The Most Brutal Celeb Breakups
Breaking up is hard to do — especially when your split becomes part of the 24-hour news cycle.
For every media-trained, publicist-controlled split narrative, you have stars who go totally rogue. Some celebs keep one another guessing with the rest of the world (like Nikki Bella and John Cena), some flagrantly cheat (a whole lot), while others prefer unhinged social media rants (hello, Rob Kardashian), or bizarre, bitter litigations (Nick Loeb and Sofia Vergara).
Others choose colder, more calculated tactics: Daniel Day-Lewis is reportedly a fan of ghosting, many have dumped over text or email, some used the press (ouch Matt Damon!) and others like Rita Ora and Geena Davis deny certain unions ever happened.
In any case, these breakups were all particularly brutal in various ways. On the bright side, just about everyone involved in them is rich, attractive and at least somewhat successful, so don't cry for them too much.
'You get dumped! You get dumped! You get dumped!'
Actor Matt Damon and actress Minnie Driver dated for more than a year, until he boldly proclaimed on Oprah that he was single, leaving the poor British beauty to find out at the same time as the rest of the world. Ouch! Driver later told the Los Angeles Times, "It's unfortunate that Matt went on Oprah. It seemed like a good forum for him to announce to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate."
Though she also once described falling for Damon as "an occupational hazard," Driver seemed to have gained some perspective on the whole situation years later. "I was young for my age and didn't have any of my family around me," she told the Daily Mail. "So I was probably just a bit lost and I upset a few people because there were times when I spoke before I thought,' she continued, adding, "You fall out with the wrong person then you're done for."
Did he at least use any cool emoji?
Katy Perry and Russell Brand were married for 14 months when they suddenly announced their divorce in 2012. What we didn't find out for more than a year was just how Brand dumped his wife. Perry revealed to Vogue, "He's a very smart man, and I was in love with him when I married him. Let's just say I haven't heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011."
In the same interview, the "Swish Swish" songstress accused Brand of being controlling during their marriage, alleging that he was intimidated by her success and disheartened at her intense touring and promotional schedule.
"I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth," she said. "I let go and I was like: 'This isn't because of me; this is beyond me.' So, I have moved on from that."
Perry hasn't revealed what the "real truth is," but one of her closest pals, Markus Molinari, tweeted in March 2012, "Seeee Russell! RT @JohnSchaech: Cheating is easy, try doing something challenging and be faithful." For his part, however, Brand has vehemently denied ever cheating on his former wife, but later admitted to Us Weekly that he may have projected his own issues onto Perry.
Sylvester Stallone didn't trust his heartbreak to a government agency
Rocky (1976) star Sylvester Stallone dated model Jennifer Flavin for more than five years before dumping her in 1994 with a six-page handwritten letter, delivered to her via FedEx, reported People. "It was pretty sloppy," she quipped at the time, adding, "I cried a lot. I called all my friends. ... I was disappointed. You can't just write somebody off in a letter after six years. It's not like I was going to try to beg him to come back to me or anything. I just wanted to talk." Yeesh.
After a brief engagement to model Angie Everhart and suspicions that he fathered a baby with model Janice Dickinson (it wasn't his), Sly eventually crawled back to Flavin and married her in 1997 — and they've been going strong ever since.
Surprise divorces are never good
Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora found out that his marriage to actress Heather Locklear was over way after the rest of the world did. Hours after Locklear's publicist announced that the former Melrose Place (1992-99) star filed for divorce in February 2006, Sambora told ABC News, "It's completely untrue," even adding that the pair had Valentine's Day plans together.
Unfortunately, it was completely true, and while Locklear's shady move sure made her look like a woman who gave love a bad name — Sorry, bad joke. We couldn't resist — it was Sambora who allegedly had a few surprises of his own. Speaking with People, a supposed "friend of the couple" said that Locklear "found an e-mail sent to Sambora by a woman they both knew" which included "provocative pictures." The friend went on to say that Sambora adamantly denied any affair with the woman, but that Locklear was "absolutely devastated" nonetheless. Did he try laying her down on a bed of roses? Okay, we'll stop now.
An ugly divorce on The Real Housewives?! No...
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams claimed she was blindsided by NFL star Kordell Stewart, and she may have been the last to know about it. "I literally was lying in bed and I looked at Twitter and it was going crazy," Williams told ABC News (via E! News). "I saw on Twitter that my husband has filed for divorce."
When Williams asked Stewart, who was just down the hall from her, about the news, she said he blew her off. "It wasn't a confrontation," she insisted. "It was me just simply asking my husband, 'Had you filed?,' which seemed crazy coming out of my mouth. According to Williams, "He said he thought about it and we'll talk about it later and he left for work. I had to call my attorney to find out."
As is often the case on any Housewives series, it only went downhill from there, with Williams even making insinuations that Stewart might be gay, according to Radar Online, although she did claim that had "nothing to do with the reason why we are [getting] divorced." So... why bring it up, right? For his part, Stewart stayed relatively mum about the situation until he released a memoir in 2016 called Truth: The Kordell Stewart Story. Finally addressing the divorce, he wrote (via Radar Online) that the show exacerbated "existing problems" with their marriage, and that he felt that it was "having a 'negative impact' on his 'young, impressionable' son, Syre.
Daniel Day-Lewis never had to method act as a decent boyfriend
Many reports said that Daniel Day-Lewis dumped his longtime girlfriend Isabelle Adjani via fax. While Adjani later disputed the fax claim, the details she revealed about their split were far more damning.
"I told him I was pregnant ... We never saw each other again," Adjani told The Mail On Sunday in 1996. "He never told me it was over." It actually gets worse — Adjani claimed Day-Lewis requested to be present at the birth of their son, Gabriel Kane, then never showed up. He also allegedly informed her via Fedex that he'd gotten married. When she called to congratulate him and his then-girlfriend, Deya Pichardo, Adjani got another shock.
"Deya answered the phone. I asked if I could speak to Daniel as I had just received his note about the wedding and I wanted to congratulate them both," Adjani said. "Then I realized it was a terrible shock to her and that she was not his betrothed ... She didn't have a clue."
Day-Lewis didn't deny the heartless allegations when asked about the split. The Oscar-winner admitted the stories made him feel terrible, telling The Guardian, "I knew at that time only too well what my responsibilities were, and in what sense I had failed myself and people that I loved," he said, adding that elaborations on the breakup tale painted him to be like "'the antichrist' ... The reality, the facts of that situation, were hard enough," he griped.
Charlize Theron doesn't believe in ghosting
Actress Charlize Theron dumped actor Sean Penn the new-fashioned way in 2015: she reportedly ghosted her fiancé for a few weeks until he got the message. A source told Us Weekly, "Charlize wasn't responding to his calls and texts. She just cut it off."
Theron's disappearing act became the talk of Tinseltown, but she said the gossip was ridiculous. "There is this need to sensationalize things," she told The Wall Street Journal magazine. "When you leave a relationship there has to be some f**king crazy story or some crazy drama. And the f**king ghosting thing, like literally I still don't even know what it is." Okay, okay, moving on. (By the way, Penn declined to comment on that article.)
Were there no carrier pigeons available?
Singer Phil Collins actually did dump someone via fax: his wife of 10 years, socialite Jill Tavelman (above right), in 1994. She told People that in fairness, when he was touring at the time, that was his main means of communication. "[Daughter Lily] hasn't seen her father for two months. She keeps weeping, 'I want my daddy,'" Tavelman said. "Phil sends her faxes, but I know she'd rather hear his voice. Phil doesn't phone because he has to save his voice for the next day."
Collins later addressed what became known as "faxgate" in his 2016 memoir, Not Dead Yet, claiming that he actually made repeated attempts to call Tavelman, but was unable to get through. He also claimed that he was manipulated by the UK tabloid News of the World into talking about the scandal, which only made things worse. Complicating matters even further, Collins admitted that throughout all of this, he was carrying on an affair with then-21-year-old model Orianne Cevey, who he later married, divorced, then remarried. "Easy Lover?" Sure doesn't sound like it.
It only took 27 seconds for Joe Jonas to break Taylor Swift's heart
In 2008, pop star Joe Jonas became the first of a long line of famous men to reportedly break songstress Taylor Swift's heart, and he did it by phone. She told talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, "I'm not even going to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18...I looked at the call log — it was like 27 seconds. That's got to be a record."
To be fair: Jonas said that conversation was a two-way street. People reported that Jonas penned a blog to his fans about the split. "For those who have expressed concern over the '27 second' phone call, I called to discuss feelings with the other person," he wrote. "Those feelings were obviously not well received. I did not end the conversation. Someone else did. Phone calls can only last as long as the person on the other end of the line is willing to talk." Who did the real hurting on this one? You be the judge.
Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris' heartbreak was less than harmonious
Swift and Scottish DJ Calvin Harris dated for more than a year before they broke up in June 2016, and it got ugly fast. It was revealed only after their split that Harris and Swift had collaborated on his hit "This is What You Came For." Swift used the pseudonym "Nils Sjoberg" in the songwriting credits, reportedly to avoid drawing attention to their relationship and overshadowing their music. It was a move that all parties involved supposedly agreed to, so when Harris said he wouldn't consider collaborating with his then-girlfriend in an interview, it should not have been a thing. But it was.
Shortly after they split and Swift hooked up with actor Tom Hiddleston, her rep announced that she co-wrote the song, which Harris didn't deny. In fact, Harris even noted that she also sang a bit on the song and praised what a great job she did. However, he did call her out for what he interpreted as a calculated and spiteful move on her part to belittle his own producing and musical talent. He tweeted, "I figure if you're happy in your new relationship you should focus on that instead of trying to tear your ex bf down for something to do... Hurtful to me at this point that her and her team would go so far out of their way to try and make ME look bad at this stage... I know you're off tour and you need someone new to try and bury like Katy ETC but I'm not that guy, sorry. I won't allow it."
Keeping up with Kim's divorce lawyer
Kim Kardashian and NBA star Kris Humphries got engaged in May 2011 after just three months of dating. They tied the knot in a highly publicized wedding in August 2011 that aired on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The marriage was over 72 days later. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Kardashian said she knew her marriage was doomed before it even began, but tried to convince herself she just had cold feet. She claimed even momager Kris Jenner told her the night before the wedding that she knew Humphries wasn't The One for her thirstiest daughter, and even offered to handle the fallout of a split.
However, Kardashian said, "I felt like, if I pulled out now, everyone's going to think I just did it for the show. Then afterwards, people were saying, 'You have to stay married for a year,' but I physically couldn't do it. When I made the decision [to divorce], everyone said it was made up for the show."
When Kardashian filed for divorce, Humphries supposedly learned about it in the press. Humphries then allegedly rejected a $7 million divorce settlement, because he wanted Kardashian "to admit to fraud, to admit the whole thing was staged for publicity, to make a public apology to him because he really wanted a marriage," according to Page Six. She didn't, and their divorce proceedings lasted longer than their entire relationship, with the split not being finalized until April 2013 ... when she was heavily pregnant with her and Kanye West's first child, North.
Adam Levine dumped his rebound in a text
Adam Levine, then 34, had split with then-girlfriend Behati Prinsloo and was romancing fellow model Nina Agdal, who was then just 21. That is, until Levine got engaged to Prinsloo behind Agdal's back ... and informed her in a pretty cold-hearted way. Sources told Page Six in July 2013 that Levine broke the news to a "heartbroken" Agdal via text. Ouch! For her part, Agdal was much more diplomatic about the split than she needed to be.
"I am 21 years old, and I don't think anyone who is 21 knows what love is about yet," she told Ocean Drive. "I think love just happens. It happened to them and I'm happy for them. I am not even worried about anything like that." She added, "If something is meant to be, then it will be ... We are 21 years old, okay? Go out, have a tequila, and stop worrying about it."
Levine and Prinsloo tied the knot in 2014 and share daughters Dusty Rose and Gio Grace.
Big Sean had a grande surprise for Naya Rivera
Former Glee (2009-15) star Naya Rivera found out her engagement to rapper Big Sean was over...from reading reports about the split online. Ouch! She reportedly suspected he was cheating on her with pop star Ariana Grande, who he started dating not long after their breakup.
"We'd been fighting for five straight days while he was traveling, and then on the one day that he was back in LA, he said he didn't want to see me," Rivera recalled in her book Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up (via the Daily Mail). "Well, a**hole, I've got a key to your house. I walk in, go downstairs, and guess what little girl is sitting cross-legged on the couch listening to music? It rhymes with "Smariana Schmande."' She added, "I learned that I was no longer getting married from the internet, and at the same time as the rest of the world. Not only were we no longer getting married, but apparently we weren't even together anymore."
Rivera ended up marrying Pitch (2016) actor Ryan Dorsey on the same day her wedding to Big Sean had been scheduled for in July 2014. (Dorsey and Rivera split in late 2016.)
Amber Heard and Johnny Depp put it all out there
In May 2016, actress Amber Heard filed for divorce from actor Johnny Depp after less than two years of marriage. Less than two weeks later, she filed a domestic violence restraining order against him and shared a photo of her with a bruised eye she claimed was caused by Depp, People reported. Depp denied the allegations, but it only got uglier from there.
Allegations of infidelity swirled, and a video of an angry, allegedly drunk Depp was released to press. The estranged couple even fought over its eventual $7 million divorce settlement and whether Depp should have written checks to Heard or donated them directly to the charities of her choice. The split was finalized about eight months after the initial filing, and even that was somewhat contentious in its wording—the agreement stipulated that Heard was not allowed to speak about the domestic violence allegations she'd previously levied against the Pirates of the Caribbean star.
Chris Brown sounds like a real treat
Rihanna wasn't R&B star Chris Brown's only brutal celeb breakup. After years of on-again-off-again drama (during which Brown was also, at one point, dating Rihanna again), Tran finally hit the road for good in 2015 when it was revealed that Brown had fathered a daughter with another woman during their relationship.
Unfortunately, Brown reportedly refused to let Tran make a clean break. In February 2017, Tran obtained a restraining order against the singer, forcing him to stay 100 yards away from her, her mother, and her brother. Tran claimed Brown told people he was going to kill her and that "if he can't have her, no one can." She also alleged that he threatened her friends, and she claimed that during their relationship, Brown "punched [her] in the stomach twice" and "pushed [her] down the stairs." A former neighbor of the couple corroborated Tran's abuse claims. Brown denied Tran's allegations.
In June 2017, TMZ reported that a judge extended Tran's protective order against Brown to five years. Insiders claimed the pair was careful not to cross paths at the BET Awards later that month, but TMZ noted that Brown appeared to be beefing with Tran's new boyfriend, Migos rapper Quavo, at the event.
Was this a divorce or a cage match?
Linda and Hulk Hogan split in 2007 after he allegedly had an affair with Christiane Plante, a close friend of their daughter, former pop star Brooke Hogan. (Plante denied having an actual affair, per se, insisting she and Hulk only hooked up after he and Linda privately agreed to separate.)
The St. Petersburg Times (via E! News) reported that Linda received "a little more than 70 percent of the couple's liquid assets, along with 40 percent ownership in his various companies. He also paid her an additional $3 million property settlement, which was partly pocketed from the sale of their beach house." Linda also reportedly landed "$7.44 million of the couple's $10.41 million held in bank and investment accounts."
After filing for divorce, Linda hooked up with Charlie Hill, a 19-year-old pal of their son, Nick. In Linda's autobiography, she claimed Hulk engaged in affairs with men and abused her throughout the marriage, though she never reported it until after their divorce. Hulk denied all of the allegations, telling Good Morning America (via the Daily Mail) that that she essentially made it all up to sell books. Hulk then sued Linda for defamation of character in 2011, and she later retracted her claims and insisted she'll always love him. However, her love for him didn't stop her from dissing him after he won a $115 million judgment against Gawker for publishing a sex tape of him and a friend's wife (Hulk reportedly did not consent to being filmed). Linda told Inside Edition, "It made me a little bit sick. I don't know how he can sleep at night getting that money for doing what he did in a roundabout way. It's dirty money."
Sounds like Audrina Patridge was right to run for the... hills
In September 2017, former The Hills (2006-10) star Audrina Patridge filed for divorce from husband Corey Bohan and obtained a protective order against him, citing domestic violence concerns and extreme jealousy. At the time, their daughter was just one year old, and they were married for only 10 months.
"His aggressive behavior usually escalates whenever I am paying attention to work obligations, rather than to him," Patridge claimed in court documents obtained by E! News. "When we are apart, he texts me obsessively, rattling my nerves and making it difficult for me to concentrate on my work commitments... His harassing behavior has recently become so extreme that I physically separated from him a few weeks ago. I am fearful of [Bohan]'s temper because he cannot control his swearing and personal attacks on me, even when in the presence of our young daughter..."
Patridge specified one incident in which Bohan allegedly "was jealous [she] was out with people, accused [her] of partying and cheating on him and threatened to kill himself." She cited another situation in which Bohan allegedly followed her at a speaking event, even shadowing her when she went onstage.
A source told People, "She got the restraining order because she was afraid how he would retaliate when she filed for divorce. Corey has said to Audrina multiple times, 'If you leave me, I'll come after you.' So she had to get some additional protection."
The only future for these two is their son ... literally
Future and Ciara called off their engagement in 2014, just three months after their son was born. Sources told Us Weekly that Future's infidelity led to the split. The breakup triggered a bitter custody battle, as well as Ciara filing a lawsuit against Future for defamation of character and slander.
Ciara claimed Future's nasty tweets and interviews about her cost her a $500,000 deal and that he threatened her now-husband Russell Wilson over Instagram. She later dropped the defamation portion of the suit, reportedly due to lack of evidence that she was financially damaged in any way, and the remaining civil suits she levied against him were also dismissed. Their custody case wasn't settled until January 2017. Ciara and Future received joint custody of the tyke, who is also named Future.
Mel B's marriage did not sound very 'zigazig ah'
Mel B filed for divorce from husband Stephen Belafonte in March 2017 after nearly a decade together. The former Spice Girl obtained a restraining order against Belafonte and accused him of physical abuse (which her sister and even Sharon Osbourne corroborated). Mel also claimed Belafonte sexually exploited her and forced her to record sex tapes and engage in threesomes against her will; impregnated their nanny, Lorraine Gilles, and then forced the nanny to get an abortion using Mel's money. Belafonte vehemently denied the allegations.
After Mel's allegations went public, Gilles sued the America's Got Talent judge for defamation of character. The nanny claimed the only sexual encounters she experienced with Belafonte also included Mel. Belafonte reportedly threatened to expose Mel's alleged drug use in court, and multiple witnesses on Belafonte's witness list accused Mel of harassment. On top of all that, the couple's exorbitant spending was exposed in court documents.
By August 2018, Belafonte and Mel had settled all of their lawsuits, regarding both their divorce and custody over their daughter Madison. At the time of this writing, Mel still faces a possible jury trial in the defamation suit brought against her by Gilles.
This house-flipping couple's relationship couldn't be renovated
Flip or Flop (2013-) hosts Tarek and Christina El Moussa's marriage officially flopped in May 2016, when 11 deputies and a helicopter arrived at the couple's home after receiving a call about a "possibly suicidal male with a gun," TMZ reported. Tarek reportedly insisted that he never intended to harm himself when he left his home and headed down a hiking trail; the gun was brought for protection from mountain lions and rattlesnakes — but the damage was done.
The estranged couple claimed the split was also a result of long-term tensions, including fertility struggles and Tarek battling thyroid and testicular cancer during the marriage. Since the separation, Tarek has played the field and briefly dated their former nanny, while Christina dated contractor Gary Anderson (who appeared on the show and was in the home when police were called for the aforementioned incident), a hockey player, and a businessman named Doug Spedding, whom she claimed Tarek was jealous of before they got together.
Is being married to Jennifer Aniston really that bad?
You know the story by now: Brad Pitt married Jennifer Aniston in 2000, and they were literally Hollywood's golden couple, from their sun-kissed skin to their perfect blond highlights. Then Mrs. & Mrs. Smith (2004) happened, and with it, Brangelina was born, though Pitt and Aniston did not separate or file for divorce until early 2005. Pitt and co-star Angelina Jolie initially insisted there was no affair, but in December 2008, Pitt admitted to Rolling Stone that he and Jolie "fell in love" while filming.
It got worse for Aniston post-split: Just months after filing for divorce, Pitt appeared in a family-themed W magazine spread with Jolie, and people close to him started painting the picture that he was basically leading an empty life during his marriage to Aniston.
"I know that he and Jen are very good friends and he cared deeply for her," a make-up artist who worked on multiple projects with Pitt told Esquire. "But in Angie he saw a very adventurous person who was grabbing on to life and taking it to its nth degree." She added, "Brad was ready to soar when he met Angie." Aniston had to love hearing that, huh?
Pitt himself told Parade (via the Daily Mail) in 2011 that he felt "pathetic" and like he "wasn't living an interesting life... I think that my marriage had something to do with it. Trying to pretend the marriage was something that it wasn't." Yeesh. No wonder Aniston said Pitt had a "sensitivity chip" missing.
The baleful ballad of Brangelina
Karma came back hard for Pitt in September 2016, when Jolie filed for divorce after two years of marriage and more than a decade as a couple. Some reports accused Pitt of cheating, and Jolie insinuated "the health of the family" was at risk after an alleged in-flight fight between Pitt and 15-year-old son Maddox, according to Vanity Fair. Pitt was cleared by Child Protective Services and the FBI.
Pitt said the big celeb breakup was caused, in part, by his drinking. "I can't remember a day since I got out of college when I wasn't boozing or had a spliff, or something. Something," Pitt admitted to GQ Style in May 2017. "And you realize that a lot of it is, um—cigarettes, you know, pacifiers... I stopped everything except boozing when I started my family... I was boozing too much. It's just become a problem. And I'm really happy it's been half a year now, which is bittersweet."
Though both stars have remained relatively mum in the press about their split, the gory details of the legal proceedings continued to trickle out, like Jolie's assertion that Pitt hadn't paid "meaningful child support" since the breakup, which sources in his camp denied. Awkward! At the time of this writing, Pitt and Jolie are still ironing out the details of a custody arrangement.
Geena Davis brought receipts
Geena Davis contested the divorce filing from her fourth husband, Reza Jarrahy, because she claims they were never actually married to begin with.
TMZ reported in May 2018 that Jarrahy filed for divorce from the Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) star after 17 years together, citing irreconcilable differences. However, in September 2018, courts documents obtained by The Blast revealed that Davis said she and Jarrahy were never legally wed, thereby freeing her from having to pay him spousal support. Davis presented evidence for her case, including a signed letter from 2009 in which Jarrahy states that he filed his taxes as a single man in 2009 because he wasn't married. She also claimed they never shared bank accounts and that Jarrahy wasn't even listed in her Screen Actors Guild healthcare plan.
As of this writing, the proceedings are ongoing, with TMZ reporting that Jarrahy fears his and Davis' children will be considered "illegitimate" if they were never considered married.
Nikki Bella and John Cena gave TMI for too long
Nikki Bella and John Cena called off their engagement in April 2018, just weeks before they were supposed to tie the knot, and the split was both highly publicized and needlessly drawn out.
"Nikki and John wanted different things," a source People. "It's clear that they had issues over what they wanted from a marriage and from family. She wants kids. But despite their differences and the fights they had, people still thought they would go through with the wedding. Everyone is surprised that it ended."
Perhaps no one was more surprised than Cena, who went on to make several cringe-worthy appeals to win Bella back after the split. Cena offered to reverse his vasectomy to have a child with Bella and gushed about her on the Today show, telling Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford, "I don't want anybody else. I love Nicole, and I'm really trying to support her in her trying to find whatever it was that made this fall apart in the first place. I don't have any other hopes than that one day maybe we can work it out."
Spoiler alert: Things didn't work out, and now the pair aren't even friends. In fact, Bella alleged to Cosmopolitan in October 2018 that she legally can't even speak of Cena at all anymore, making all of those embarrassing declarations even more humiliating for everyone involved.
Someone should tell Nick Young how recording devices work
In June 2016, Iggy Azalea called off her engagement to Los Angeles Lakers star Nick Young after he was revealed to be a serial cheater — and got his ex-girlfriend pregnant while he and Azalea were together.
In March of that year, Young's teammate D'Angelo Russell was ostracized by the Lakers after he recorded a video of Young confessing to cheating on the "Fancy" rapper, ESPN reported. Azalea tweeted that she "actually liked [Russell's] film" and that she didn't want to marry a cheater. However, it wasn't until three months later that Azalea announced they'd officially called it quits, stating that she'd been unable to rebuild trust in Young after his infidelity was exposed.
Azalea revealed on June 30, 2016 that she dumped Young after she caught him cheating on her with other women in their home on security camera footage, Us Weekly reported, and only hours earlier it was revealed that Young had gotten his ex, Keonna Green, pregnant, and Azalea found out about it in the press. She tweeted of the news (via Page Six), "I have never even been told by Nick that his baby mother is pregnant, so if this is true I'm finding out via E! News. This is just like a second shot to the chest. And I feel like I don't even know who the hell it is I've been loving all this time."
No wonder why she burned his clothes after the split!
DeAndre Hopkins swerved Iggy Azalea hard
Iggy Azalea seems to be chronically unlucky in the romance department. In August 2018, she confirmed to Y100 FM in Miami that she was dating Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and that they were, in her words, "in a relationship."
The very next day, however, Azalea wrote in a series of since-deleted tweets (via The Big Lead), "I have come to the conclusion I am going to be alone forever. I am completely fine with that. I have a routine now. I watch movies alone in the shower n s**t ... it's nice."
For his part, Hopkins also appeared to have confirmed the relationship the day before Azalea's radio interview, replying "Indeeed" to an Instagram user who asked him if he was Azalea's boyfriend (via 12UP). However, the day after that radio interview, Hopkins had a pretty significant change of heart, tweeting (via The Big Lead), "Y'all know I can care less about social media, but ya boi is SINGLE!!!" Here's hoping he didn't leave any clothes at her place.
Nick Loeb refuses to let go of Sofia Vergara — and her embryos
Sofia Vergara was in an on-again off-again relationship with Nick Loeb for years before she upgraded in a big way and got with now-husband Joe Manganiello in 2014. While Vergara and Loeb were together, they froze two embryos — and after Vergara married Manganiello in 2015, Loeb began pursuing legal action against the Modern Family star in an effort to bring the embryos to term, Page Six reported.
Insiders told Page Six that Loeb is only going after the embryos in an attempt to punish Vergara for moving on from him, and Vergara hasn't backed down from her own stance that any babies she ever has should be born to parents that "don't hate one another." The site also claims that Loeb resented Vergara for speaking her native Spanish in his presence, calling it "classless," and that he admitted in writing to Vergara that her "career and ego" came above raising a family with him.
As of this writing, the cases are ongoing, with Loeb seeking full custody of the embryos ... meaning if he gets his way, the highest paid actress on TV may eventually have to pay child support for the daughters she didn't want with a man she didn't want to be with.
Rob Kardashian waged a social media war on Blac Chyna...
Rob Kardashian's brief engagement to Blac Chyna resulted in both a Dream (their daughter) and a nightmare (everything else). In July 2017, TMZ reported that Kardashian accused Blac Chyna of cheating on him with three different men. In retaliation, he couldn't find the low road fast enough, posting several photos of his former fiancee in various states of undress, including explicit photos of her breasts, buttocks, and genitals on his Instagram account. The nude images eventually got him banned from Instagram.
In addition to the cheating allegations, Kardashian accused Chyna of being a habitual drug user and a golddigger, and even claimed to have paid for a series of pricey plastic surgical procedures for Chyna after daughter Dream was born. For her part, Chyna alleged that Kardashian cheated on her in a series of since-deleted Snapchats (via E! News), and Us Weekly reported that she also accused him of domestic violence.
Perhaps the most damaging part of all of this is that there's a child involved ... and Kardashian alleged that Chyna only had baby Dream "out of spite" to get back at Tyga, who was accused of leaving Chyna for Kardashian's younger sister, Kylie Jenner — a claim both Tyga and Kylie consistently denied.
... which he tested out on Rita Ora
Rob Kardashian briefly dated Rita Ora in 2012, but it remains murky as to whether or not they were actually in an official relationship. In a since-deleted series of overly explicit and super-angry tweets (via E! News), Kardashian accused the singer of cheating on him with 20 other men — leading to the trending Twitter topic "#RitaWhora." Classy!
All of this was news to poor Ora, who denied ever actually being in a relationship with Kardashian. She explained to The Sunday Telegraph (via The Mirror), "I never thought it was actually a relationship, in all honesty. I never mentally defined it as 'boyfriend, girlfriend.' When I split up with him, I said, 'It's because I'm never there, I don't know how to do it.' That's all I said, then ... the rest happened." She added, "He obviously felt that creating myths was the way forward ... You should have to sit an exam before you go on Twitter. To see if you're mentally stable."
Not too friendly, clearly, because Kardashian still blamed her for his own still-lingering issues. In a February 2013 episode of Kourtney And Kim Take Miami (via The Daily Mail), he griped to his famous sisters, "All I did [in the alleged relationship with Ora] was waste a lot of money and gain 40 pounds."
Calvin Harris came for Rita Ora's bag
Poor Rita Ora can't seem to catch a break in the romance department. After her highly-publicized split from Rob Kardashian, she began dating Calvin Harris. They were together for about a year when they abruptly split, and Ora reportedly learned of the news after the DJ tweeted about it in early 2014. As if the embarrassment weren't enough, Harris, who'd been producing and writing for the follow-up to Ora's 2012 debut album Ora, blocked her from performing any of the songs they'd worked on together, and she ended up scrapping the entire project.
Harris blocked Ora from performing their hit collaboration "I Will Never Let You Down" at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards at the last minute, griping on Twitter (via Us Weekly), "You'll only know 1 side of the story RE Teen choice awards because I choose not to talk to the papers about every aspect of my personal life. But just know I had a damn good reason."
"I thought he had my back and that he'd never steer me wrong," Ora lamented to Marie Claire in 2015. "But then 'I Will Never Let You Down' came out, and everything started to go a bit weird. I don't know if it was because business was mixed with personal or what."
No kidding. Just ask Nils Sjoberg.
Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson cooked up a ton of drama
Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson left millionaire advertising executive Charles Saatchi after photographs were published of him grabbing her by the throat, covering her mouth and seemingly hitting her face at an outdoor eatery in June 2013. Saatchi described the fight as a "playful tiff" but was issued a legal caution from London police for assault. Lawson and her teenage children from her previous marriage took their possessions and moved out of the home she shared with Saatchi three weeks later, according to Vanity Fair. One week after that, Saatchi announced in the press that he'd filed for divorce.
The details of the troubled relationship were revealed during an ongoing fraud case stemming from two of Lawson's assistants allegedly stealing company funds; Lawson's alleged drug use and Saatchi's temper were exposed in testimonies from the trial. According to People, Lawson testified to using cocaine twice in the past — when her first husband, journalist John Diamond, was dying of throat cancer, and another time when she claimed to have been "subjected to acts of intimate terrorism by Mr. Saatchi." She also admitted to smoking "the odd joint ... I found it made an intolerable situation tolerable." She added, "I did not have and do not have a drug problem. I had a life problem. The answer was in changing the situation." She also alleged that Saatchi threatened to smear her with false drug rumors after the fight if she didn't clear his name publicly.
Alex Rodriguez and Madonna were homewreckers for one another
Alex Rodriguez was married to wife Cynthia Scurtis from 2002 until September 2008, when Scurtis filed for divorce from the then-New York Yankee. According to TMZ, Scurtis claimed A-Rod "emotionally abandoned" her and their two daughters in favor of hooking up with Madonna. Scurtis' attorney outright told the tab in July 2008 that the third baseman was having an affair with the Material Girl, who was still married to Guy Ritchie at the time.
In a statement to People, Madge denied an affair and any plans to divorce Ritchie, but that stance lasted about as long as her unfortunate grill phase. By October 2008, Madonna and her director husband announced they were splitting, with sources telling People that her fling with A-Rod was one of many factors leading to the dissolution of her marriage.
Almost a decade after A-Rod and the Queen of Pop's affair ended, Rodriguez and Scurtis were still at odds, with TMZ reporting in October 2018 that he and his ex-wife were fighting over child support payments.
Just how expensive was Mariah Carey's split from James Packer?
Mariah Carey was briefly engaged to Australian billionaire James Packer, but they called it quits in October 2016 before they ever made it down the aisle. A source told Us Weekly that the songbird learned that she and Packer were over from the press.
"Mariah was totally blindsided by James. She read the news in Woman's Day Australia that said he dumped her," the insider said. "Mariah knew they were having problems, but ... it wasn't the kind of thing where she thought she'd read in the paper that she got dumped. ... She was devastated; she was shocked."
That devastation may have cost Packer a pretty penny, too. TMZ reported that after the pair split, Carey privately demanded Packer pay her $50 million — the amount she reportedly would have gotten from a prenuptial agreement had they married, although Packer's camp vehemently denied any such arrangement. Sources claimed Carey moved from New York to Los Angeles so Packer could be closer to his children, and that a September 2016 incident in Greece upset the singer so much that she was forced to cancel her South American tour, which made her suffer financially.
The Daily Mail also reported that after the breakup, several professional setbacks, and an alleged breakdown, Packer went to rehab for his drinking. Carey moved on with her hot backup dancer and kept her engagement ring ... until she sold it for about $2 million to a Los Angeles jeweler.
You've got mail. It's not good.
Travis "Travie" McCoy and Katy Perry packed on the PDA for about two years, even making cute cameos in one another music videos for "I Kissed A Girl" and "Cupid's Chokehold," but behind closed doors, the romance was deeply troubled. McCoy admitted to Behind The Music (via Contact Music) that he turned to substance abuse to cope with Perry's increasing success and spiraled into addiction. "As things started taking off for her the more I started to doubt my role in her life," he said. "There were times I felt like a stepping ladder [for Perry]."
When Perry was ready to climb to the next rung, McCoy claims she emailed him to let him know it was over. "It started off with 'I love you so much I hate to do this,'" McCoy vented. "Someone that you are ready to spend the rest of your life with sends you a f**king email just s**ting on your whole parade. It destroyed me."
Perry hasn't commented on her relationship with McCoy, but it's rumored that her song "Circle The Drain," with lyrics describing her frustration with dating an addict, was inspired by their doomed union. McCoy sniped to MTV News of the track, "I heard she put out a song that's about me, or about some old habits or whatever. I look at it like this: I'm just stoked that she finally has a song with some substance on her record. Good job."