The couple is framing their pregnancy announcement as a beautiful culmination of their patient, organic love story—one that started with a humble DM and blossomed into marriage in her native Hungary. Dylan has been vocal about supporting her through endometriosis surgery and recovery.
Insiders reveal Barbara initially thought Dylan was just another Hollywood name chasing a model, which is exactly why she ghosted him for half a year. The real turning point? She flew to China to see him even after her modeling job there fell through—that's when things got serious.
Dylan Sprouse told W Magazine he slid into Palvin's DMs in 2018 with: 'Hey, I don't know if you're in New York for very long, but we should hang out if you want to. Here's my number.' She didn't respond for six months. The couple announced their pregnancy May 14, 2026 via joint Instagram post.
Six months of radio silence couldn't sink this ship—turns out Palvin was just waiting until she knew Sprouse wasn't going anywhere. Now they're growing their family after weathering some seriously dark chapters together.
Some love stories begin with a meet-cute at a party. Others start with a DM that's ignored for half a year. For Dylan Sprouse and Barbara Palvin, it was very much the latter—and now they're expecting their first baby together.
The couple announced the pregnancy news on May 14 via joint Instagram post, marking the latest chapter in a romance that began with what Sprouse described to W Magazine as his humble opening salvo: "Hey, I don't know if you're in New York for very long, but we should hang out if you want to. Here's my number." The catch? Palvin didn't message him back for six months.
Six. Months. That's longer than some marriages last, and they weren't even officially dating yet.
So why the extended ghosting? According to Palvin, she wasn't ready—and she had her reasons. "I took my time," she explained.
"I knew I wasn't in a good mindset at the time, and maybe deep inside I knew that it could be something more." Translation: she's been linked to everyone from Lewis Hamilton to Justin Bieber over the years, so when a Sprouse twin came calling, she wasn't about to get swept up in another headline romance. She wanted to be sure he was in it for real. Meanwhile, Sprouse wasn't exactly sitting by his phone waiting.
After getting left on read, he did what any self-respecting former Disney star would do: he booked a gig in China and spent six months filming Xiaolong Zheng's Turandot. "I'm not one to chase," he noted bluntly. "If I get left on read after putting out my number, f--k that." The time abroad meant missing the opening of his Brooklyn meadery—a business venture he'd clearly been excited about—but fate had other plans waiting back in New York.
Because just as Sprouse was wondering whatever happened to that girl from the industry event, Palvin finally texted. And she didn't half-ass it. When her modeling job in China fell through, she still booked a flight to see him anyway.
"I was like, 'Do you think that's crazy that I still want to go and see you?' because I was so excited," she recalled in a 2019 People interview. His response? "Please come." Within minutes of landing, she later admitted, she knew he was the one: "What am I waiting for?
There's no other guy I would love more than I love him and he's got everything that I need." The hard launch came in August 2018 when Palvin birthday-wished Sprouse publicly, captioning her post with what she called "the biggest present of all." From there, the couple went full steam ahead—meeting her family in Hungary (where he studied Hungarian phrases and accepted every offer of sausage and pálinka), making their red carpet debut at New York Fashion Week that September, and eventually tying the knot in her home country mere weeks after announcing their engagement.
They've since weathered a home invasion incident they broke silence on exclusively with E! News, Palvin's endometriosis diagnosis and subsequent surgery, and her recovery from a broken foot just weeks before walking the 2025 runway. Through it all, Sprouse has been front row—literally—with promises to embarrass her through over-the-top cheering at every show.
These days, she never leaves him on read. And apparently, that's exactly how he likes it.
