In 1988, Kirk Cameron famously appeared on his sister Candace Cameron’s show Full House, playing Cousin Steve in an episode called "Just One of the Guys."

The very next Full House episode to air was called "The Seven-Month Itch". It featured an actor named Chelsea Noble who was cast to play Uncle Jesse’s girlfriend Samantha, but was destined in the real world to become Kirk Cameron’s wife.

They just missed each other on Full House, and they wouldn’t meet until the next year when Noble appeared on Growing Pains.

The Full House episode was one of Noble’s earliest TV appearances, and she was cast perhaps because she was actually dating Uncle Jesse actor John Stamos in the real world.

In 1988, Stamos told The Record that he was single but had recently begun dating Noble and was hoping to get married and have kids within the next five years.

It would take a decade before Stamos eventually got married, not to Noble but to actor Rebecca Romijn.

Shortly after the interview, Stamos and Noble parted ways and for Noble, true love was waiting right around the corner.

After Noble appeared on Full House, she went on to appear on Growing Pains, where she was cast to play Kirk’s character Mike Seaver’s girlfriend Kate.

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"When I went up for the part, I was only supposed to be on for a couple of weeks," Noble told The Southam News in 1991.

But in those episodes, TV writers had gotten a glimpse of magical onscreen chemistry between Noble and Kirk Cameron, and they started writing her into more episodes, to Noble’s surprise.

The deeper Noble got into the role, the better she understood why so many girls in America had fallen in love with Mike Seaver. But that didn’t mean she was one of them — yet.

"Kirk is great, and I can see why every girl in America is crazy about him, but all we have is a great friendship," Noble told The Signal. "I don’t have a boyfriend."

What surprised Noble even more, though, was that as the episodes went on, she developed real feelings for her onscreen love, and in 1991, they got engaged and they’ve been together ever since.

According to Noble, their romance grew out of practical jokes backstage that began with Kirk rubbing anbesol on his lips before their first onscreen kiss, numbing Noble’s lips unexpectedly.

Before these flirtations started, Noble only thought of Kirk as a friend, she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991, and you could say that their friendship laid the foundation for their great love, both onscreen and off.

"We have such a mutual respect for each other as people and actors," Noble said. "We are the best support for each other. We give each other constructive advice. We work to make our characters believable, but different from what we really are. I think it’s kind of more exciting because there is something natural between us."