happy celeb couples

The truth behind celebrity wedding photos: Happiest (and unhappiest) brides and grooms revealed

What emotions were celebs feeling on their big days?

Deputy Lifestyle Editor
March 23, 2022

Your wedding day is meant to be the happiest day of your life, right? While some celebrity wedding photos have shown the likes of Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello and Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber grinning from ear to ear, others haven't shown their delight in the same way – in fact, some stars even looked fearful or angry!

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Since weddings can be stressful to organise (and some people photograph differently), this doesn't mean they weren't totally loved-up, they simply may have been caught off-guard. Magenta Flowers used AI to scan the faces of 100 celebrities on their big days and the facial expression recognition software measured seven varying levels of emotions (anger, disgust, fear, neutral, surprise, and happiness) – take a look at which couples were the happiest. 

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According to the research, nearly 74% of celebrity couples showed happiness, or surprise for grooms when they saw their bride walking down the aisle – how sweet! Among them were Jimmy Kimmel and Molly McNearney and ex-tennis player Caroline Wozniacki and husband David Lee who tied in first place with 99.8% smiles.

Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello were among the happiest couples on their wedding day

They were followed by Cindy and Rande (99.3%), Sofia and Joe (98%), George and Amal Clooney (95.4%) and Kaley Cuoco and Ryan Sweeting who came in at number 10 with 92.25%, but the latter have sadly split since then. For the grooms, David Lee and Jimmy Kimmel came up on top.

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But that doesn't mean the brides and grooms were equally as positive! 1 in 10 brides and grooms were spotted with a negative emotion on their face, with men looking the most morose (13%) and just under 9% of women showed neutral emotions.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were ranked as the fourth least happy couple

Bring it On actress Gabrielle Union and Anne Hathaway were among the happiest brides, scoring a perfect 100%, but The Devil Wears Prada star Anne's husband Adam Shulman only showed 1% happiness, marking the biggest difference in emotions of all the couples.

They weren't the only pair who showed a diverse range of emotions – Kim Kardashian expressed 70% happiness when she married Kanye West in 2014, while the rapper scored just 13.5%. 

Combined, this meant that Kanye and Kim – who filed for divorce in February 2021 – were the fourth least happy celebrity couple, alongside Chance the Rapper and Kirsten Corley who came first, and Priyanka Chopra and Joe Jonas who ranked ninth.

If nothing else, the research is a reminder to smile for wedding photos! Would the snaps of your big day reflect your happiness levels?

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