The biggest couples from 2024 all had one thing in common.

If 2023 was all about the celebrity divorce, then 2024 was a celebration of some of the more unexpected celebrity couples.

And there is one thing that binds the hottest couples to come out of this year: they've all been brewing under the surface for years.

I'm famously no sports journalist, but let's talk about the long game.

Beginning with Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco, this couple started officially dating in 2023, breaking a rather lengthy dry spell for the singer.

"I was alone for five years, and I got really used to it," she told TIME Magazine.

But Benny wasn't some random man she met — he had been in her life for years, as the two had collaborated on her songs 'I Can't Get Enough' and (ironically) 'Single Soon'.

Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco are engaged. Image: Instagram/@selenagomez.

A professional relationship was formed and it took years to blossom into a romance. But blossom it did, with Gomez recently announcing her engagement to the music producer after he proposed. She wrote on her Instagram page "forever begins now".

The long game struck again with the rumoured romance between Only Murders In The Building co-stars, Martin Short and Meryl Streep, who have been friends for almost a decade.

They both had separate marriages: Streep separated from her husband, Don Gummer, in 2017 and Short's wife, Nancy Dolman, died from ovarian cancer in 2010. But after they reunited to play on-screen lovers in Only Murders In The Building, the twosome's friendship has reportedly turned romantic.

To be clear, Short has stated several times they're just friends, but these photos don't lie!

IT'S OFFICIAL* THEY'RE IN LOVE! * This is not actually official. Image: Getty.

But someone should've told Only Murders In The Building co-creator John Hoffman, because when he was asked about how their characters' relationship led to real-life romance between the actors, he told Decider that "it is one of the most unexpected turns, but I remember thinking, like 'God,'" Hoffman said.

"As I got to know Meryl, as I've known Marty and as I watched the two of them work together in Season 3, I just — it was unbelievable. We were laughing our heads off and they just delighted in each other on screen, off-screen in every way."

These two played the long game and now they're endgame, I say!

Speaking of life imitating art, The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White is rumoured to be dating his on-screen girlfriend, Molly Gordon.

When Jeremy started filming The Bear in 2021, he was married to an entirely different woman, his ex-wife Addison Timlin. After their divorce, he got into a rumoured romance with singer Rosalía. But all these years later, Jeremy and Molly seem to be very much an item, if their multiple papped kissing photos are anything to go by.

Jeremy Allen White and Molly Gordon at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Image: Getty.

Another rogue couple who were the result of a deep commitment to the long game in 2024 were Doja Cat and Joseph Quinn. The pop star and British actor were photographed holding hands as they strolled through London in September.

This is significant because Doja Cat once, rather famously, was outed by Quinn's Stranger Things co-star, Noah Schnapp, for sliding into his DMs to ask "Noah can u tell Joseph to [hit me up]. Wait no. does he have a gf?"

Still funny!

This caused a huge war of words between Doja and Schnapp, who she referred to as "so unbelievably socially unaware and wack," at the time. I mean, he was a teenager.

But there's a happy ending for Doja who seemingly did hit up Joseph and it worked.

THE LONG GAME, FOLKS.

My personal favourite couple of 2024, One Tree Hill's Sophia Bush and former soccer player Ashlyn Harris were friends for years before they split with their respective partners and made their debut as a hot-as-hell couple.

My final contribution to the long game theory is to another couple who (coincidentally) neatly divorced before their soft-launch rumour began: Sutton Foster and Hugh Jackman.

In an old post from October, gossip blogger Tasha Lustig wrote on her Instagram that "this man was up to no good," and claimed Jackman had "blindsided" his ex-wife, Deborra-lee Furness, by "running off with the mistress". To make matters messier, Furness liked the post from her private account. Oop! However, neither camp have actually come out to confirm (or deny) the reports — and we doubt they will.

Watch an old interview of Hugh Jackman gushing over Sutton Foster. Post continues after video.

This dramatic activity came a year after Jackman and Furness announced their split in September 2023 while Foster filed for divorce from her husband Ted Griffin in October.

By November, reports came out to claim Jackman and Foster were 'in love'.

The two singers worked together on the Broadway musical The Music Man between December 2021 to January 2023. However, they've known each other in Broadway circles for years, with Jackman even admitting he was Sutton's biggest fan.

During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Jackman admitted he'd "watched everything she's done." The feeling was mutual as back in 2022, Foster told Vogue that she considered Jackman "one of my best friends, which was a surprise." Interesting!

So there you go! If you have anyone in your life who you've been secretly crushing on, whether it be a co-worker or old friend, now is the time to shoot your shot.

The long game is full of possibilities!

Feature image: Getty.