A little while ago, we wrote about people who married the popular kid in school. Well, there were so many great comments that we just had to share those, too!
We also included more responses from the original Reddit thread.
1. "I married the cool, hot guy — who looked like AJ from the Backstreet Boys — from high school. I'm a goth introvert. He cheated on me for years. We had two children, but he didn’t work; just smoked weed all day and night. Finally caught him sleeping with our babysitter (how cliché), and I was done."
"I met my now-husband, who was a nerd in school — he fixes everything and works his butt off. We had a kid together, and he’s raised my older two. He’s a military vet, and my son decided to follow in his footsteps and is in basic training for the army right now."
2. "My mom was very popular and from a wealthier family (the youngest of three). My dad was the youngest of 10, and his mom worked nonstop. My parents met at a country club where he worked maintenance, and she was a waitress. My dad was definitely not her type. She started dating him because she felt bad for him and was only going to date him for a week and then dump him (she told my grandmother that). Well, my dad managed to work his way into her heart, and she fell for him. Now, here's where it gets slightly better: My dad thought he was hot stuff after dating her for a while."
"He thought he might cast his line back into the water and see what else he could get. Before he did this though, he was burned badly in a fire (he was a volunteer firefighter). Third-degree burns on multiple parts of his body. Guess who was there every possible minute? My mom. She worked, went to the hospital, and slept, on repeat the whole time he was there. That's when he realized he'd nearly been an idiot and made a terrible mistake.
They got married, had three kids, a dog, and a cat, and lived a really great life up until she passed away nine years ago. And that's the story of how a dorky-looking dude got the popular girl."
3. "My husband was in the popular crowd in our small high school. He was quiet, super hot, and had lots of friends. I had the hugest crush on him all throughout high school but was way too intimidated to talk to him in class. It wasn’t until three or four years after graduation that I first started talking to him at the local grocery store where we worked together. He was still way too cool then, with his long dark hair and all. He had dropped out of community college and was just working at the store. Now, I’m not saying it was all me, but after we started dating, he did go back, get a degree, and finally quit the grocery store life."
"He has a really nice lab job and enjoys it. We’ve been married for six years (together 13), and we have two kids. I think it’s so funny now because I thought he was so cool in school, but the real guy is this down-to-earth Lord of the Rings nerd (which is totally awesome)."
4. "My brother was the hot (ew, he’s my brother) cool guy. Met the hot, popular girl in college. She got pregnant, so they got married. Had another kid. My brother was, and still is, a POS. After their divorce, he kept seeing his kids for a little while but eventually stopped. My parents sent her checks for years since he wasn’t paying child support (they weren’t covering for him, they were doing this out of the kindness of their hearts). He’s in major debt, unemployed, and plays video games all day."
"Meanwhile, my ex-SIL is a successful woman, my niece is at one of the best colleges in Texas, and my nephew is a great athlete. They don’t want much to do with my family because of my brother. I mean, I get it. I really miss them, though."
5. "My husband was the quiet, hot loner who wore a leather jacket at our high school. Long dark hair, dark eyes, all around aloof, isolated bad boy. Back in the day, he had a reputation for being standoffish. He never dated anyone at our school, and we all assumed it was because he knew how hot he was, and that we were all beneath him as far as physical beauty/coolness factor went. When we started dating, I asked him if he knew how powerful he was, and he seemed genuinely shocked."
"I also found out that the aloof attitude was from severe childhood trauma that he suffered at the hands of both parents. He had his friends, and that was all he really cared about. Today, he is loving, kind, funny, working on healing his hurt inner child, and is the most wonderful father to our son. He is also still super hot."
6. "We didn’t get married, but I dated the popular guy from my school on and off for three years, starting just before we graduated. He was great at sports, had tons of friends, and went to wild parties all the time. I was a total loser with few friends; if they were out sick, I ate lunch in the library so I wouldn’t have to sit alone in the cafeteria. He would date me for a few months until he found someone prettier, leave me to hook up with her for a while, then call me again when that was over. I was such an idiot for taking him back every time, but he was such a smooth talker."
"Anyway, I eventually came to my senses and cut him off. I ended up with someone who treats me like a queen and has never strayed from my side. I went back to school and have a great job, we moved to the city, and we have a wonderful dog. Meanwhile, my ex dropped out of school, never left our hometown, and has no career. Based off what I see on social media, he hasn’t accomplished any of the goals we used to talk about when we were young."
7. "We’re divorced now, but my ex-wife was a popular cheerleader in high school. I remember cracking up when she busted out a yearbook to show me. She said she loved high school and had a great time. I was the total opposite and hated those years of my life. I was a computer nerd, into painting and graphic design, and was bullied a lot for being socially awkward and super introverted. Anyway, the ex-wife isn’t doing so well from what her soon-to-be ex-husband told me. She had a drinking problem when we divorced, but I got out relatively unscathed. She had a kid with this other guy a couple years ago and ended up getting a DUI (not her first)."
"She lost her license, and they ended up splitting up. He will likely get full custody of their kid. She is on probation now, which I think she has violated as well. Overall, her life sounds like a mess.
I feel bad for the guy because he is essentially me if I had decided to stay with her. I feel bad for her, too, because I know a lot of her issues are due to her dysfunctional childhood. We tried therapy twice, but she was quite hostile and resistant to it."
8. "My father was a cool, handsome, Philly-raised Black musician. My mother was a very Brady Bunch, geeky, wholesome, farm-raised white girl, who saw him play in her small town and started going to all of his shows. Lord knows how, but she managed to get a date with him, and they were together nearly 40 years until the day he died of cancer, me and my mother by his side."
"Both sides of the family adored each other, despite being very different, and me and my sister were raised in a fun house filled with love and music. The nerdy girl and the cool guy won."
9. "I married the popular guy. He was the athlete, stupidly handsome, great physique, and the guy all the girls wanted to be around and all the guys wanted to be friends with. I, on the other hand, was bullied horribly in school because I was poor and didn’t fit into my mom's hand-me-down clothes. After leaving home, I was able to afford makeup, clothes that fit, and proper hygiene products. When I met my husband, we became friends immediately. He always had some hot girl in his phone, and he loved me boosting his ego. I loved his smile, his charm, those EYES! One day, he turned those eyes onto me, and I still don’t believe it."
"For years, I thought him being attracted to me was just an ultimate prank. I mean, I have seen and met the women he dated! I think he broke a lot of hearts the day he proposed to me. My favorite thing about him is that he constantly reminds me that I am the most beautiful woman he has ever met in his life, after his mother (she is a model type of woman, too). He tells me that so much, that at times, I even catch myself believing him. He calls me his trophy wife (in a loving and playful way). We both give and share out of love and can communicate easily about anything and everything. He’s charming, and I am sweet. The perfect pair."
10. "Didn't marry, but had a relationship with the most popular, best-looking boy in school. He was a senior, and I was a freshman. He kept pressuring me for sex, but I was a virgin, so I wouldn't do it. He broke up with me three times over it, but I was obsessed with him, so I kept taking him back. The third time we got back together, I told him I still wasn't ready. He said no problem, and then ignored me as if we never got back together at all. Cut to last year, 15 years after the fact, he found me on Facebook, messaged me to apologize, and asked to meet me for coffee."
"He is now an overweight taxi driver; I wouldn't have recognized him if I passed him on the street. Accepted the apology but did not meet him, he was probably still trying to get in my pants all these years later."
11. "I was the cool girl in high school, marrying the cool guy from a neighboring high school. Homecoming queen and cheer captain marrying the popular prom king. We're incredibly boring now. No college degrees. I work two jobs, and he cleans for the school district. But we're happy with it. We have an easy routine, pay the bills, and raise two beautiful kids together. Life is good for the most part."
12. "He was famous as a bit of a troublemaker and a tech whiz. He'd been suspended once for trying to 'hack' the school network. People liked him because of his bad boy reputation, plus he was funny and played the guitar. Teachers never warmed up to him though – he was not a good student and would try to cover up by goofing off in class. In fact, teachers were quite surprised to hear I was going out with him because I had much better grades and a reputation as a rule-follower."
"He now has a successful cybersecurity career and is much less socially awkward. It also turned out that he's very smart, just not an academic guy. He reads and thinks very hard on a wide variety of topics. We have a little house with lots of computer equipment and many guitars. He's an attentive and supportive spouse. I'd say everything worked out for the best."
13. "My parents were both the cool kids. My mom was a cheerleader, and my dad was a volleyball player. Both extremely popular. After high school, my dad went to college, and my mom had a baby (my older sister) with a douchebag. After a couple years of not talking after high school, they got married. My dad raised my older sister with my mom. A couple years [later], they had me and then my younger sister. They were married for almost 18 years, but got divorced last August."
"Looking back now, everyone’s super glad they divorced. They were unstable together, but I can see that they’re both healing and are finally taking care of themselves without being at each other’s throats."
14. "My husband and I went to different schools in different areas of the state. I guess he was the bad boy of his school. While I did not know him during that time, I can tell you that we have been together for 24 years, and he is the most wonderful husband and father. I think he was grossly misunderstood back then, and I would love to tell off those teachers who basically said he would amount to nothing."
15. "My husband was the popular athlete in high school and president of his frat in college. I’ve always been the creative person who is comfortable being a loner. It surprised me just how insecure he really is, and that makes him a people pleaser to his own detriment. He has a need for people to like him and takes everything so personally. He used to give me crap for not having friends, but his self-esteem is so dependent on what other people think about him that it’s sad."
16. "We didn’t go to school together, but I married the captain of the cheerleading team. She’s a very down-to-earth, good human being who has never been elitist or a snob in any way. She does wish she still had her high school body (who doesn’t?), but she looks more beautiful to me now than she does in any old pictures. We have a large family and are very happy."
"Every once in a while, I’ll be acting goofy with my kids, and their friends will give me the side eye, and I’ll casually drop, 'You think I’m a nerd, huh? Well, maybe so, but I married the captain of the cheerleaders.' For some reason, this gets me instant credibility with young men 😂."
17. "I married the popular girl. She was cool because she was (and is!) gorgeous and hung out with that sporty crowd. I was a pretty hardcore nerd, but I had some decent social skills and was able to make her laugh a lot once when I sat behind her in class. Started dating at the end of high school and through college. Ultimately, she became a doctor who now likes many of my interests: anime, history, heavy metal, and she partly shares my obsession with tech."
"Early on in our relationship, when I was in college, she even painted a cooler for me with images of all the stuff I loved like Dragon Ball Z and '90s Pokémon. It was nice to have a girlfriend (now wife) who didn’t belittle my interests, but instead tried to indulge them."
18. "Not married, but I've been with the class clown of a different high school for seven years. I moved towns to live with him, and people still stop him in public. They can't believe he has a girlfriend, two kids, and another on the way. They all retell a story about something happening in school and how funny/wild/outrageous it was. He's actually had an autism diagnosis as an adult, which explains a lot of his behavior."
19. "My mom and dad were both very popular in high school. My dad never got past the days everyone worshipped him, and he turned into an egomaniac. My mom was a HUGE heartbreaker in high school – guys were all over her. But she became pretty well-adjusted as she grew up. Because my dad peaked in high school and didn’t want to let that feeling of popularity go, he and my mom would fight a lot. They got a divorce after 20 years of marriage."
20. "Boomer here. My wife was the most popular girl in our high school. Cheerleader, straight A's, dated the cool boys, calendar girl, etc. Married now 44 years (best friends in high school, started dating in college). She’s an incredible wife, mother, and grandmother who put me through law school with a good job in her early twenties. She looks 15 years younger than her age and can still wear her jeans from high school. So, I got lucky."
21. And finally, "My dad was a senior when my mom was a sophomore. My dad was practically Danny freaking Zuko. My mom was a total dork with awesome, poofy curls and Coke-bottle glasses. My dad used to pay her to do his homework. My mom married a total piece of crap (she calls him her practice husband) and had my brother two years before becoming pregnant with me. She couldn't handle the trauma that he was putting them through and ran away. She got an apartment in the town she went to high school in. One night, she was having a particularly difficult time and ordered a pizza for dinner. When the pizza guy showed up, my mom threw little me into his arms and said, 'Will you hold this please?' while she chased my brother around the apartment."
"This poor man stood there with an infant in his arms, in the middle of pure chaos. I've been told he fell in love with me right then and there, and my mom about 20 minutes later. I still have the pizza jacket he was wearing. They dated for two years before she finally agreed to marry him. They've been happily married for 28 years.
He was working at the pizza chain and going to school to become a teacher. He has so many diplomas and degrees that I can't even keep track. My mom, too, thanks to his influence. He saved us. He married my mom when I was 2 years old and adopted my brother and I when I was 8. They now live in total paradise, on 80 acres of land in the woods with their three dogs. He's teaching auto at the local community college. Apparently, his shop teacher inspired him and somehow convinced him that he could make his life into whatever he wanted it to be, and he made it his goal to be that inspiration for kids. He and my mother are very happy living the lives they built for themselves."
Have you ever dated the cool kid in school? Share your experience in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.