This “Avatar” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” Actress Has the Romance Of A Lifetime

Zoe Saldana is best known for her love of space–well, in a way. The American actress and “space princess” has starred in not one, but three different series about intergalactic adventures (as Neytiri in Avatar, as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in Star Trek, and as Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy). But did you know that Zoe is also lucky enough to have a wonderful husband and three boys that she adores? Zoe and her Italian artist/retired soccer player/amateur chef husband Marco Perego Saldana recently went to Portugal for a trip with their three sons. The Avatar actress has generously shared tidbits from the trip on Instagram, and all we can say from seeing this clip is that it seems like the romance of Disney princesses’ dreams!

Even with three little boys running around them, in a busy city square, these two lovebirds can’t stop kissing each other! We can practically feel their love emanating off the screen, and we’re swooning at the romance of it all. Does a love that not only lasts throughout the challenges (like parenthood, health issues, fame, and jet-setting careers) but also still allows a couple in love to pause time for a heart-melting kiss, happen often? We’re not sure, but nobody can watch a moment like Zoe and Marco’s without seeing their bond. Does it get any sweeter than that? We don’t think so! Zoe actually says that she literally felt ‘love at first sight’. “I don’t do the ABCs, I do what my heart says, what my heart feels. So, from the moment I met my husband, we were together. We knew,” the celebrity said to Marie Claire in the year after their wedding. “I met my husband, I wasn’t going to try it out and see if it works. No, I felt it. I went with the feeling.”

The couple is known for their progressive style; as an actress who almost always chooses tomboy roles that involve lots of combat, but who also embraces her femininity, Zoe has been keen on raising their boys in a gender neutral environment that allows them to be both as masculine and feminine as they want to be, without traditional stereotypes for ‘boy or girl’ behavior. The boys are also being raised speaking English, Italian, and Spanish, since Zoe and Marco are multilingual. The couple each added  their partner’s surname to their own after their marriage, even though Zoe warned her new husband that he was “going to be emasculated by your community of artists, your Latin community of men, by the world…But Marco just looks up at me and says [she puts on a cute Italian accent], ‘Ah, Zoe, I don’t [care].’” We’re paraphrasing that last part, since he used rather colorful language!

Marco has actually been nicknamed “Pirate”, which he’s welcomed; the name stems from “his insanely good hair and physical features”, which definitely makes him look like Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies! The fact that Zoe once specifically said her ideal man was a “renegade! A pirate! A pirate who can cry. Oh my god!” makes the couple even more wonderful!

The couple got married back in 2013 via a very small secret wedding in London (with Zoe presumably wearing the “Colombian-emerald engagement ring that Perego had made for her” during the secret ceremony), and it’s obvious that their love is still going strong. As for relationship advice, Zoe says to “wait until you find that one person who makes you feel good about yourself every single day and is not expecting you to change, but to grow.” And even if you face heartbreak, she recommends pushing forward. “I believe in love…I know it’s possible. I’m not one of these people who’s going, ‘Oh, because I was with someone for so long I need to take a break.’ What if love is just around the corner?” Keep scrolling to see more adorable pictures of this happy, lovestruck couple–and keep an eye out for Zoe in the upcoming Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 movies, which are both finally in post-production after years of waiting!