Celebs Who Split After Their Spouse Got Too Famous
As anyone who has ever tied the knot will tell you, marriage is a series of adjustments. Sometimes, those adjustments can be too much to bear—like, you know, if your better half suddenly becomes famous overnight. Here are some of Hollywood's most well-known unions that fell apart as soon as one star became more famous than the other.
Chris Pratt and Anna Faris
When Anna Faris married Chris Pratt in August 2009, the blonde bombshell was already a household name, thanks to roles in popular movies such as The House Bunny and Lost in Translation. Pratt was primarily known for playing laid-back, goofy characters on television, and at the time of his union, he was just one month away from debuting in his most memorable TV role to date, Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation.
Flash forward to 2014. In a twist nobody saw coming, Pratt landed the coveted lead role in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Suddenly, he went from being a chubby supporting player on television to a muscle-clad movie star who could pull in $333 million at the box office. Even more success followed, including a starring role in the record-breaking hit Jurassic World in 2015, which helped Pratt become the most coveted male actor in Hollywood.
Of course, with success comes consequences. According to TMZ, Pratt's busy schedule was one of the reasons the couple suddenly announced its separation in August 2017. Faris reportedly wanted to have more kids (the couple has one son, Jack) and have a home base in Los Angeles, Calif., where she shoots the CBS sitcom Mom. Pratt, however, "doesn't want more kids...at least not in the foreseeable future, because he can't juggle a growing family with his career," according to a source for TMZ. "And he can't be corralled in one place—even L.A.—because that's not the way the movie industry works."
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
For a good chunk of the early '90s, Nicole Kidman was mostly known in Hollywood for being Tom Cruise's wife. After all, he was one of the biggest movie stars on the planet at the time.
Slowly but surely, Kidman began to win over film critics herself, due in great part to roles in films such as To Die For (1995), for which she won a Golden Globe, and Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In fact, by the time 2001 rolled around, Kidman was poised to have the biggest year of her career, starring the film that would lead to her first Oscar nomination, Moulin Rouge!.
Sadly, just as Kidman was entering the Hollywood stratosphere, her personal life was falling apart. In February 2001, Cruise shockingly filed for divorce from Kidman after about 10 years of marriage. The divorce rattled Hollywood and forced Kidman to awkwardly air her dirty laundry when she should have been enjoying her defining moment as an actress.
Kidman went on to become one of the most respected actresses of her generation, earning an Oscar for The Hours in 2003. She married country superstar and fellow Aussie Keith Urban in 2006. And yet, she'll be the first to tell you that her divorce from Cruise overshadowed many of her career milestones. In 2013, she told Australia's Harper's Bazaar (via E! News) that winning an Academy Award after a painful divorce "can show you the emptiness of your own life, which is kind of what it showed me." Oof.
Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe
In the '90s, Hilary Swank's acting career was in such a rut that she actually got fired from the teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210, which is pretty bad, considering that show featured the type of acting typically reserved for a Lifetime movie.
But by 2000, Swank's career rebounded in a big way when she won the Academy Award for best actress for her incredible performance in Boys Don't Cry. Her success continued when she landed the lead role in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby (2004), which earned her a second best actress Oscar in just five years.
Unfortunately, less than a year after that second gold statue, Swank's marriage to actor Chad Lowe fell apart. They announced their split in January 2006. Speaking to Vanity Fair in July that year, Swank alleged that Lowe's battle with substance abuse led to the destruction of their marriage; not her overnight success in Hollywood. "Chad is very supportive of my career," she claimed (via People). "He is, I think, genuinely happy for my success...I think that any frustration for him stemmed from the lack of opportunities in his own career."
Robin Thicke and Paula Patton
For years, Paula Patton and Robin Thicke were the model couple not only for celebrities, but also for anyone who ever married their high school sweetheart. At the time, Patton was building a reputation for herself as a serious Hollywood actress, while Thicke was quietly mastering the craft of recording songs that couples put on when it's time to make a baby. She was the star; he was her support.
And then "Blurred Lines" happened. Almost overnight, the song became the official tune of the summer in 2013, spending a staggering 12 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Thicke was suddenly on his way to becoming the new Justin Timberlake.
Unfortunately, his sudden success appeared to have gotten the best of him. His career quickly crashed and burned thanks to a number of public relations hiccups, including a lawsuit, an uncomfortable performance with Miley Cyrus, and allegations of infidelity. By February 2014, Patton officially pulled the plug on their marriage.
Things only got worse for Thicke from there. In July 2014, he released the arguably embarrassing album Paula, which was an attempt to get her back, as he sang on the album's lead single. Then, in January 2017, the former lovers became entangled in a nasty custody battle over their son, Julian, and Patton accused Thicke of abuse, addiction, and infidelity. They eventually began working on a custody agreement in March of that year.
Kelsey Grammer and Camille Grammer
If ever there was a Hollywood trophy wife, Camille Grammer was certainly it. For years, America knew her as the pretty blonde wife of Kelsey Grammer who accompanied the Frasier star to endless awards shows on his way to winning endless Emmys. Then, just as the former Playboy model was about to become one of Bravo's most famous Real Housewives, Kelsey pulled the plug on their marriage after almost 13 years.
Thus began one of Hollywood's most contentious divorces, catalyzed by the discovery that Grammer had been having an affair with his now-wife, Katye Walsh. Camille has since referred to Kelsey as a "total d**k," among other things, in the press.
Kelsey alleged that Camille's success on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was a "parting gift" from him to his fame-hungry ex. "Whether or not it worked well for her doesn't matter...it was my way of saying, 'Look, you always wanted to be famous. Here you go,'" he told Piers Morgan in 2011. Yikes.
Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson
America met Nick Lachey through the boy band 98 Degrees in 1997, but he soon become more famous for his relationship with and subsequent marriage to singer Jessica Simpson, all thanks to their 2003 MTV reality series Newlyweds.
After such "classic" TV moments as the time she couldn't figure out whether tuna was fish or chicken, it became clear early on that Simpson was the star of the relationship. Movie offers, endorsements, and cover stories soon followed. The marriage crumbled under the intense attention, and the couple called it quits in 2005 after about four years of marriage.
Simpson and Lachey have since re-married—to NFL star Eric Johnson and actress Vanessa Minnillo, respectively.
Scott Foley and Jennifer Garner
Scott Foley and Jennifer Garner met on the set of Felicity. He was one of the show's three main stars, and she was just a guest actress who played his nagging girlfriend. Bit a year after they married in 2000, the tables turned when Garner landed the lead role on the hugely popular ABC spy drama Alias, earning numerous accolades and millions of adoring fans.
Not long into her run on Alias, Garner's marriage to Foley fell apart. According to Us Weekly, the couple separated in March 2003 and finalized the divorce the following year.
In 2013, Garner reflected on the downfall of her marriage to Foley, admitting to Allure magazine that they "just imploded." "Oh, he's a great guy," she said (via Just Jared). "We were full-on grown-ups, but looking back I'm aware we did not know what hit us." She added, "We didn't have a shot."