Actors you may or may not know had secret crushes on their co-stars

A secret crush can be one of the most simultaneously joyous and tragic experiences one may ever live through.

However, the significance of the experience can increase tenfold when you have to work through the secrecy of your crushes under the watchful gaze of the whole world.

These six actors, who fell for their co-stars, know it all too well.

Here are the ones who yearned and the ones they yearned after:

Daniel Radcliffe and Helena Bonham Carter

Former child star, Daniel Radcliffe has admitted to secretly crushing on his much older Harry Potter co-star, Helena Bonham Carter.

The jig was finally up when Daniel revealed the note he had written for Helena, 23 years his senior, after they wrapped filming on their mega hit franchise.

“I do love you and I wish I’d just been born 10 years earlier so I might’ve been in with a chance,” revealed Daniel Radcliffe’s note, in which he addressed his crush as “HBC”, was read out by him during the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts TV special.

Tom Felton and Helena Bonham Carter

Clearly, there was something about HBC on that Harry Potter set because another one of her co-stars in the franchise, Tom Felton, also ended up falling in love with her.

From a 2015 interview with BBC Radio 1, the actor best known for playing Draco Malfoy was asked, “Who is your weird celebrity crush?”

Right away, he responded with, “Helena Bonham Carter.”

While the weirdness of Tom Felton’s crush on Helena Bonham Carter stemmed from the fact that she played his character’s aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, in the wizarding series.

“I wrote her a letter before to say ‘Thanks for being such a nice auntie’, and I said ‘p.s. you’re really fit,’” added Felton.

Charmian Carr and Christopher Plummer

Speaking of weird crushes — Charmian Carr ended up falling for her on-screen father, Christopher Plummer, back when the duo were filming the 1965 classic, The Sound of Music.

14 years his junior, Charmian took a shine to Christopher for his dreamy accent, by her own admission.

“I had a huge crush on him. He was so perfect, and he spoke with this perfect British accent,” she revealed during The Sound of Music cast reunion on Oprah Winfrey’s show in 2010.

Ashley Greene and Jackson Rathbone

Part of one of the most fan favourite couples from the Twilight franchise, Ashley Greene revealed on her podcast that she had the biggest crush on her co-star, the “Southern gentleman”, Jackson Rathbone.

“Within our first encounter, I was like, ‘This dude’s super cute and a Southern gentleman. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m into it,’” she said on The Twilight Effect.

Lucy Hale and Drew Van Acker

Ever had a crush so intense, you end up dedicating a song to your feelings? Lucy Hale sure has.

The 36-year-old actress admitted years later — on Twitter no less — that her song Lie a Little Better was actually written for her Pretty Little Liars co-star, Drew Acker.

She further explained to Entertainment Tonight in 2018 that she considered revealing her secret “for years”, however, she decided that she should “tease people a little bit.”

“So for years, I didn’t tell anyone. Then finally the other week, it came on my shuffle, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this song is about Drew’,” said Lucy Hale.

Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, and Lisa Kudrow

In perhaps the greatest of all conundrums, Matthew Perry ended up falling in love with all three of his lady co-stars on Friends — Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, and Lisa Kudrow.

Addressing the truly cruel situation with Diane Sawyer in 2022, the late actor revealed, “How can you not have a crush on Jenny, and Courteney, and Lisa?”

He further explained, “So that made it kind of difficult to go to work because I had to pretend that I didn’t have these crushes.”

However, Matthew’s favourite among his three crushes was none other than Jennifer Aniston.

Given the fact that he had previously connected with Jennifer years before the two went on to appear in their popular sitcom, he wrote in his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, “Fairly early in the making of ‘Friends’ I realized that I was still crushing badly on Jennifer Aniston.”

Their early connection also ended up rather badly, as Matthew Perry was introduced to Jennifer Aniston through some mutual friends and the actress apparently “declined” his offer to date at the time.