Feeling the Love

Hollywood couple Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance have been married for 10 years, but it took more than 20 years—and one really bad date—before they realized that they might be soul mates.

Courtney and Angela first crossed paths 24 years ago in graduate school at Yale University. She noticed the "alluring" Courtney, but he didn't remember Angela at all. Years later, Angela was in a play with Courtney's then-girlfriend. Again, there was no romance. Over the next decade, Courtney's career took him to Broadway and Angela moved to Los Angeles, where she eventually landed her Oscar®-nominated role in What's Love Got to Do with It.

After running into Courtney in 1994, Angela agreed to go on a date with him. "Dare I say, it wasn't memorable," Angela says. "He just seemed like a really, really nice guy, which translated [to] 'kind of boring.'"

But after a second date at the driving range, something clicked and they spent the rest of the week together. Angela says she felt like a teenager after their first kiss, complete with "pinpricks and chills." Angela then flew to Milan, where she replayed the kiss over and over in her mind. At the same time, Courtney flew to his mother's retirement party in Detroit with exciting news. "I had to go to tell my mom that I think I've found my wife," Courtney says.