Once upon a time, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem met on the set of the film Jamón Jamón and were low-key into each other. But, as luck would have it, they wouldn't get a chance to actually date date until *checks notes* 15 years later when they were once against costars in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Ever since that second movie though, these two have been the epitome of couple goals, with their continuous collaborative projects, iconic red carpet appearances, and *checks notes again* surprising onstage dancing at U2 concerts? Let's get into Penélope and Javier's entire relationship timeline.
Bur first! Fair warning that ya might look like this after reading up on their love story:
1992:
Penélope and Javier first meet on-set while filming the Spanish comedy-drama Jamón Jamón. And over a decade later in 2017, Javier gives GQ UK the 411 about the whole sitch and admits that though there was "obvious chemistry between [them]," nothing romantic happened because Penélope was so young. During the convo, the actor adds, "One day we're going to have to show the kids—imagine! 'Mummy, Daddy, what did you do in the movies together?' 'Well, my children, you should celebrate the movie as you're here because of it!' It was a very sexy film. It still is."
2007:
The actors reunite while filming Vicky Cristina Barcelona in the summer of 2017. "Neither of us would make the first move. I don’t know if we were shy or trying to be too professional," Javier later recalls in that same GQ interview. "Anyway, it got to the very last day of filming and nothing had happened. So I thought, ‘F*ck! We better get drunk!’ Luckily a friend of ours threw a wrap party and, well, the rest is history. Thank god!"
Just a few months later in the fall of that year, dating rumors between Penélope and Javier start swirling, with one Page Six report at the time reading, "Penélope Cruz has a new man, but she’s being very coy about the relationship. Cruz showed up at the New York Film Festival this weekend with Javier Bardem, and the two were 'very touchy-feely' our spy said. 'They held hands when they thought no one was watching, and she kissed his cheek, and he put his arm around her.'"
By October 2007, the two are loved up in the Maldives having the time of their lives and frolicking on the beach. Obsessed!
October 2009
Us Weekly reports Penélope and Javier have quietly gotten engaged. And though neither actor addresses the rumors, a source dishes to the mag, "They tried to keep it very private and quiet."
February 2010
Penélope and Javier make their first ~official~ public appearance together at the 2010 Goya Awards Gala in Madrid, Spain, where the Vanilla Sky actor is nominated for Best Actress for her role in the film Broken Embraces.
July 2010
The lovebirds have a small and private wedding in the Bahamas that is held at a friend's house. 😭❤️
January 2011
The couple welcomes their first child, a son named Leo Encinas Cruz. And a few months into motherhood, Penélope dishes to Vogue that she felt “so much love” immediately after giving birth to her baby boy: “It is a revolutionary experience. That’s the best way I can describe it,” she says in the June 2011 interview. “It transforms you completely in a second. Nature is very wise and it gives you nine months to prepare, but in that moment, when you see that face, you are transformed forever. Even if you have heard from all your friends and family, ‘This is what’s going to happen,’ until it happens to you, it’s hard to understand in your soul.”
February 2011
Javier and Penélope arrive at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, which just so happens to be Penélope's first event after giving birth in January:
They 😭 look 😭 so 😭 cute 😭 together 😭😭😭.
That same month, Javier wins the award for Best Actor at the Goya Awards, and though he goes to the event solo, he shouts out Penélope and their son Leo: "I dedicate it to my wife and son awakening my heart and smile every day."
October 2012:
The couple attends the Skyfall world premiere after party at the Tate Modern in London after Javier's massive year and role in the film. In a later interview, director Sam Mendes recalls the times in which Penélope would visit the set, musing, "You see them together and you think they're meant to be together. They're remarkably grounded."
July 2013
Penélope and Javier welcome a daughter named Luna Encinas Cruz, born on July 22, 2013 in Madrid, Spain; and the couple is much more willing to speak about the experience this time around. In fact, when news of Penélope's pregnancy broke in January 2013, she confirmed through a rep that she was "tremendously happy and very excited."
October 2015:
These two are the literal definition of couple goals when Penélope dons a wig and Javier sports a feather boa to go onstage during a U2 concert in Barcelona. According to a report in People that sets the scene perfectly, "Cruz, 41, wore an all-black outfit with a platinum blonde wig and black bunny ears as she straddled Bono and danced across the stage. She posed for plenty of pictures and snapped a few of her own on her phone. Bardem, 46, rocked a blue feather boa and glittery blue cowboy hat while dancing and play-flirting with Bono. The antics caused Cruz to act jokingly jealous, pretending to be angry with her husband and miming to the U2 frontman that she had her eyes on him." I-con-ic!!!!
Oh, and here are the pics to prove it:
September 2017:
Javier and Penélope showcase their love on the big screen when they costar in the 2017 biopic Loving Pablo. Here they are walking the red carpet at the film's screening during the 74th Venice Film Festival:
And because the couple knows how to give the people what they want, once they wrap filming for Loving Pablo, they almost immediately start on yet another project together, Everybody Knows. "It is not common that we do movies together, or do two in a row," Javier says in an October 2018 interview when reflecting on the back-to-back movie moment. "Since one movie was not related with the other, we felt we were safe, and we did it."
May 2018:
Everybody Knows director Asghar Farhadi discusses the experience working with the married actors in an interview with Vanity Fair and muses, "I was full of admiration to see the way Penélope and Javier managed to have very clear limits between fiction and reality, life and work...Their family [life] is so simple and harmonious together with their children...They are the very symbol of a happy couple, a loving couple. It was very positive for me to see what deep respect they have for each other."
In this pic, Javier, Penélope, and Asghar are all captured attending the Cannes opening gala dinner together:
December 2021:
Penélope opens up about her hesitation to share too much about her and Javier's two children on social media and the importance of privacy during an interview with Rita Braver on CBS Sunday Morning. "There is something that is not making sense and it's especially affecting younger generations," she says. "I feel really bad for the ones that are teenagers now. It's almost [as] if the world was doing some kind of experiment on them. 'Oh, let's see what happens if you expose a 12-year-old to that much technology.'"
