Nick & Vanessa Lachey’s Relationship Timeline Shows They’re Perfect Hosts For Love Is Blind

Nick and Vanessa Lachey fell in love in front of the cameras, so it’s only fitting that their latest show, Netflix’s Love Is Blind, helps others meet the possible love of their life on-screen. 

In the new dating reality show, hopeful contestants go on a series of first dates in “pods,” which are essentially cozy living rooms with a phone system that allows them to speak to their prospective partner without actually seeing them. They keep talking and getting to know people, narrowing down their lists, until they get to know just one person and possibly even get engaged, all without having physically met each other.

Nick and Vanessa’s love story could be a TV series itself. They met on camera when Nick was still married to Jessica Simpson, and kept crossing paths over the years as they pursued careers in the entertainment industry, until finally they fell in love. Now, Nick and Vanessa are married with three kids and co-hosting a show together. Really, the job couldn’t be a better fit for a couple who met, dated, and got married in front of the public eye. It’s a perfect union of their personal story and their professional lives.

Scroll through to see how Nick and Vanessa fell in love both on and off screen.

Vanessa starred in the music video for Nick’s song “What’s Left of Me,” but this is far from the first time that the two met. From 2003 to 2007, Vanessa hosted TRL on MTV and regularly interviewed Nick. Nick split with his then-wife Jessica Simpson only a few months prior, but already there seemed to be a connection between him and Vanessa. In a behind-the-scenes look at the music video on MTV’s Making the Video, the pair can be seen flirting on set. Vanessa admits on camera, “He’s a gem — mini-crush.”

In the public eye, Nick was going through a divorce, but in private, he was also moving on with someone new. He and Vanessa quietly started dating, but when Nick appeared on the set of TRL in July 2006, one month after his divorce was finalized, it was clear there were sparks.

Sharing an on-air kiss on MTV’s New Year’s Eve show, Nick and Vanessa ended months of rumors and went public with their relationship.

Every relationship has its milestones. Usually, it’s going on vacation together, meeting your significant other’s family, or if you’re a celebrity, the first rumors that you secretly split up. In January 2006, rumors began to fly that Nick and Vanessa were no longer “Nick and Vanessa.” This proved to be untrue and Vanessa dispelled the rumors by telling Us Weekly, “Sorry, we are very much still together!”

Sometimes the rumors are eventually true. In June 2009, Nick and Vanessa split after three years together. 

Breakups don’t always stick, and that was the case for Nick and Vanessa who, after only a month apart, got back together. “We’re trying to figure things out,” Nick told Us at the time. “I don’t pretend to know what the future holds, but everything’s good. Vanessa’s a good girl, and I care about her a lot.”

Happily, back together, Nick proposes to Vanessa reportedly getting down on both knees — or what he referred to as a “full begging position” in an interview with Entertainment Tonight — at the Montage hotel in Orange County. Lucky for Nick (and both his knees), she said yes.

In a small, private ceremony on Sir Richard Branson’s private island in the British Virgin Islands, Nick and Vanessa say, “I do.” While the wedding itself was a private affair, they soon released a feature-length TLC special called Nick & Vanessa’s Dream Wedding so their fans could share in the happy memories. In the television special, it’s revealed that their 35 wedding guests didn’t know where the wedding would be until Nick and Vanessa bought them plane tickets and told them to dress “island chic.”

Nick and Vanessa celebrate the arrival of their first child, Camden, on September 12, 2012. In a statement published in Us, the couple said, “We are incredibly proud to announce the birth of our beautiful baby boy, Camden John Lachey...Love has truly been redefined for both of us.”

The couple became parents for the second time on January 5, 2015, with daughter Brooklyn. Vanessa shared a post on her website announcing her birth saying that she “has already won over all of our hearts.”

Third time’s a charm! Nick and Vanessa have their third child, a son named Phoenix, on December 26, 2016. “We had our Christmas Miracle,” they told Us.

Coming full circle in love and television, Nick and Vanessa co-host Netflix’s newest original reality show, Love Is Blind. Not only do they get to help people find love, albeit in a very unexpected way, but they get to do it where they first met, on television.