Celebs Who Broke Up With Their Partners Right After Making It Big

The road to success in Hollywood is always challenging, but having someone by your side is always better. It's challenging to get far without a supportive partner who believes in your talent before the entire world knows your name. For instance, "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler credits his wife for helping him get his start in writing movies. In an interview with "HOT 97," he revealed his wife, Zinzi Evans, splurged on a special software for him to write scripts on. That's one gift both Coogler and Marvel fans are grateful for. The beginning wasn't glamorous, but now they walk hand in hand on red carpets for his blockbuster films. 

While some stars have stuck with the partners who have been there from the beginning, others have quickly walked out the door the minute their big moment came knocking. They say fame changes you. For these celebrities, when the fame arrived, so did the demise of their relationships. Let's take a look at the stars who called it quits right after making it big.

Kristen Stewart's relationships have always made headlines. Though her relationship with Robert Pattinson had a scandalous ending, her relationship pre-"Twilight" fame ended quietly in similar fashion. Michael Angarano and Stewart began dating after meeting on the set of their movie "Speak" in 2005. In fact, the two were still going strong when Stewart landed the coveted role of Bella Swan for "Twilight," in 2008. Filming took place in Vancouver, and Angarano would frequently visit his girlfriend during the shoot. However, once the blockbuster teen romance film was released, the media began buzzing about the chemistry between Stewart and her leading man, Pattinson. 

At the time, Stewart shut down the dating rumors, claiming that she and Angarano laughed off the headlines. While filming the highly-anticipated sequel, eyebrows were raised when the co-stars were spotted holding hands, despite the fact that she was reportedly still dating Angarano. They later split in 2009, and soon Stewart and Pattinson officially debuted as a couple. 

Though Angarano never spoke about the split publicly, one person who was heartbroken over their breakup was the "Twilight" director, Catherine Hardwicke. "[Angarano] is a wonderful actor. He was in 'Dogtown,' one of my favorites, so I felt pretty bad because I love him and they were such a great couple," she told Vulture in 2012.

The 2008 film, "Slumdog Millionaire," captured audiences with a feel-good story about an orphan who was given a chance to win it all and change his life. When the film was released, the leading stars had their lives changed as well. Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto soon became household names, while the film ended up winning numerous awards. Despite the success, there was one person who wasn't too happy for Pinto — her ex-fiancé Rohan Antao. 

Antao blames the film for ruining their relationship. While promoting the film, Antao claims his then-fiancé was forced to keep their engagement a secret from the press and her peers. He was later left shocked and heartbroken when Pinto called him to break things off. "She said she wanted us to be friends. But how can I when she has destroyed my faith in love?" he told News of the World in 2009 (via Daily Mail). 

To make matters worse, Pinto was then rumored to be dating her co-star, Dev Patel. Antao claims Pinto initially denied having feelings for her co-star, but refused to spend less time with him at his request. "I hate the film. It wrecked my relationship. As soon as it became a success and she started spending all her time with Dev, she ended it," he told News of the World, per the Hindustan Times. Heartbreakingly, Antao revealed the hardest part was seeing the billboards for the film.

When Will Smith was crowned "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" in 1990, no one had an idea how big of a star he'd soon become. Two years after landing the starring role of his own hit series, Smith married his girlfriend Sheree Zampino and welcome a son. The couple first met on the set of "A Different World," and soon hit it off. However, their marriage only lasted for only three years. Smith took the divorce hard and even blamed himself. "We had a new son, and my career was taking off," he told People. "There was a lot of pressure that didn't allow the marriage to blossom." 

In a 2020 episode of "Red Table Talk," Smith described the divorce as the "ultimate failure" of his life. "I've been hurt a lot in my adult life, but I don't think anything touches the failure of getting divorced from my two-year-old son's mother," he said. While filming "Fresh Prince," the actor met Jada Pinkett and the two began dating before his divorce from Zampino was finalized. 

In an episode of "Red Table Talk" Pinkett-Smith and Zampino had an honest conversation about the past tension between them. Pinkett-Smith revealed she got involved with Smith too soon during his divorce from Zampino. "I did not understand marriage, I didn't understand divorce," she explained. "I will say I probably should've fell back."

Lance Armstrong is a former athlete with plenty of wins and controversy to his name. His doping scandal drastically damaged his reputation and left the athlete without the glory he had for so long in his career. Long before being banned from competing in his sport, Armstrong was a family man married to Kristin Richard. The couple met at an event hosted by his cancer foundation. "He had just finished up his chemotherapy," she told Oprah.com. "He was bald and cute, and it was a business relationship at first that evolved into a friendship." The couple married in 1998 and Richard supported him through his testicular cancer diagnosis. However, after just five years of marriage, the couple announced their divorce.

Richard described their marriage as a time when she lost sight of who she was. She described becoming a people pleaser who no longer was an independent woman. "It wasn't Lance saying, 'You should be like this' or 'Do this,'" she explained. "It wasn't him making a mandate and me being a mouse. It was me trying to emulate whatever I thought would be the perfect wife or the perfect mother." 

After their divorce, Armstrong began dating singer Sheryl Crow. Richard didn't seem to mind that he moved on to someone famous so soon. "His new life has nothing to do with me. Being famous or hanging around with famous people, I don't think that ever did it for me," she told The New York Times.

For almost a decade, Anna Faris and Chris Pratt were Hollywood's adorable funny couple. In 2018, the actors shocked fans when they announced they split. "Anna and I are sad to announce we are legally separating. We tried hard for a long time, and we're really disappointed. Our son has two parents who love him very much and for his sake we want to keep this situation as private as possible moving forward," Pratt wrote on his Facebook page. Though the couple didn't give an official reason for why they split, Faris has opened up about it on her podcast, "Anna Faris Is Unqualified."

During one episode featuring actor Gwyneth Paltrow, Faris spoke about the troubles that occur in a marriage with two people in the same profession. "I've been married twice ... My two other marriages were with actors, and I don't think we did a great job of eliminating competitiveness," she told Paltrow. "Or at least I didn't, being a proud person, and not wanting to reveal vulnerability." 

At the start of their marriage, Faris was the bigger movie star while Pratt had his stint on "Parks and Recreation." His career took off in 2014 when he landed a role in "Guardians of the Galaxy," and followed it up with "Jurassic World" and "Passengers" in 2015 and 2016. The drastic switch in their popularity seemed to have caused tension between the two.