5 Celebrity Couples Who Lived Apart While Happily Married (and Why One Swears by It!)

These famous couples are happily married living under separate roofs

Married life doesn't look the same for everyone.

While most married couples are expected to live together in the same house, many have embraced "living apart together" or LAT relationships.

According to social psychologist Dr. Samantha Joel, there are "some meaningful benefits to living separately" for long-term, committed couples, such as experiencing more passion and excitement and increasing satisfaction through self-expanding activities that reduce boredom in a relationship.

Kourtney Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow are among the few stars who have enjoyed this untraditional relationship. Read on to discover more happily married celebrity couples who have thrived while living apart.

Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian

During a 2022 interview with Amanda Hirsch on the Not Skinny but Not Fat podcast, Kardashian opened up about life with her Blink-182 drummer husband, Travis Barker, and how they had planned to combine their households — eventually.

"We're in the place where we're figuring out how to blend our households and our kids and what life looks like now," the reality star said. "For the most part, we're getting those things in place. We do family dinner every Sunday night with all the kids at his house."

The couple — who welcomed their first child together, son Rocky Thirteen Barker, in 2023 — still has their own separate houses.

When asked if a shared home was in their future, Kardashian said, "There will be. We want our kids to feel really comfortable. They have both lived in their homes their whole lives, for the most part … They each have their rooms. We are a block away."

On a June 2024 episode of Hulu's The Kardashians, the businesswoman revealed her plans to move into Barker's home following Rocky's birth.

"It feels like we kind of figured out a plan for now," Kourtney shared on the episode. "We're going to move into his house, which is a block away, and then redo my house at the same time so that we can all be together — living together under one roof with the baby."

Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk

It took one year of marriage before the Politician actress moved in with her husband, Brad Falchuk, but she had her reasons.

According to The Sunday Times, Falchuk spends three nights a week at his own house and four nights at Paltrow's Los Angeles home, an arrangement that her intimacy teacher, Michaela Boehm, approved as a means of keeping the relationship fresh.

"Oh, all my married friends say that the way we live sounds ideal, and we shouldn't change a thing," Paltrow told the British newspaper in 2019.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that same year, the Goop founder told host Jimmy Kimmel that their kids played a role in the decision.

"I think, really, because we each have two teenage children whom we love very much, but we were just trying to be mindful and give them a little space and not move too quickly," she said.

Nico Tortorella and Bethany Meyers

Nico Tortorella and Bethany Meyers got married in 2018, but tying the knot didn't mean they had to move in together immediately.

The Mattachine Family star told PEOPLE in 2019 that while they had bought a home in upstate New York, they were taking their time moving in together.

"We still don't live together," Tortorella said. "We see each other on a weekly basis. We're FaceTiming all day, every day."

In 2024, the couple — who welcomed their first child, daughter Kilmer Dove, in 2023 — announced they'd moved to Florida together after learning they were pregnant with their second baby.

"When we found out we were pregnant, it hit us that Kilmer didn't want to move to Florida just for her; she wanted to go get her baby sibling," the fitness and lifestyle entrepreneur wrote on Instagram. "And our second baby was willing us here as well. And it just served as the most beautiful reminder to trust your gut. To lean into the unknown. To know that sometimes you have tear up what it looks like on paper and do the thing that feels right. The end always leads to the beginning."

Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy

Claire Danes and actor-husband Hugh Dancy had to take their marriage long-distance while she filmed Homeland in North Carolina, and he worked on other projects in New York.

"In the formative stages of our courtship, our relationship, our schedules were amazingly compatible," Danes said in a 2012 TV interview, per News Corp Australia. "Lately, we've not been so lucky … We talk a lot, we text a lot, we send each other photos of our toes — dumb stuff."

When Dancy joined the Homeland cast for its sixth season, they were reunited in 2016 and began living together in New York.

"I can't quite believe my luck," the Emmy-winning actress told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour at the time. "Miracles of miracles, we're both filming in our actual place of residence. I think I'm really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed … It's been a long, long time."

Ashley Graham and Justin Ervin

Ashley Graham and Justin Ervin are now happily cohabitating with their three sons; however, for much of their relationship — the two started dating after meeting at a church in 2009 — they lived apart.

In 2016, the model told Entertainment Tonight she lived in New York while her filmmaker hubby resided in Los Angeles.

Graham said of their long-distance love: "We have a rule: We don't go longer than two weeks without seeing each other. It's absolutely fabulous. I love it. We just meet in L.A. or New York. We meet in Paris, Miami. It's pretty sexy."