife, and while there was no hint of romance on set, they formed a formidable bond. They have been together for more than eight years.

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During their time portraying beautician Peggy and butcher Ed, they would often stay up late running lines with each other – a shared and appreciated dedication to their work.

Dunst also said they connected over both being former child actors and how they "both made it out OK".

"As actors, there was zero romance," the actress, 42, told The Sydney Morning Herald this month. 

"We creatively fell in love first, I think. So there's a respect there and a mutual admiration of space and creativity and what the other one needs.

"I always have him read a script. He always has me read his scripts. He's one of my favourite actors."

For Plemons, he felt a connection with Dunst that ran deep, telling The Times in 2000 that he "knew that she would be in my life for a long time".

It was a feeling Dunst shared.

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In a April 2024 interview with Texas Monthly, the Bring It On star shared there was an instant kinship between the pair.

"Immediately I felt safe, and he did too. And free," she said.

After the pair wrapped work on Fargo, they remained in touch. In May 2016 they were snapped sharing a kiss, sparking romance rumours.

Despite the PDA between the then newly single A-lister Hollywood darling and the Friday Night Lights star, both kept quiet on their personal lives.

Though, Plemons happily gushed about The Virgin Suicides star.

"It was a gift," he said in a 2015 interview about working with Dunst.

"I loved Kirsten's work for a long time, and I was really excited once I'd met her, and she's a great person, and we're both actors that just … have fun with the material."

By January 2017, the notoriously private couple against sparked rumours of a different kind – that they were engaged, with Dunst sporting a large diamond on her ring finger.

Dunst confirmed the happy news in June that year, telling US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel the Breaking Bad actor proposed "last December".

In an interview with Marie Clare UK in May 2017, she said, "I'm at a stage in my life where I'm like, 'I've been working since I was three. It's time to have babies and chill.' You know what I mean?"

In December 2017, Dunst debuted her baby bump during an advertising campaign for American fashion brand Rodarte.

The loved-up couple welcomed their first child together, a son, named Ellis, in May 2018.

They proved Hollywood love-stories can last, when in 2019, Plemons took the podium at his wife's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony.

"Aside from the brilliant actor you are, I have also had the even greater pleasure of getting to know you as a person outside of work — KiKi or Keeks," he said.

"Seeing the kind of mother and wife, daughter, sister, friend and cohort you are is why I and all of your friends and everyone else are here today and why we all love you."

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Dunst and Plemons returned to the set together in 2021, both starring in Power of the Dog. They scored their first Oscar nomination for their roles in the Jane Campion film.

That same year, Dunst fell pregnant with the couple's second child.

They welcomed their second son, James, in May 2021.

At this point, the couple had been together for six years and shared two children, yet, they were yet to marry.

"We have to get married at this point. It's ridiculous, we just haven't planned a wedding," Dunst told the Los Angeles Times in a 2022 interview.

The couple might have tied the knot earlier, then COVID took hold.

"I didn't want to be pregnant, get married, have a party and not be able to have fun with everybody," she added.

They finally say 'I do' in July 2022, at a ceremony in Jamaica at the luxury GoldenEye resort in Ocho Rios.

Plemons shared a rare insight into the couple's marriage in a 2023 interview.

"It's funny. I wasn't sure how different [marriage] was gonna feel because we've been together for a while and, two kids later, it's pretty solid, you know?" he told Entertainment Tonight.

"But there was something really nice about [a wedding] and actually setting aside time to celebrate it, and it does feel different, in a good way."

The couple are set to appear next together in the 2024 film Civil War.

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