Sophie Turner is ready to tell the story of how her and Joe Jonas’ whirlwind romance began. It wasn’t at any Soho House or awards show; it was at a local dive bar in Camden, London, Turner recounted to ELLE in its April 2020 issue. It started with a coincidental meeting with Joe Jonas’ agent then really became a thing with Jonas was on tour in London and DM’d her on Instagram.
Jonas’ agent saw the potential between Turner and Jonas immediately back in 2016. As Turner recalled, “I went to a meeting, and Joe’s agent was in the room. And he was like, ‘You remind me of one of my clients. I bet you two would really hit it off.’”
Jonas direct-messaged Turner on IG before he got to the UK to ask if she wanted to hang out while he was in town. (His band DNCE performed at BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards on October 23, 2016.)
“I was living with my friends in Camden, in a really rough flat— people were always climbing in and out of the windows,” Turner said. “When I told my friends, they were like, ‘That’s hilarious. You have to do it! And you have to text us everything he says.’”
Turner had low expectations initially. “I expected him to show up with security and everything. I thought, ‘He’s gonna be such a dick.’ I brought all my guy friends to come with me to meet him, because in the back of my mind I still worried that he could be a catfish—or I don’t know what. I just wanted my guy friends with me. I had my rugby boys. I was safe.”
The two chose to meet in a neighborhood bar. “It was just this local shitty bar, dirty, with great music and people throwing up everywhere,” Turner said. “It was that kind of place. Kind of like the worst, but also kind of the best.
“He didn’t bring security,” she continued. “He brought a friend, and they drank just as hard as the rest of us. I remember the two of us spending only a couple of minutes on the dance floor, and then we just found a space far in the corner and we just talked. We talked for hours, and hours, and hours. And I was, like, not bored. It wasn’t contrived. It wasn’t small talk—it was just so easy. And soon we were, like, inseparable. I went on tour with him.”
On their one-year anniversary, Jonas proposed. The two announced their engagement publicly on October 15, 2017, making their bar date seemingly around October 15, 2016:
Now, the two are approaching their one-year wedding anniversary in May and are reportedly expecting their first child in the summer. Turner has not confirmed reports of her pregnancy yet.
She did candidly tell ELLE how being married is different than being in a committed relationship. “I feel like the only thing that’s changed for me is having this incredible sense of security. Just the word husband and the word wife—it just solidifies the relationship,” she said. “I love being married. I think it’s wonderful. I’m sure we’ll have our hiccups and our different things. But right now, it’s like the security and the safety is everything.”
As for her thoughts on Jonas herself? She has nothing but glowing things to say about the man who won her heart when she least expected it. “With Joe, I always felt like I was the one who was punching, like, way above my league. And I still feel like that,” she said. “He’s so handsome, talented, funny, charismatic. I’m really lucky to be with him and have someone like him want to be around me and spend time with me.”