Red Flags We Missed In Fergie And Josh Duhamel's Marriage

Fergie and Josh Duhamel are lovers turned best buddies and co-parents. That's almost unheard of in the realm of Hollywood, but the two are somehow making it work. The pair had been together for eight years before calling it quits, and they remain friends to this day. Fergie even publicly expressed her support for Duhamel when he got married to Audra Mari and when they announced that they were expecting their first child together.

While the former Black Eyed Peas member and "Win A Date with Tad Hamilton" star rarely opens up about their marriage, Duhamel shared a rare glimpse as to why they didn't work out in an "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" appearance. "There wasn't anything wrong with [our relationship]," he noted. "We had a great time. I think we kind of outgrew each other." He also emphasized that there was no animosity between the two and commended Fergie for being a kind soul. "I've got no hard feelings for it. I truly don't," he added. "I'm very lucky that she's a kind human. I think we both agree that we're very different people."

Duhamel's revelation drove home the fact that the former lovebirds are nothing but amicable, but was their marriage really devoid of any glaring issues? We beg to differ. Sure, they didn't generate a ton of salacious tabloid headlines, but there were still signs along the way that they weren't meant to last.

Josh Duhamel and Fergie's love story used to be gushed over by many, especially since Duhamel wasn't shy about making the first move on the "Glamourous" singer. He publicly admitted that he had the hots for her the moment he watched a Black Eyed Peas music video, telling InStyle: "My recurring dream involves the lead singer of The Black Eyed Peas. Oh, my god, I've got the biggest crush on her! God, she is hot!" That prompted his resolve to meet her in person in hopes of asking her out, and as we all know, his efforts had been successful.

Duhamel pulled some strings to get Fergie to guest on the show he was starring in, and lucky for him, the "Las Vegas" producers were able to book the Black Eyed Peas. Fergie, for her part, admitted to being a bit hesitant about the actor since soap operas were not her jam. "All my friends knew about him because he had been a soap opera star," she told Playboy (via CBS News). "I'm not into soap operas, but they told me, 'You gotta go out with him. Do it for the group. Take one for the team.'"

She did take one for the team, but Duhamel later admitted that it was thanks to all his, err, "stalking" efforts. "I literally stalked her for weeks until she said yes. They say it's not stalking if she says yes," he quipped to Parade. We don't know about you, but stalking doesn't sound like the recipe for a successful relationship.

Josh Duhamel and Fergie had been married for less than a year when cheating allegations challenged their union. In 2009, a woman named Nicole Forrester took the media on a field day when she alleged that she got intimate with the "Life As We Know It" actor.

"We did hook up and had lots of sex and we had a really, really good time," she told Atlanta radio station Q100's "Bert Show" (via People). She reportedly also sold her story to the National Enquirer for thousands of dollars and doubled down on her claims. She was even subjected to a lie detector test. "It's the truth," she alleged. "I'm not lying about anything. I have nothing to hide and he's just guilty as I am.3"

Meanwhile, Duhamel vehemently denied the allegations. "This is not the first nor will it be the last time that a stripper was paid a large amount of money to sell a false story about a celebrity,"  a statement released by his rep said. But even then, Forrester told Extra that the actor continued to text her. "Wow, you are scared?" one of the messages reportedly read (via Us Weekly), but Forrester said she no longer wanted anything to do with him. "I kept telling him I don't want any part of this."

Fergie didn't hesitate to admit that Josh Duhamel's cheating controversy put a strain on their relationship, but she initially asserted that they came out of it stronger than ever. "When you go through difficult times, it really makes you stronger as a unit, as a partnership. It does for us, anyway. Our love today is a deeper love, definitely," the singer shared in an "Oprah's Next Chapter" episode. "We're stronger today definitely because of anything difficult that's happened with us. We deal with it, we communicate; communicating's the most important thing."

However, insiders close to the couple claimed something different. One told InTouch that Duhamel was quite touchy-feely with women, which led to many a fight. "Josh was still flirty with women. He'd lean in and whisper in their ears... and acted single," they said. A year before they announced their separation, another source told Star Magazine that Fergie once contracted spies to follow Duhamel around at an event and discovered that he had indeed been flirty, something he had denied. "Josh swore nothing happened," the source claimed (via Radar).

Long before Fergie and Josh Duhamel tied the knot, they had already agreed on how many kids they would have. In fact, they made the decision just two to three dates in! Duhamel told the singer he wanted to have a big family, but Fergie made it clear that she had a limit.

"We negotiated early on to have two kids, because he said he wanted five. And I was on the date going, 'OK, well, we could be really good friends, but my limit is two,'" Fergie told E! News. They only had one kid, however, with a source telling Life & Style that prior to their split, the two clashed about when to have another. It's likely because Fergie had been preoccupied with promoting her album at the time. "She's about to get real busy here with this album coming out next month, so I'm guessing after all of that's done, we can start working on it again? I don't know," Duhamel shared with Ryan Seacrest in an interview (via Yahoo!).

It all became clear a year after their split that kids were indeed a major point of contention, with the actor admitting that he was ready to meet someone new, ideally a person with whom he could grow a family. "I'm not 30 years old anymore. I'm 45. I want to have more kids in the next few years," he said in the "Armchair Expert" podcast. "So it's more about finding someone young enough to have kids."

Ultimately, though, Fergie and Josh Duhamel realized that they were two fundamentally different people. Fergie was all about the glitz and the glamor of Hollywood, while Duhamel wanted a more lowkey life. He discussed it in his "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" guesting, noting he never "really got comfortable with all of it."

"It was just a lot. I just missed the simplicity of who I really am. I'm just not a guy who is comfortable going to red carpets, doing all the Hollywood stuff," he confessed. "I don't hate it; I'm better at it now than I was, but it just took me a long time really feel like I fit in."

Even friends close to the former lovebirds admitted to noticing that their lifestyles diverged. "They lived "completely different lifestyles" that ultimately drove them apart," they told E! News. "They have always had very separate lives and not a lot in common... There wasn't a lot of overlap in priorities." While they tried their hardest to salvage their marriage, their differences eventually took their toll. "It just became very clear that they are not on the same page and don't see things the same way," the insider added.