Nick & Vanessa Lachey's Marriage Is Still Going Strong

I have a theory that in order to make a celebrity couple work, the celebrities in question have to remain mostly out of the public eye. One famous couple that supports this theory are the Lacheys, who are gearing up to compete against each other on Season 25 of Dancing With the Stars. I have no doubt that their marriage can survive the fierce competition, but it may make some viewers wonder: how long have Nick and Vanessa Lachey been married? Though Vanessa is not Nick's most famous wife (tuna or chicken, anyone?) the two have made their relationship work for the past 11 years, which is basically a century in the world of Hollywood.

Everyone in America remembers Nick's first marriage to Jessica Simpson because the first year of it was broadcast on MTV's Newlyweds. While I was personally sad to see the end of my favorite TV couple with unnaturally white teeth, I was still happy when he and Vanessa (then Minnillo) — who was a host on Total Request Live — got together in 2006. After five years of dating, Nick and Vanessa got married in 2011 in a private ceremony at a tropical location, where they whisked all of their friends and family away to attend their secret ceremony. "Our wedding invitations were in the form of a plane ticket. We told them they were going away and the attire was island chic. It was all very vague," Nick told People. Sounds like an awesome time to me.

Now, over a decade later, the couple is still going strong. They have also added three adorable kids to their little family, named Camden, Brooklyn, and Phoenix, which means that their house can't ever be quiet. But from the looks of things they're definitely happy, tending to gush to magazines about one another and the other's incredible parenting skills. "Nick is the reason that we are, I think, sane. He is our foundation. He is our rock. He keeps it together because Lord knows I can’t," Vanessa told People in an interview.

Now, the couple are returning to television on Dancing With the Stars, where they will be facing off to win the highly coveted Mirrorball Trophy. My favorite part about this is that they are partnered with fellow married couple, Maks Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd who also recently welcomed a little bundle of joy. I can't say who will come out on top in this fox-trotting wife swap, but I'm inclined to give Nick the advantage because of his boy band experience. Then again, Vanessa is partnered with Maks, who makes everybody dance like an angel somehow.

In either case, I'm looking forward to the finale, because you know it's going to come down to these four. Then again, you never know what to expect on a show like Dancing With the Stars. Some surprises could come out of the woodwork and blow the competition out of the water. But either way, I'm eager to see how these two will interact throughout the season and how their separate performances will compare with each other.

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