Justin Hartley and Sofia Pernas love story: How quarantine romance led to secret wedding for former co-stars
'This Is Us' stars Justin Hartley and Sofia Pernas are now a married couple. The pair fueled rumors about their relationship status after they were seen wearing what appeared to be wedding bands on the red carpet of the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
People Magazine had no clear timeline about their relationship but it quoted a source saying that the couple had "recently" gotten hitched. Here's what's to know about the couple's love story.
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'They look very happy'
Hartley, 44, and his former 'The Young and the Restless' co-star Pernas, 31, were photographed in Malibu at the beginning of the month, wearing different rings than the ones they wore on the red carpet on Sunday, May 16. Pernas' ring on the red carpet looked like a diamond band, while her last one had a more basic, mostly silver design. Justin wore a gold band, while his ring in Malibu was red, according to Page Six.
The twice-divorced Hartley and Pernas reportedly started seeing each other in May 2020, but it wasn't until New Year's Eve that they took the all-important step of becoming Instagram official. A source confirmed to People last June that Pernas and Hartley had been dating "for several weeks". The new couple has been “spending a lot of time at his house”, added the source. “They look very happy.”
'Doting girlfriend'
The couple was photographed kissing in May 2020 as Pernas dropped him off at Southern California Orthopedic Institute, TMZ reported. "She was very much a doting girlfriend. She dropped him off in the morning and returned to pick him up a few hours later," the source said of Pernas and Hartley to People. "She helped him into the car and had a cold drink for him. They returned to his house and were there the whole weekend together."
Hartley played Adam Newman on 'The Young and the Restless' from 2014 till 2016 and Pernas joined the show in 2015 to play his onscreen girlfriend, Marisa Sierras. Interestingly, his now ex-wife Chrishell Stause was also on the show in 2016. It was the first time Hartley was seen with someone new since filing for divorce from Stause in November 2019 due to "irreconcilable differences", according to People.
Hartley filed for divorce via text
Hartley and Stause, a former soap star who went on to become a celebrity real estate agent, were married for two years before he called it quits in November. “They’d had some problems,” an insider told People at the time, “but she certainly never thought he would just go and suddenly file for divorce.” Hartley had informed Stause that he had filed for divorce via a text.
Stause said she was blindsided by the filing. "I’m just kind of in shock with it all,” she said in the Season 3 teaser for 'Selling Sunset', according to Us Magazine. “It’s just a lot all at once because everybody in the whole world knows. I love him so much. This was my best friend. Who do I talk to now?” Stause filed for dissolution of the marriage in December 2019. The divorce was finalized on February 22, 2021.
The third season of Stause's Netflix reality show 'Selling Sunset' focused on the couple's breakup, which Stause described as "traumatizing". “It’s an embarrassing, humiliating type of thing to go through without cameras and without people judging you,” Stause said on 'RealiTea with Derek Z' in July 2020. “We’re real people. This was a traumatizing time in my life and it’s going to be hard for me to watch it myself.”
The couple quarantined together
The couple went Instagram official this year. “Last minutes of 2020 here in LA,” Hartley captioned a black-and-white picture of Pernas snuggling up to him just before the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve. Let's go, 2021! “Welcome to the New Year!” Hartley’s 16-year-old daughter, Isabella, who seemed to approve of the relationship, commented: “happy new year!!!” Isabella is Hartley's daughter from his wife Lindsay Hartley, who the actor was married to from 2004 to 2012.
Pernas also publicly declared that she and the 'This Is Us' star have been quarantining together by posting a picture of the two on her Instagram account. “Sayonara 2020, it’s been real,” she wrote. “Happy New Year from our quarantine den to yours.”