Sam Taylor-Johnson is celebrating Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
In honor of the Bullet Train star's 34th birthday June 13, the Back to Black director shared a heartfelt post on social media honoring her husband of nearly 12 years.
Alongside candid photos of Aaron, Sam, 57, wrote, "Happy Birthday my love."
In the pictures, Aaron can be seen jumping in the air in front of a wall of graffiti, diving into a body of water and asleep on a New York subway train. Naturally, many of the couples' friends chimed in to celebrate the Fall Guy star, including Minnie Driver, who wrote, "Happy Birthday Azza!"
Aaron and Sam—who share daughters Wylda, 13, and Romy, 12 as well as Angelica, 27, and Jessie, 18 from the Fifty Shades of Grey filmmaker's previous marriage to Jay Jopling—have celebrated many birthdays together. After all, the couple met back in 2008, when Aaron starred as John Lennon in Sam's directorial debut, Nowhere Boy.
At the time, Aaron was 18, while Sam was 42, and a year after wrapping filming, Aaron popped the question in 2009. But while the duo, who will mark 12 years of marriage later this month, have shared insight into their bond, when it comes to their eyebrow-raising 23-year age gap, they simply block out the noise.
"What you gotta realize is that what most people were doing in their twenties, I was doing when I was 13," Aaron explained to Rolling Stone U.K. in March. "You're doing something too quickly for someone else? I don't understand that. What speed are you supposed to enjoy life at? It's bizarre to me."
And Sam also recently noted that the couple's age gap "never" comes up in their relationship.
"It's coming up now because you're asking," she told The Guardian in April. "And it comes up on the outside perspective of people who don't know us, because I guess people will always. We're a bit of an anomaly, but it's that thing: after 14 years you just think, surely by now it doesn't really matter?"
Keep reading to see every detail of Sam and Taylor's love story.
May 2009
Love at first read? “I wasn’t expecting anything that day," Sam Taylor-Johnson told Harper's Bazaar of future husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson's 2008 audition for her directorial debut Nowhere Boy. "Just to see a bunch of actors pretending to be John Lennon.”
The 18-year-old impressed in more ways than one—nabbing the role and eventually the director's heart. "I knew instantly," she later told The Telegraph of him nailing the read. "I could see how much research he'd done already just by the way he was standing and the few words he said."
October 2009
Though she would later tell Harper's Bazaar they "were very professional through the entire film," after they wrapped, she continued, "He told me he was going to marry me. We had never been on a date, or even kissed.”
Precisely one year after they met, he shared, "I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.” The pair announced their engagement at their film's London premiere.
June 2010
By the time he was 11, Aaron recounted to Esquire, he was already planning for a big family. So not only was he ready to embrace the role of stepdad to Angelica and Jessie, Sam's daughters with ex-husband Jay Joplin, but he was eager to add a few of their own.
"I knew I was going to be a young father," he explained. "I knew I was going to have many kids.” The couple welcomed daughter Wylda in July 2010.
December 2011
Receiving an OBE recognizing her artwork and photography from the future King Charles III at Buckinham Palace, Sam brought along Aaron and her eldest daughters.
December 2011
A year and a half after Wylda's birth, daughter Romy joined the team in January 2012. "The great thing about Aaron is that he's happy not working and being at home with the kids while I work," the director told The Guardian in 2015. "We're actually fighting over it. He's like, 'No no, I like being an at-home dad, doing the cooking and the school runs.'"
October 2012
Months after their June wedding in Somerset, England, the couple (at the London premiere of Skyfall) revealed they'd decided to combine their last names into one.
"I just don't see why women need to take the man's name," Aaron explained to the London Evening Standard. "I wanted to be a part of her just as much as she wanted to be part of me."
October 2015
Mrs. Taylor-Johnson will see you now. While promoting Fifty Shades of Grey, the director raved about her years-long romance.
"Being in an amazing relationship, having come out of a difficult one, it felt so good," she noted to The Guardian. "And I feel like that stability has enabled me to get on with doing this momentous project."
But, no, she never once considered casting her man as Christian Grey. "We both read it and knew right then that when she went into direct it, I wouldn't be the one to step into those shoes," he told Marie Claire U.K. "And that was fine. It didn't feel like one of us was like, "I really wanted to do that'...I'm obviously really, really proud of Sam and it was great to see her take that project and make it her own, and not have to feel like just because there's a role...I feel like I'm too young for that role anyway!"
January 2017
When the actor won his first Golden Globe, as the star of Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals, he shouted out all of his girls.
"I want to thank my wife for being there with me, supporting me through this," he said. "Thank you for putting up with me. Jesus, that was not very pleasant in this role, so you're my soulmate and I love you very much."
"I'm blessed," he continued. "I have four beautiful daughters: Angelica, Phoenix, Wylda, and Romy, I love you all very much."
September 2018
Before teaming up for A Million Little Pieces, the duo teased their future plans. "We are definitely working towards something interesting," Aaron told E! News at the 2017 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. "Hopefully we can get it off the ground. I mean, this is the best director right here I'm desperate to work with again."
June 2022
Forgoing the traditional tin, the pair celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary with a vow renewal. "Yesterday was the most beautiful day, summer solstice, our 10th anniversary," Aaron wrote, sharing the photos on Instagram. "We renewed our vows to one another and confessed our love in front of our nearest and dearest friends and family it was a celebration of love and joy!"
Echoed his bride, "10 glorious years. My incredible husband, father to all 4 girls. I love you, I love you, I love you."
April 2024
While the stars (at the London premiere of Back to Black) are aware others want to address their age gap, "When you're solid with someone in your own love," she told The Sunday Times, "you don't think about it."