The Most Scandalous Love Affairs In History
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Scandalous love affairs have always captivated us. Like Paris and Helen of Troy, these tales of illicit love and deceit are built into the very fabric of our stories and narratives. So when a real-life scandal plays out in front of our very eyes, we are drawn to it like moths to a flame. If a celebrity's private life becomes more interesting than their work, the media and the fans flock to the more engaging story and devour it. And what's more captivating than an affair?
We've all heard about the nanny problem, and its connection to the mass of unfaithful celebrity marriages. The stakes are raised, however, when both parties in the affair are famous. Considering that many of these affairs start on the set of a film, they bewitch fans even more as real life comes crashing together with our fantasy world. Hollywood history is littered with these types of sordid relationships — with the couples involved and the films that helped make them forever immortalized.
Here are the most scandalous love affairs in celebrity history.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
Today, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall are remembered as one of Hollywood's greatest couples, but their coming together wasn't without at least some victims. For one, Bogart was married to actor Mayo Methot when he first started shooting "To Have and Have Not" in 1944. Bacall wasn't exactly awestruck by Bogart right away either.
According to the star in "Bacall on Bogart," it was Bogart's patience with her as a new actor that first caught her attention. "[He] believed in actors," Bacall said (via The Frisky). "And believed in actors working together." Their off-screen chemistry soon took on a new life and this led to changes in the script for "To Have and Have Not," leveraging that blossoming relationship.
Despite his feelings for Bacall, Bogart apparently decided to try and work things out in his struggling marriage. Methot was battling alcoholism and would make a failed attempt at rehab before she and Bogart finally split. During this time, the private relationship between two of Hollywood's biggest stars made for some incredible gossip. According to Orange Coast magazine, Bogart once said that stardom didn't attract him to Gina Lollobrigida, Marilyn Monroe, or Jane Russell. "In fact, the only actress in town with any true allure is Lauren Bacall," he shared. In 1945, Bogart and Methot divorced, and Bogart and Bacall married.
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Michelle Pfeiffer and John Malkovich
Before the film "Dangerous Liaisons," John Malkovich was dedicated to the theater stage. It was that project that earned him his first major recognition as a film actor, and one which may have forever typecast him as the conniving villain.
During the shooting of that film, however, there were some parallels going on behind the scenes. While Malkovich's character was trying to seduce Michelle Pfeiffer's character, the two actors began an affair that would cause the end of Malkovich's marriage to Glenne Headly. After their split, Headly apparently called Malkovich "the root of all evil" (via The Age).
Although Malkovich and Pfeiffer's affair ended shortly after it started, it was a miracle it even occurred, according to Malkovich. "It's hard to believe Michelle Pfeiffer ever said hello to me," the "Con Air" star later told Rolling Stone. "Not that she's not memorable, God knows. But I sort of blocked it out. What I'm trying to say is, when I think of the other person, I don't think of me as involved with them. They're uncorrupted by me. As if they were never troubled by my existence."
Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini
The love affair between Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini began with a simple letter. "Dear Mr. Rossellini," she wrote (via The Criterion Collection). "I saw your films Open City and Paisan, and enjoyed them very much. If you need a Swedish actress who speaks English very well, who has not forgotten her German, who is not very understandable in French, and who in Italian knows only 'ti amo,' I am ready to come and make a film with you."
From this came the suggestion to make the film "Stromboli" together. As they pitched the movie to producers and secured financing, their relationship grew. They then traveled together throughout Italy prior to shooting, much to the dismay of Bergman's husband, Petter Lindstrom. According to the biography, "As Time Goes By" (via People), while shooting the film, Rossellini seemed open to creating a scandal, happy to be photographed holding hands with the beautiful actor and even giving the press inside knowledge of Bergman's broken marriage.
Before Stromboli was finished shooting, Bergman was pregnant with Rossellini's child, and the truth of the affair was all over the American airwaves. According to the Daily Mail, she was ostracized from the American film industry and denounced as "evil." She wouldn't return to favor for more than seven years. After winning her second Academy Award in 1957 for "Anastasia," she famously said, "I've gone from saint to whore and back to saint again, all in one lifetime."
Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton
After Billy Bob Thornton won the Golden Globe for his work in "Goliath," Twitter went wild commenting on what appeared to be an awkward moment between the actor and Laura Dern. Now, it may have been nothing more than one actor walking behind another, but the history between these two is hard to ignore.
Between 1997 and 1999, Dern and Thornton were an item. In a Men's Journal piece from May 1999 (via "Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography"), Thornton said "I'm now happily involved with someone who's my best friend." The following month, in an interview with Us Weekly, however, things had changed. "I want her to be happy," Thornton said of Dern. "But it was over. That's all." So what happened?
Well, apparently, Angelina Jolie happened. Thornton and Jolie worked together on "Pushing Tin" in 1999. At some point along the way, the two kindled a relationship together. By 2000, they were married. For Dern, it may have been a bit too sudden to be a coincidence. Speaking to Talk Magazine, (via Us Weekly), Dern said, "I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again." She added, "It's like a sudden death. For no one has there been any closure or clarity."
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner
Frank Sinatra was no stranger to affairs and adultery. Not only had he been arrested on charges of adultery in 1938; he had became somewhat known for his extramarital activities. The famous crooner married Nancy Barbato in 1939 and they had three children together. But in 1948, he and Ava Gardner started what would become a legendary affair. It wasn't until 1950 that the world found out about them, Sinatra labeled a cheater and Gardner called a homewrecker.
According to the Daily Mail, while Gardner was vilified for her role in the affair and considered a gold digger, the scandal hurt Sinatra's career most. As per the book "Sinatra: Behind the Legend," Sinatra's shows started suffering, he lost his recording contract, and his voice was failing. In 1951, after Barbato gave Sinatra the divorce he sought, the music giant married Gardner.
Their union, however, would be marked with great challenges. According to "Ava: A Life in Movies," the couple battled publicly, was wrought with jealousy, and Gardner had two abortions. Their relationship ended in 1953, with the divorce finalized in 1957.
Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe
When the tabloids spotted Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe holding hands during the time they were filming "Proof of Life" together, it created an enormous scandal. Beside the fact that both actors were huge stars at the time, Ryan was still married to Dennis Quaid.
Before the film was released, the two stars tried to avoid prying eyes, but the rumor mill forged on. According to the New York Post, they confirmed their relationship in July of 2000. But Ryan insists that her failed marriage to Quaid wasn't because of Crowe or the scandal. "It dissolved before it became sport for the press," she said in a W Magazine interview (via E! News). "The public and the press tuned in way after."
But that didn't stop people from talking. There were questions about Ryan's public image. Would her America's sweetheart shine wear off because of this? Even she had to question her status in the public eye. "I found myself in a hotel lobby in London a few months ago," she said to W Magazine, "thinking, all of a sudden, 'So this is what it feels like to be the Scarlet Woman. Oh! I'm having that experience now!'" Feeling incapable of beginning another long-term relationship, Ryan ended things with Crowe not long after.
Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor
When Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher married in 1959, they did so amidst one of the biggest scandals in Hollywood history. After all, Fisher was still married to Taylor's best friend, Debbie Reynolds, when they began their relationship.
According to Reynolds in her autobiography (via the Daily Mail), a year before she married the crooner, Frank Sinatra warned her about him. She ignored the advice, and married the singer anyway. They had two children. Fisher's best friend was Mike Todd, the man who would soon become Taylor's third husband. Reynolds would be the matron of honor and Todd the best man in that 1957 wedding.
Sadly, Todd died in a plane crash in 1958, and Fisher moved in with Taylor as friendly support. One month later, however, Fisher left Reynolds for her best friend. A year after that, they were married. In the memoir "My Girls," Todd Fisher (named after his dad's best friend, Mike Todd) wrote, "The world was stunned. ... Eddie and Elizabeth were vilified. Eddie was declared a philandering, opportunistic loser, and Elizabeth was labelled a bad girl, home-wrecking sl*t. Debbie, the good girl, the innocent, unsuspecting victim and single mum, was globally embraced with love and sympathy."
Billy Crudup and Claire Danes
Billy Crudup and Mary-Louise Parker were an idolized Hollywood couple for many. They met while performing on Broadway and were together for seven years. In 2003, when Parker was seven months pregnant, however, they split. The next thing anyone knew, Crudup was with Claire Danes.
Danes and Crudup had just finished filming "Stage Beauty," a film about actors who have an affair. According to The New York Times, "The tabloids had a field day. ... Mr. Crudup was cast as the Hollywood cad, Ms. Parker as the abandoned mother." As for Danes, who later married fellow actor Hugh Dancy, she was young and unprepared for what drama might result.
"That was a scary thing," she said of the drama on "The Howard Stern Show" (via Us Weekly). "I didn't know how to not do that. ... I was just in love with him, and needed to explore that and I was 24... I didn't quite know what those consequences would be."
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
The casting of Elizabeth Taylor in the titular role of "Cleopatra" was not without some controversy. According to Entertainment Weekly, she hadn't yet lived down her reputation as a "homewrecker" from the Eddie Fisher scandal, and some people at the studio were unsure if the risk was worth the price. They moved forward with casting Taylor in the end, but it turns out that their fears were grounded.
Even with Fisher on location in Rome (Vogue reported that he was on hand "trying to learn how to become a movie producer"), Taylor and her co-star, Richard Burton, started one of the most talked-about affairs of the century while making that film. While taking a break from filming in 1962, Dick and Liz were snapped lounging together on board a yacht. The published photos sent the public and the paparazzi into a frenzy for more. According to Vogue, the Vatican publicly condemned the relationship. The scandal was inescapable. As per EW, members of the press followed them at every turn, even posing as extras to get inside information. By 1963, their relationship was public and the film was finally released. Early in 1964, mere days after she divorced Fisher, Taylor and Burton were married.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
Maybe the most famous of all rumored affairs, the alleged escapades of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on the set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" dwarfed most celebrity gossip in the last 50 years. Jolie had already been involved in a similar scandal with Billy Bob Thornton years earlier, and Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston. The setting was ripe for controversy.
While Jolie insists that no physical affair took place before Pitt's split from Aniston, telling Vogue (via People) it was "not as exciting as what a lot of people would like to believe," there was an emotional connection formed on the set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." "Because of the film, we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened," Jolie explained. "I think a few months in I realized, 'God, I can't wait to get to work.'"
They apparently left the set as close friends, but the following year, Pitt separated from Aniston and was officially with Jolie. And so began the 'Brangelina' supercouple.
Ali MacGraw and Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen was one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the early '70s, and Ali MacGraw was on her way to joining that group for her acting. Though her name would be uttered far and wide, it wasn't necessarily only for her work onscreen as much as it was for stuff going on off of it.
In 1972, shortly after being cast in "The Getaway" alongside McQueen, MacGraw and the action hero started a relationship that wore out the ink on tabloids across the country. MacGraw was a rising star who had recently married producer Robert Evans. McQueen was Hollywood's iconic bad boy. But in spite of MacGraw's nuptials, according to a Vanity Fair, "Theirs was one of the great love affairs of the past century"
"It was very, very passionate, and dramatic, and hurtful, and ecstatic," MacGraw told the publication. "It was pretty much a wipeout for both of us. But I think it's safe to say it would have been impossible not to fall in love with Steve." After the film, MacGraw divorced Evans, married McQueen, and left her career to be with him, according to Vanity Fair. It wasn't until after their 1977 divorce that MacGraw returned to the big screen with the 1978 film "Convoy."
LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian
In 2009, Us Weekly first reported news of an alleged affair between LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian. The two had been filming "Northern Lights" together and were spotted smooching and holding hands at a restaurant. Rimes was married to Dean Sheremet at the time, and Cibrian was married with children to model Brandi Glanville.
According to the director of the film, Mike Robe, "LeAnn and Eddie honestly developed a really strong bond and a warm relationship." And that sentiment was shared before the affair was publicized. Their fondness appeared to have carried on after the cameras stopped rolling. Eventually, the two would divorce their spouses and get married, a union they still hold on to, as of this writing.
In an interview with Giuliana Rancic (via Us Weekly), Rimes insisted, "Nothing ever happened between us except for on camera, you know, during the film." However, she still expressed some regret with how the whole thing played out. "I wish I handled it differently," she said, "because I wish it could've been better for me, for Brandi, for Dean, for Eddie and for everyone else. ... I know in this situation it's gonna take some time, all I wish is that everyone that was hurt, that we hurt, that I hurt, can be happy."
Marilyn Monroe and Bobby Kennedy
If the celebrity conspiracy theorists are to be believed, Marilyn Monroe was always in the middle of one affair or another. And while many of these tales are unsubstantiated (for example, there's no hard proof she was ever sleeping with Charlie Chaplin Jr.), others, like her romance with Robert F. Kennedy, are much more of an open secret. At the time, both the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" actor and the Attorney General didn't seem to acknowledge the dalliance. RFK, of course, would have been looking out for the Kennedy legacy and trying to protect his marriage to Ethel Skakel Kennedy, which began in 1950. Monroe, meanwhile, likely would have wanted to avoid any press potentially damaging her reputation. Those in their inner circles, however, reportedly knew all about the affair.
For example, in one letter that was found among Monroe's personal belongings, RFK's younger sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, wrote to her, "Understand that you and Bobby are the new item! We all think you should come with him when he comes back East!" (via The Telegraph). Biographers for both parties have also claimed that the two were almost certainly sleeping with one another. One author, James Spada, told People, "It was pretty clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with Bobby and Jack," also referencing her famous connection to President John F. Kennedy. In a 1983 BBC special, biographer Anthony Summers said Monroe's former housekeeper had told him the couple had definitely carried on an affair.
While it's unclear if or when, exactly, the romance began or how the pair first met, it's believed it only ended with Monroe's passing in 1962.
King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort
Not until Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped back from senior royalty was the monarchy as rocked by scandal as it was when Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles became public knowledge. The pair were first introduced in 1970 by a mutual, matchmaking friend. They were both acceptably single at the time and briefly dated. By 1973, Camilla was married to her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles (a former boyfriend of Princess Anne), and in 1981 Prince Charles tied the knot with Princess Diana. The old flames were rekindled, marital vows be damned.
According to insiders, Diana was aware of the secret tryst almost from the start. A former bodyguard named Ken Wharfe wrote a book about his late boss in 2022 titled "Diana — Remembering the Princess." In a promotional appearance on ITV's "Lorraine," Wharfe recounted that the princess once interrupted the lovers at a party, telling Camilla, "Look, please don't treat me like an idiot, I know what's going on." For his part, Charles acknowledged his infidelity, telling Jonathan Dimbleby on ITV that he'd been faithful for a time. "Until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried," the then-prince said. By the '90s, both Charles and Camilla had divorced their spouses, and in 1999 they stepped out together as an official couple for the first time.
Of course, the King and Queen Consort eventually married, tying the knot in a civil ceremony in 2005. Their various family members all seem to approve of the relationship, despite its scandalous beginning.
Princess Diana and James Hewitt
Shockingly, King Charles III wasn't the only person in his marriage having an affair. Sometime after Charles and Camilla, Queen Consort began not-so-secretly seeing one another, Princess Diana struck up a relationship with James Hewitt, a military man and riding instructor.
Princess Diana's former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, wrote about the royal in "Diana: A Closely Guarded Secret." He says that before he began working for Diana, she met Hewitt at a party thrown by one of her ladies-in-waiting. Struck by how normally he treated her and charmed by his offer to help her get over her fear of horses, the princess quickly made it clear that she was interested in being more than just friends with him. The pair would remain together for several years, sneaking around at Kensington Palace and writing long letters — which Hewitt later leaked — when they couldn't be together. Their relationship was so intense that there has long been speculation that Hewitt is actually Prince Harry's father (the idea is patently false, Prince Harry was born before Hewitt and Diana ever met).
The romance would dwindle toward the end of the 1980s when Hewitt accepted a military position that took him abroad. The break-up was amicable at first but turned sour when Hewitt divulged the lovers' intimate details to author Anna Pasternak for her book "Princess in Love." In a 1995 interview with the BBC, Diana confirmed the relationship, and its ultimate end, saying "Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down" (via Town & Country).
Sophia Loren and Cary Grant
In the late 1950s, Sophia Loren was a relative newcomer to the Hollywood scene, having done only a handful of movies on this side of the pond. Cary Grant was a well-established actor with a host of blockbusters under his belt. There was a 30-year age gap between the icons, Grant was married to his third wife, Betsy Drake, and Loren was engaged to Italian producer Carlo Ponti. But when they met on the set of 1957's "The Pride and the Passion," none of that mattered.
When Loren published her 2014 memoir, "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life," she admitted everything. "I was charmed by his dry wit, his wisdom, affectionate manner, his experience. ... We started spending more and more time together," she shared, adding: "I, just twenty-two years old, was often confused by a life that was going much too fast. He, at fifty-two, had lived a lot and suffered a lot, too, although it appeared as though he had everything." She claimed they both were frightened by falling in love.
It seems that the romance only lasted for the length of the shoot, or perhaps a little bit longer. By the time the couple shot their second film together, "Houseboat" in 1958 — which was based on Drake's idea and originally starred her, per The Guardian — things had soured. Even as they worked side by side, Loren remembered, "...the magic of our period in Spain had ended. We were at a standstill." The actor would eventually marry Ponti, who'd had his own legal complications while trying to end his first marriage. Grant would divorce Drake in 1962.
Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders
In 2012, the last installment of the "Twilight" franchise had just been released, and the film's primary stars and IRL couple, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, were young Hollywood's it-couple. The duo was so beloved, there were literal Instagram accounts dedicated to posting paparazzi images and videos of the couple, as well as fan bloggers devoted to tracking the pair's every move. They were huge, which is why so many fans felt so betrayed when it came out that Stewart had been carrying on an affair with her married director, Rupert Sanders.
In July 2012, Us Weekly published a series of photos showing Stewart and Sanders cuddling and canoodling. The scandal picked up traction quickly thanks to Stewart's huge fan base and forced both stars to issue public apologies to their respective partners and families. Sanders told People, "I am utterly distraught by the pain I have caused my family... I am praying that we can get through this together." Stewart, meanwhile, told the outlet, "I'm deeply sorry... This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him..."
Sanders' apology didn't seem to go very far with his wife, and they divorced shortly after the pictures were made public. Pattinson, on the other hand, was more open to the groveling, and he dated Stewart for months after the affair was out. The couple eventually broke up in 2013, with sources citing personal problems as the reason for their split, per Us Weekly.
James Cameron and Suzy Amis
James Cameron has a bit of a reputation in Hollywood for being a ladies' man. The director has been married five times and had a handful of long-term relationships outside of those unions.
In the early '90s, Cameron was directing "Terminator" and began dating the film's leading lady, Linda Hamilton. The two were together for several years, welcomed a daughter in 1993, and, by all accounts, seemed on the road to marriage. But then, Cameron began working on "Titanic" where he met Suzy Amis, the actor who played Rose's granddaughter, Lizzy Calvert. Smitten with the younger woman, Cameron reportedly began seeing her. Hamilton later told the Daily Mail in 2011 that she and Cameron had actually been on a break from the marriage, enabling him to see other people. Despite what you may be thinking, that wasn't the end of it. Cameron eventually broke up with Amis and went back to Hamilton, marrying her in 1997. Then in 1999, the pair divorced, and in 2000, Cameron tied the knot with Amis, to whom he is still married.
Hamilton explained to the Daily Mail, "It was a painful time because we'd had a relationship where I'd push him away, then he'd push me away. Frankly, most of our relationship was us taking a big break." She also stated, "The woman he can't get is always his dream girl." While the actor said she and Cameron loved each other quite a bit, their bold personalities made a happy, healthy romantic relationship seemingly impossible.
Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott
In 2005, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott were hard at work on a TV movie called "Mind Over Murder." The project was a flop, as evidenced by its incredibly low IMDb rating, but the stars still got something out of it — each other.
When they first arrived on set, both actors were married. Tori Spelling was with Charlie Shanian and Dean McDermott with Mary Jo Eustace. But it didn't stay that way for long. Rumors quickly began spreading that the co-stars were having an affair, something they all but confirmed when they tied the knot right after Spelling's divorce was finalized. In an episode of "True Tori" that aired in 2014, the actor finally admitted what everyone had long suspected to be true: she and McDermott had, in fact, begun seeing each other when they were both in other relationships.
"[Dean] was married [when we met]," she told a friend on the show, adding: "We had sex the first night we met... It wasn't like, 'Oh, just get your rocks off, just have sex with someone just to have sex,' you know? It was a conscious decision, like, fell head over heels for you." While they may have been head over heels for each other at the time, things haven't all been smooth sailing since then. In 2014, McDermott cheated on Spelling with another woman. He and Spelling appeared distant for a while,but McDermott gave The U.S. Sun a good report on their marriage in 2022.
Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy
One of Hollywood's greatest love stories is that of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It's also one of the most scandalous affairs in show business. Hepburn and Tracy first met in the early '40s when they co-starred in "Woman of the Year." Tracy was almost 20 years into his marriage with fellow actor Louise Tracy at that point and was not inclined, most likely due to his Catholic faith, to file for divorce. As a result, his romance with the younger Hepburn was carried on almost entirely in secret.
According to People, the duo took care to never be photographed together while out and about. But that doesn't mean they weren't spending plenty of time together. The aforementioned outlet reported that Tracy eventually moved into a home of his own that was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Hepburn's. Outside of work — they'd wind up filming nine movies together including "Guess Who's Coming for Dinner" — they likely spent the bulk of their time in the privacy of their veritable abodes.
Per Variety, Hepburn and Tracy would remain together until Tracy's death in 1967, and it wasn't until the '80s that Hepburn spoke about the affair. In her 1991 memoir, she wrote, "I loved Spencer Tracy. He and his interests and his demands came first. This was not easy for me because I was definitely a me me me person." An internal spirit of giving, she explained, was the meaning of love.
Donald Trump and Marla Maples
In 1990, the biggest celebrity scandal was, unquestionably, the ugly dissolution of Donald Trump and the late Ivana Trump's marriage. The socialites had tied the knot in 1977 and had welcomed three children, Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. Outwardly their marriage seemed happy, but behind closed doors, Donald had been carrying on an affair with a younger model named Marla Maples.
In her memoir, "Raising Trump," Ivana recounted how she learned about her husband's infidelity. While skiing in Aspen, the socialite said she was approached by Maples, who introduced herself by saying, "I'm Marla and I love your husband. Do you?" Outraged, Trump replied, "Get lost. I love my husband." She noted, "It was unladylike but I was in shock. My kids were next to me on the food line, watching the whole exchange. My heart sank into my ski boots." Things spiraled from there, and just two months later, the couple separated. Their divorce would be finalized in 1992.
Maples, who would eventually become Trump's second wife, said in an interview on ABC's "Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris" podcast, "I never considered myself a mistress." She added, "Do I wish more than anything that we could have had this relationship after...divorce papers were signed? Absolutely. With all of my heart. How much heartache would it have saved so many people if I had seen that piece of paper before we got involved? But it didn't happen that way." Maples also claimed her faith was a big part of their relationship. "When Donald and I came together... I do believe there was divinity in it. ... I believed that together, we could do some very powerful things in the world," she said.
Sarah Ferguson and John Bryan
Prince Charles wasn't the only royal dealing with marital issues in the '90s. His brother, Prince Andrew, who had married Sarah Ferguson in 1986, was also going through a separation. While the couple wasn't forthcoming with an official reason for the dissolution of their union, it was widely understood that various affairs had played a role in their decision.
You might think Prince Andrew's friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had a part in the divorce. But it was actually Fergie's romance with a businessman named John Bryan that made headlines at the time. In August 1992, British tabloid the Daily Mirror published pictures of the financier sucking or kissing on topless Fergie's toes as she sunbathed. The images and all they implied — that the couple was sharing an intimate relationship on a romantic vacation while Fergie was still very much married to her husband — caused a huge scandal. The palace was reportedly enraged with the duchess, and many commoners who had previously been supportive of the royal now firmly saw her as a villain.
While the affair wasn't what initially drove Prince Andrew and Fergie apart, it certainly didn't help the tension between them. These days, they seem to have moved past the incident, seeing as how they've lived together in the Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle for years, despite being divorced since 1996. With the events of his life being depicted on "The Crown," Bryan has spoken about the toe fiasco on "Lorraine," claiming the photos represented a playful moment, and the media frenzy could have been handled better.
Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert
For much of the aughts, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert were country music's First Couple. The duo frequently collaborated in the studio and made dozens of red carpet appearances together over the course of their decade-long relationship. They seemed wildly in love... until their surprise divorce in 2015.
What many people don't know about the couple, however, is the fact that their relationship began when they were both involved with other people. In 2005, they met through work, singing on CMT in a duet and hugging at the end of their performance. At that time, Shelton was married to his first wife, Kaynette Williams, and Lambert was engaged to a singer named Jeff Allen McManus. Just five months after their chance encounter, Shelton had filed for divorce from his first wife and Lambert had ended her engagement. On an episode of VH1's "Behind the Music," Shelton said, "I've never had that kind of experience with anybody. I was a married guy, you know? Looking back on that, I was falling in love with her, right there on stage." The heart wants what it wants.
In 2011, Lambert admitted on an episode of "Dateline" (via E! News) that she knew the country star wasn't available when she met him. Speaking of Shelton and his then-wife, she said: "I had seen their wedding pictures in Country Weekly. I knew better, like, 'This is off-limits.' My parents are private investigators, for God's sake. I've seen this my whole life — affairs — and of all people to know better, I know better than this." The singers have reportedly denied that they became involved while still with other people.
Kelsey Grammer and Kayte Walsh
"Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer's romantic past has been a wild ride, particularly his marriage to Bravo star Camille Grammer and their subsequent divorce after his affair. Their story could be the basis for its own limited series.
Kelsey met Camille in 1996 on a blind date and married her the following year. The couple had two kids, established their own production company, and settled down in the LA. area before Camille accepted a starring role on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" in 2010. During her first season on the show, she stunned fans when she announced Kelsey was seeking a divorce and that he had been unfaithful for quite some time. Kelsey's new fling, viewers would come to find out, was an English flight attendant named Kayte Walsh. It's never been clear when exactly Kelsey and Walsh met, or when they began dating. By the time Camille found out, the illicit romance had been going on for long enough that there was no hope for reconciliation.
The Grammers' ugly divorce played out on the reality TV series for all to see. To this day, neither party has much of anything nice to say about the other. When prompted, Walsh did tell Oprah Winfrey, "I'm not proud of the way we started out. Because you were in, he was in a marriage. ... I fell in love." She struggled to find the words as she apologized. A couple weeks after finalizing his and Camille's divorce, Kelsey married Walsh, and the couple has since welcomed three children.
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
While some celebrities exhibit a degree of reticence when it comes to their affairs — not speaking openly about the intimate details of their entanglements or discussing why they chose their new partner over their old one — others share all the nitty gritty. Paul Newman is a perfect example of the latter.
Newman married first wife Jackie Witte in 1949, and he seemed, by all accounts, to be happy. Then, Newman landed an understudy spot in the Broadway production of "Picnic," where he met a fellow understudy named Joanne Woodward, and his marriage began to suffer. Newman and Woodward soon began having an affair, which ultimately resulted in Newman divorcing Witte to marry his new lover. If they had just left things at that and retreated into quiet married life, the scandal might not have been so bad. But Hollywood's "golden couple" instead elected to share all of the intimate details of their romance with the world.
The actor and entrepreneur's posthumous memoir, "Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man," was released in fall 2022. Newman wrote, "Joanne gave birth to a sexual creature. We left a trail of lust all over the place. Hotels and public parks and Hertz Rent-A-Cars" (via People). Yet he was still very much married to Witte. "I went from not being much of a sexual threat to being something else entirely," he wrote. There is something about bragging about how good the affair sex was that just feels... icky. Newman had three children with each of his wives.
Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith arguably has one of the wildest stories in Hollywood, so it honestly doesn't come as much of a surprise for us to learn that she got tangled up in an affair at least once. The daughter of Tippi Hedren, Griffith married her first husband, Don Johnson, for the first time when she was just 19 years old. That marriage didn't last long, but in the late '80s, the couple reconnected and tied the knot for a second time.
Then, Griffith landed a role in the 1995 rom-com "Two Much" opposite Spanish heartthrob Antonio Banderas. According to the dreamy actor, their romance blossomed quickly. "It was very, very fast and very compulsive, but at the same time, we were tied at the time," he told Diane Sawyer for ABC News. Speaking of their respective exes, he said, "We tried as much as we could to be respectful. We just thought this may be one of those, you know, infatuation moments that we have when we shoot movies because we got to play together a couple, so let's just go home." Banderas was married to Ana Leza during his affair with Griffith. Eventually, he and Griffith would go home together, and they made their illicit romance official when they tied the knot in 1996.
In 2014, the couple divorced, but they remain close and are known for having one of the most amicable, generous divorces in celebrity history. In an interview with Vulture, Banderas explained, "I am not married with Melanie anymore but she is my family. She is probably one of my best friends, if not the best friend that I have."