According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to be ‘star-crossed’ is to be ‘thwarted by bad luck’.
Star-crossed lovers are two people (normally young) who experience love at first sight, but their relationship is threatened by forces outside of their control.
The most famous ‘star-crossed lovers’ of all time are almost certainly Romeo and Juliet, from William Shakespeare’s play of the same name. In fact, the phrase ‘star-crossed lovers’ was even coined by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet (1597).
However, while Romeo and Juliet might be the most iconic star-crossed lovers, they were actually not the first…