10 Things You Didn’t Know About Lady Gaga And Taylor Kinney’s Relationship
Published on September 28, 2016. Updated March 20, 2018Stefani Germanotta, professionally known as Lady Gaga, began dating Chicago Fire star Taylor Kinney in July 2011. The sensational pop singer and actor were one of the most unexpected couples to hit the red carpet together in 2011, but fans quickly learned they were the perfect match. Never shy from showing a little PDA, Gaga and Kinney dated for five years, and were even planning on exchanging vows after getting engaged in 2015! These two were totally adorable together and could never stop gushing about one another in interviews or on social media — they were picture perfect, literally! Sadly, things came full circle for them when in July 2016, Gaga announced they were splitting due to conflicting work schedules. Not surprisingly, Gaga and Kinney were very private about their relationship while it lasted, especially in the beginning. We hope these two reconcile soon, but in the mean time, here’s a look at 10 things you probably didn’t know about Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney’s relationship:
10. When They First Met
Taylor Kinney has said that Lady Gaga was not exactly smitten with him when they first met — in fact, she slapped him! The Chicago P.D. star met the singer one the set of her music video “You an I” in 2011. During an interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Kinney gave details about the first time he met his future fiancee. “I show up and they’re like, ‘Oh this is the idea. This is the idea.’ and I go, ‘OK, just let me do my thing.’ And I remember I went up, and we’re rolling, and I kissed her and she didn’t expect it. They cut, and she slapped me.” Not exactly love at first sight! Despite their first meeting being a tad awkward, they definitely had chemistry and kept in touch after the video was done. “The next take, I just did it again and then she didn’t slap me. She didn’t slap me then. We had a good time. I think there was chemistry. It was a late shoot. We were shooting until four or five in the morning. We exchanged information. A few weeks went by and we kept in touch and then that’s that,” he said.
9. Long Distance Relationship
Back in 2013, while being interviewed on the Howard Stern radio show, the typically private singer gushed about her relationship with Kinney and talked about how they make their long distance relationship work. “We don’t have any rules about calling each other at certain times…We’ll go days at a time without talking and then we’ll talk every day. The way that it really works is that we trust each other. He’s on his journey and I’m on mine and we’re gypsies. And then when we’re together, we’re really in love and that’s it,” she said. “For me, the connection that I feel is so strong that it’s so much stronger than physical. We’re both very protective of our love as well. We treat each other with a lot of care and we’re good to one another.” It’s definitely been a struggle for these two as they are both at the peak of their careers — Gaga is doing world tours to promote her music while Taylor is one of the leading actors on Chicago Fire and appears in spin offs like Chicago Fire P.D. and Chicago Med.
8. The Proposal
Taylor proposed to Lady Gaga on Valentine’s Day 2015 at her family’s Manhattan restaurant Joane’s Trattoria with a heart shaped Lorraine Schwartz diamond ring. While talking to ET, Gaga gushed about the proposal and revealed he pulled a proposal prank at first. “It was actually funny, he first gave me a Ring Pop — a candy Ring Pop — and I was crying so hard, and I said yes right away, and then he pulled out the heart-shaped diamond and I said ‘Oh, God!'” Taylor popped the question in February 2015, but they never made any movements toward planning an actual wedding because their schedules were so busy. “We’re so busy. We’ve been engaged for less than a year. So, we’ve been talking about whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, destination place so we don’t have an exact date yet,” Kinney said. Despite not giving the date any thought, they did consider what kind of ceremony they would like. They wanted to keep it a surprise and Gaga told Ryan Seacrest it would definitely be so low key it wouldn’t even be worth writing about. She also stated she was planning on taking his last name.
7. Addiction
Apparently Gaga and Kinney have been through thick and thin battling not only long distance, but also Gaga’s addiction to drugs. Gaga has been open about the fact that she self medicates in order to cope with her anxiety. Some of it had to do with the fact that she injured her hip during her Born This Way tour, but it also made her extremely depressed. “To be fair, he has stuck it out with me for a very long time through drug habits and all those sorts of things. So he’s a really lovely, amazing person. And he also doesn’t care about me being famous. I’m not famous to him, I’m his baby.” Earlier in the interview Gaga had revealed that she battled an addiction to marijuana. “It seems that young people think you can’t be addicted to it, but you can. I couldn’t live without it. I would wake up at five in the morning, smoke and go back to sleep. I was smoking like 15 to 20 joints a day.”
6. Bedroom Antics
Lady Gaga has been open about her bisexuality and even stated that she’s open to having a threesome with Taylor Kinney! Of course, it would be up to him but back in 2013 she was definitely open to the idea and even said, “That sounds fun!” Gaga was open about the idea, but she wouldn’t reveal if it had already happened…but we doubt it. “I don’t want to kiss and tell too much. I’m a little bit more of a lady than that. Here’s the thing. I’m not the type of person that’s having sex all the time with lots of random people. I don’t do that. I’m in a monogamous relationship, we’re having a good time we’ve been together awhile…If it were to come up, it comes up.” When it comes to Kinney, he’s admittedly a little more reserved than her in the bedroom. “I’m reserved. She’s not. For whatever reason, it works. It works and that’s that,” he said.
Broadimage/REX5. Mutually Weird
A lot of people were taken aback when these two started dating because they seemed like two people on opposite sides of the spectrum. He was conservative and reserved while she’s not afraid of being a little weird. But apparently it takes weird to know weird! While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Gaga said some people might be surprised to learn that Kinney is a little weird himself. “He’s a hidden weirdo. He is extremely strange, actually, and we complement each other’s weirdness. That’s actually one of the first things he ever said to me. It’s a Dr. Seuss quote, that you find in someone else a ‘compatible weirdness’,” she said. Also, when we think about it, Taylor met her while working on the set of a music video that was well outside the ordinary. “I looked ridiculously crazy…I mean why he found me attractive just completely moves me. We were in the middle of this scene and I remember he kissed me and he wasn’t scripted to kiss me and I was sort of like, ‘Uh, was that real or was that fake?’ And he just really didn’t say anything. And that was fine by me,” she said.
4. Break Up
In July 2016, Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney broke up after five years together. A day after their split went public, Gaga took to her Instagram to share her thoughts on what happened and give some insight into why they were splitting. She made sure to make it clear they were not breaking up, but rather taking a break from doing a long distance relationship and managing their conflicting work schedules. “Taylor and I have always believed we are soulmates. Just like all couples we have ups and downs, and we have been taking a break. We are both ambitious artists, hoping to work through long-distance and complicated schedules to continue the simple love we have always shared. Please root us on. We’re just like everybody else and we really love each other,” she wrote. An insider at Us Weekly alluded to the fact that Kinney and Gaga decided to take a break because they were spending so much time apart, and stopped missing one another. They still care deeply about each other and talk everyday, but needed to take some time in order to get their spark back.
Taylor and I have always believed we are soulmates. Just like all couples we have ups and downs, and we have been taking a break. We are both ambitious artists, hoping to work through long-distance and complicated schedules to continue the simple love we have always shared. Please root us on. We’re just like everybody else and we really love each other. A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on
3. Perfect Illusion
Lady Gaga’s newest single, “Perfect Illusion,” was released on September 9th and it sounds a little bit like a break up anthem with some very emotional lyrics. However, Gaga has made it clear this song and its lyrics, “It wasn’t love, it was a perfect illusion,” are not a reflection of her relationship with Kinney and it is most certainly not a way for her to air out any dirty laundry. During an interview with Andy Cohen on SiriusXM, Gaga said, “I love Taylor so, so much and this song is not a hit out against Taylor. He’s my best friend. This song is just about, I’m sure, not only feelings that I’ve had but that he’s had, that my friends have had, my sister has in her relationship. It’s a record about all of us. And I would never use my song or want to use the public to hurt anyone that I love so much.” Cohen then responded that he thinks it’s great these two have managed to “uncouple” so graciously with a lot of respect for one another, but Gaga shut that term down making sure to make it clear it’s not a definitive split. “I don’t even know if I would say it that way, I don’t think we’ve UN-anything. We’re just two people figuring it out,” she said.
Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock2. They are Totally Normal
We tend to forget that celebrities are just normal people who when the camera stops rolling or they aren’t on stage their relationship looks a lot like ours. For example, Gaga talked to Ellen DeGeneres about how her and Taylor’s relationship goes past walking red carpets together and all that fame and fortune. When they are at home it’s just the two of them as best friends who are in love. “At the end of the day, he’s my best friend and having your lover be your best friend — I mean, it’s the best thing ever. We’re boys. I wear his flannels and we eat pizza and watch TV. And then I play him my next single. He likes it, and that’s our normal life,” she said. Many people have also speculated what it would be like to date such a one-of-a-kind international pop sensation like Gaga who has this incredibly strong willed stage persona. But according to Taylor, dating Gaga was totally normal! “I don’t know, because I don’t have that outside view. It’s normal, if you will, in that respect,” he said when he appeared on the Today show back in 2012. To him she’s just Stefani, a singer. He has referred to her by her birth name ever since their first date.
1. They Are Each Other’s Biggest Supporter
It’s one thing to be out in the crowd applauding and it’s a whole other thing to be shedding tears over her performance! Gaga revealed to People in an interview that Kinney cries while she sings on stage. “He’s the first man that I have dated that, when I sing onstage, he cries. That means more to me than anything.” She said he’s supportive of what she does and doesn’t care what kind of creative process she takes to get there. “[Kinney] loves me from the inside out. And he is completely blind to the way that I dress, my creative process as it is – he knows me as the Italian-American girl my mother and father gave birth to.” A perfect example of this is at the Golden Globes when Kinney was asked to be a presenter, he turned it down because he didn’t want to steal the spotlight away from his then-fiancee when she won her first Golden Globe Award.