John Stamos And His Wife Caitlin McHugh's Romance Is As Charming As A Fairytale

Mar 02, 2021

John Stamos has been a household name since the early 1980s when he rose to fame in the role of Blackie Parrish on "General Hospital." More TV work eventually led him to his most iconic role as Uncle Jesse on "Full House," and this only cemented his status as a handsome hunk of his time. The last few decades have seen the actor continue to work in television and even reprise his role in the reboot, "Fuller House."

But beyond his acting work, Stamos has also had quite the journey in love. After dating and marrying model Rebecca Romijn in the mid-'90s, the couple ended up divorcing ten years later. In the following years, Stamos wasn't linked to anyone romantically, so it was all the more heartbreaking when he began to voice his desire to have children. It's funny to think that although his character on "Full House," Uncle Jesse, was the rather irresponsible one, Stamos was nothing like that in real life. It seemed that the heartthrob was then just waiting to find the right woman to settle down with.

Then finally he met model and actress Caitlin McHugh and their story is an absolutely adorable one. Not only did they meet while working together, but their romance didn't begin immediately, and instead involved a few eerie coincidences for good measure. But once they were together, they knew that this was it. After proposing at McHugh's favorite place in the world, the couple announced they were expecting their first child together. Let's take a look at the couple's beautiful journey to getting married and becoming parents.

John Stamos was born in California on August 19, 1963, to a second-generation Greek-American restaurateur. Interestingly, his last name Stamos is actually a shortened form of his birth name, Stamatopoulos. Throughout his youth, Stamos worked at his father's restaurants and other food establishments.

He decided he wanted to be an actor early on, and after only three weeks of auditioning, he lucked out and got his first role as Blackie Parrish on "General Hospital." Not many actors can consider themself so lucky to land such a big role as their first one, as not only did it put Stamos' name on the map, he was also nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984 for his work on the show.

Following his time in "General Hospital," he appeared in a few other sitcoms including "Dreams" and "You Again?" before landing what would become his most iconic role, playing Jesse Katsopolis on the sitcom "Full House." The show was an immense success with Stamos' turn as the hunky Uncle Jesse, a surefire drawcard for women everywhere. He even infused some of his own background into the role, having asked the producers to give his character a Greek name to honor his heritage. "Full House" was also notable for propelling Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen, young girls at the time, into the stratosphere, while also cementing the careers of a number of other actors, including Stamos' close friend Bob Saget. It would run for eight years, airing from 1987 to 1995, but to the delight of fans, it wouldn't be the last the world would see of "Full House."

After the show ended in 1995, Stamos would play a varied number of roles that were often grounded in comedy, even appearing in episodes of "Friends," "Glee," and "Two and a Half Men." He even went back to the medical world, appearing in "ER" as Dr. Tony Gates from 2005 to 2009.

It was also in the period after "Full House" had ended that Stamos got married for the first time. To the dismay of women everywhere, the actor found love with model Rebecca Romijn, who he had met at a Victoria's Secret fashion show — in which she was modeling — in 1994. The couple famously dated before getting engaged in 1997 and marrying in 1998. But unfortunately, their union wouldn't last, with Stamos filing for divorce in 2004, with it being finalized in 2005. The actor didn't appear to be in a relationship for some time after their marriage ended, opting instead to focus on his career.

Then some years later in 2015, fans of "Full House" couldn't believe it when Netflix announced that they would be reviving the show. The reboot would adapt the name slightly to "Fuller House" and would be released in 2016. Despite the fact that the Olsen twins wouldn't be reprising their role as Michelle Tanner, the rest of the cast were all returning as regular characters or as guest roles. "Fuller House" would go on to have five seasons to mixed reviews, but fans of the original were no doubt happy to have the gang back together again.

After shifting his focus to his career when his marriage ended, Stamos found himself as successful as ever but without anyone to share that with. Well, that all changed when he met model and actress Caitlin McHugh. Although the couple didn't start dating until 2015, they actually first met in 2011 when they both appeared on an episode of "Law & Order: SVU." Considering they would go on to get married and have a baby, the circumstances surrounding how they met were rather eerie. As Stamos told "People" in 2017:

“I played a guy who was so egotistical that he thought he should spread his progeny, so he had like 60 kids or something. He was poking holes in condoms and stuff. And Caitlin, ironically, was one of the girls that I was trying to fool and have a baby with."

When they co-starred together, McHugh was in a relationship, so nothing happened at the time. Then years later, her roommate had appeared in an episode of "Fuller House" and McHugh found herself on the set in the audience. That's when they crossed paths again, with Stamos recounting the story in the same interview with "People":

"I walked in, I went, ‘Hey, are you stalking me?’ She was like, ‘No.’ … That’s why I love her. She’s like, ‘What? No. I haven’t thought of you twice.'"

With two coincidences surrounding how they met up, there are certainly signs that these two lovebirds were meant to be. After finding true love, they turned their focus to marriage and children. 

Even playing Uncle Jesse, it was clear that Stamos had the dad gene in him. In fact, his co-stars on "Full House," Candace Cameron Bure, Andrea Barber, and Jodie Sweetin, told "People" that Stamos was the "baby whisperer" of the cast. Cameron Bure elaborated:

“He’s the best with little babies and kids . . . So, he should have kids of his own, but if not, there’s plenty of TV children to go around.”

It turns out, there were always children in the future for Stamos, as he once joked to "US Weekly" that he wanted children so badly that his "ovaries were rattling." He later told "ET":

"It's just taken me a lot longer than I anticipated. It would be a tragedy if I didn't have children and I finally found the right woman — the perfect woman.”

In the same interview, he described McHugh as a "gentle, kind, graceful soul who would be a good mother." They both clearly knew that this relationship was the one and therefore wasted little time in taking the next steps. By October 2017, Stamos had proposed to McHugh after two years of dating. The proposal took place at Disneyland — McHugh's favorite place in the world — and happened after they watched an incredibly sweet video. It featured some of the most romantic scenes from Disney and Pixar movies, before ending with "The Little Mermaid'"s Sebastian saying "Just ask the girl" to Stamos. As the actor wrote on his Instagram post revealing their engagement:

"I asked...she said yes! ...And we lived happily ever after💍" 

But that wasn't the only happy news that would come to the couple — just two months after announcing they were engaged, they revealed McHugh was pregnant! It turns out they had tried to have a baby and upon learning they had conceived, Stamos insisted on proposing straight away. He told "People":

“We have the same morals and the same values, that all clicked nicely. So we said, ‘Oh, well, maybe we should have a family.'" 

He goes on to say that McHugh suggested they should have a child before they got married. When Stamos asked her "Why?" she replied jokingly, "Because you're old." Stamos goes on to explain how the timing of the pregnancy and proposal occurred:

“The [pregnancy] happened. Then I said, I better have a ring on her finger because it’s the right thing to do, and I wanted to marry her anyway. So I called her parents to ask, and it was like, 'You better!'"

Five months after getting engaged the couple got married in a small service in Los Angeles while McHugh was glowing during her pregnancy. Just a few months after that, she would give birth to their son William (Billy) Christopher Stamos. Named after Stamos' dad, the actor shared the news with the world by posting a beautiful black-and-white photo of him cuddling his newborn son. He captioned the post, "From now on, the best part of me will always be my wife and my son." In his usual cheeky style, he even added the hashtag "#NotJustAnUncleAnymore."

The couple is clearly enjoying their fairytale love story, and they've even started a jewelry line named St. Amos Jewelry, of which 100% of proceeds are donated to the Childhelp Foundation. 

Did you know how romantic John Stamos and Caitlin McHugh's relationship journey was? Be sure to pass this onto your friends if you found it incredibly sweet!