From Random Roommates to Romantic Partners: 4 Couples

Romance probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of random roommates. At best, it might be friendship, and, at worst, dirty dishes. But for these four couples, finding a roommate also meant finding love — even if the romantic relationship didn’t last forever.

Hoping for a rom-com happy ending with your random roommate? Read on for the highs and lows from four real-life roommate love stories.

It wasn’t quite love at first sight between Stacy and Tom, pictured above.

“He was the roommate from hell,” Stacy says of her partner Tom.

A last-minute replacement for another roommate who fell through, he was messy and constantly owed her money. They built a solid friendship over time, but she threatened to move out at the end of their first year together unless they developed a better cleaning and payment routine.

During their second year as roommates, she noticed that nights out would end with his arm around her, and she left a walk with him wondering if it had actually been a date night. 

When they did get together, they took things slowly, checking in with each other at every step. She describes the pressure of knowing they couldn’t escape one another if it didn’t work out, and the concerns for their friendship.

“It felt like a big commitment even though it was the beginning of a relationship,” she says. 

After leaving their first apartment, Stacy moved across the state, from Amherst to an apartment in Cambridge, MA, and they transitioned from living together to a long-distance relationship. When they came back together a year later, they found that their foundation helped with open communication. They knew each other’s living styles and had learned to deal with issues as they came up.

“It was easy because we’d already done it,” Stacy says. 

They’ve been together for 10 years and married since 2022.

“I was smitten immediately,” Cat said, describing the first time she saw the “beautiful man” who answered her advertisement.

She’d been searching Facebook and Craigslist for someone to replace a disastrous previous roommate. In addition to his good looks, Thomas was the only candidate who passed a background check and didn’t have children or pets.

At first, Cat elected not to make a move in fear of ruining a good roommate situation. However, she decided to test the waters a few weeks after he moved in. She spied one of her friends checking him out and asked him if he would be interested. 

“I don’t have eyes for her,” he answered cryptically, confessing his feelings for Cat soon after. 

They began a relationship with boundaries like no sleepovers on weeknights and a mutual respect for one another’s living styles.

“I fell in love with the way he lives first, before I fell in love with him,” Cat says.

While they broke up just under a year later, Cat shared positive memories of building their relationship: She felt comfortable faster than she had in other relationships, they knew each other’s routines and favorite snacks, and he’d seen her in her “Adam Sandler clothes” — comfortable, oversized outfits she changes into immediately after work.

She also liked the level of trust and emotional intimacy that developed. And because he contributed equally to the household tasks (except taking out the garbage, which he insisted on doing every time), she got to see him as a “true partner” right away.

While living in their Jewish co-op that organizes events for other young adults, Kennedy and Daniel were both looking for romantic partners. They just didn’t expect to find love in their own home.

Kennedy convinced her roommates to accept his application because she had so much in common with him (like a love for tea and volunteering), but she didn’t have feelings right away. Instead, she and Daniel built a friendship during group TV nights and bike rides.

When he told her he was really into her a few months in, she took a week to think through the situation, including his offer to move out if things didn’t work out between them. At the end of the week, she found herself dancing to Johnny Cash with him in his basement bedroom, which she moved into shortly after.

“It was a lot really fast,” she says, reflecting on what eventually led to their separation. However, she explains that the constant togetherness also helped them get close quickly, both as friends and as roommates. 

“We fully fell in love before we got together.”

She explained that in spending time together at home where they could relax and be themselves, she got to know him better in two months than significant others she’d been dating for a year.

They dated for two years and remain on good terms.

“My Mom and Dad are going to kill me,” Lynette remembers thinking when she started dating her random roommate immediately after moving in with him.

She and her friend had an empty room to fill in the house they were renting, and her friend’s partner recommended graffiti artist Ryan. Lynette’s first impression was that he was a snob. However, she recognized a chemistry between them when they saw each other again, and they kissed in a pub on the night before they moved in.

“I knew it was going to be really good or really bad,” she said, laughing at the memory.

She describes the fast bond they were able to form through coming home to one another every day and spending late night chats together in person instead of on the phone. 

“He was my instant best friend.” 

However, she explained that it was easy to look past things that would have agitated her in a normal relationship because she and the other roommates were counting on her partner financially. She also feels that their circumstances kept the relationship from progressing, and that because they lived so well together, they eventually turned back into roommates, living separate lives (a common phenomenon among long-term couples often called “roommate syndrome”.)

Though they weren’t soulmates, the long-term relationship lasted for seven years, and she believes the choice to date her roommate turned out well.

Some names in this story have been changed.