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While not everyone will recognize the name Felix Kjellberg, they’ll probably be more familiar with him when they find out that his YouTube persona is PewDiePie. After all, Kjellberg is one of the most famous YouTubers in the world and has leveraged his casual commentary on the video games he plays into a multi-million dollar success story. 

Kjellberg recently married long-time girlfriend Marzia Bisognin. How long have the pair been together, and how did they first meet? 

PewDiePie launched his first YouTube channel in 2006

In his last year of high school, Kjellberg bought a computer with his own money and created a YouTube channel with the name PewDie. The “pew” was for the sound of a laser gun. This initial account didn’t garner a lot of attention, and he lost interest in it. When he decided to come back to YouTube in 2010, he couldn’t remember his password, so PewDiePie was born. 

When he started PewDiePie, he was in college, but the surging popularity of his YouTube channel consumed more and more of his attention. His “Let’s Play” videos allowed viewers to watch him provide unedited commentary as he played video games and were incredibly popular. In 2011, he dropped out of college and went to work at a hot dog kiosk to provide himself more free time to work on his channel.

He found love in the early days

In 2011, while PewDiePie was still in its early stages, Marzia Bisognin’s friend told her she just had to watch this “idiot playing video games.” Bisognin took that advice, and she was so smitten with PewDiePie that she reached out via email to connect with him personally. The two started dating, and soon it wasn’t just their love life that was intertwined; Bisognin started her own social media persona. 

Known as CutiePieMarzia, Bisognin launched her own YouTube channel focused on beauty, fashion, makeup, and travel. While she never quite reached the mind-blowing popularity of PewDiePie, she was top-rated within the beauty category of YouTube channels. 

The pair have weathered some storms 

While they may have something of a fairy tale of love, life in the public eye hasn’t always been easy for the social media superstars. PewDiePie has faced many critics and issued some very public apologies for problematic past behavior. When he was called out for making rape jokes in 2012, he issued an apology that only some people felt was genuine.

In both 2016 and 2017, his tendency to push the boundaries of social decency as a way to troll for the amusement of his fans backfired in big ways. First, he got his Twitter account suspended for having associations with ISIS. In 2017, he used the task outsourcing site Fiverr to pay two Indian men to hold up a sign saying, “Death to All Jews.” While he says it was a joke to see what people would do for money and that he never expected them to complete the task, the outcome was definitely shocking and disappointing for many. 

Meanwhile, Bisognin faced her own struggles with social media fame. In October of 2018, she announced that focusing so much on CutiePieMarzia had taken a toll on her mental health and left her isolated from the world. She announced she would be stepping away from the platform. Her success in the fashion world led to many other endeavors, however, including the launch of her own brand of pottery, jewelry, and home decor. 

When Kjellberg and Bisognin tied the knot on August 19, the couple put out a statement that it was exactly eight years after they first met. Their relationship has grown right along with their fame and influence over the almost decade they’ve been together. 

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