Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you’re gawking at it from the outside. In this column, we examine the celebrity couples who give us hope for our own romantic futures as we try to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.
As a native New Yorker, watching Knicks fever overtake my former home while I’m living in Los Angeles feels a little like watching your ex get married and promoted after your breakup: a real “good for her” vibe, mixed with just a little existential despair over your decision to leave. I’m not even a true basketball fan, but I still desperately wish I could take in Knicks games at any of the many fine sports bars saturating New York. Well, at least I can marvel at the cuteness of the Knicks’ starting lineup from across the country.
Indeed, the Knick who’s really sparked my ardor lately is shooting guard Josh Hart—in no small part because of the sweetness of his bond with his wife, registered nurse Shannon Hart. (What can I say, I love a happily married man! From a respectful distance!)
The couple with Hart’s teammate Jalen Brunson in 2023.
Photo: Getty Images
The Harts first met as high school students at Washington D.C.’s prestigious Sidwell Friends School—yes, the one Malia and Sasha Obama attended—and began dating in 2011, with their mutual interest in sports clearly heralding a perfect match: Shannon played soccer for Rutgers and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, while Josh was settling into his college basketball career at Villanova. The couple got engaged in 2020, married in 2021, and are now parents to twin three-year-old sons, Hendrix and Haze, who frequently join Shannon to cheer Josh on courtside.
The essential nature of the Harts’ marriage is perhaps best-captured by a New York Times profile from last year, in which Josh described being ejected from a game against the Clippers after a tough call and receiving a consoling text from Shannon. “I think she just texted me ‘Woosah’ or something like that,” he recalled. “I just started laughing…I was like, OK, this is my person. Even when I’m as mad as I am right now, it still calmed me down.”
Anyone can be quick to their partner’s side with a perfectly timed text, but something else that I admire about the Harts’ relationship is the fact that it hasn’t gone on untrammeled since they met. “We won’t lie, during college we had breakups,” Shannon told the New York Times in 2025. “We were on and off.”
