People Who Are Famous Only Because Of Scandals
Scandals in Hollywood and in America's upper crust are quite common. But things truly become interesting when a scandal introduces a person the public has not yet met or doesn't know all that well. Sometimes the less known the person, the crazier the situation and the wilder the misconduct. From Rachel Dolezal, who has only known scandal in her time as a minor celebrity, to Monica Lewinsky, who is the queen of scandal and outrage, here are nine people who are only famous because of their drama.
Donald Sterling and V. Stiviano
In 2014, the world didn't know who V. Stiviano was and only die-hard sports fans knew about Donald Sterling. Both their names were thrust into the spotlight that spring as Stiviano's tapes of Sterling, who owned the Los Angeles Clippers, making racist comments about black people were leaked. Stiviano was Sterling's mistress, and claims to have made up to 100 hours worth of tapes, but says she didn't leak them, according to New York Magazine.
"I'm not racist," Sterling told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I made a terrible, terrible mistake. And I'm here with you today to apologize and to ask for forgiveness for all the people that I've hurt."
Stiviano attempted to defend her embarrassed ex-lover telling ABC, "I think Mr. Sterling is from a different generation than I am. I think he was brought up to believe these things... segregation, whites and blacks. But through his actions he's shown that he's not a racist. He's shown to be a very generous and kind man."
After being banned for life by the NBA and being forced to sell his team, things went from bad to terrible for Sterling and Stiviano. Sterling's wife, Rochelle, filed a lawsuit against the mistress. She claimed Stiviano conned her husband into giving her a Ferrari, two Bentleys, a Range Rover, and a $1.8 million duplex. On top of that, Rochelle claims the mistress was given $250,000 cash. According to CNN, Stiviano was ordered to pay back $2.6 million.
Courtney Stodden
While many knew Doug Hutchison as an actor, he would later be accused of being a pedophile after he married a 16-year-old girl named Courtney Stodden.
According to ABC, Stodden and Hutchison married in 2011 after connecting over acting lessons and eventually falling in love through email and phone calls. "The way we met was really beautiful," Stodden told Good Morning America about her controversial relationship. "My mother was managing my career. Her friend told my mother that [Hutchison was] holding some workshops for acting. And I was very interested in acting. So what better way than to connect that way?"
After learning her age, Hutchison says his "world turned upside down... It didn't make me want to walk away, but it definitely was a struggle inside my heart... because I had already started falling for her."
The couple, who had been the topic of conversation across the internet, once again became a hot topic after they announced a pregnancy in the summer of 2016. Unfortunately, the joy didn't last long as Stodden suffered a miscarriage.
In early 2017, the couple split after six years of marriage. "I think both of us saw the warning signs for quite some time," Stodden told Us Weekly. "Technically we've been split for two-and-a-half to three months now. It's really recent and the emotions are still really raw."
Victor Voronov
The world's initial introduction to Victor Voronov was in a loving context. He was married to Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir in 2011. But the pair split after less than three years of marriage in 2014. "I've been having a tough time at home for a long time now, and it's something that I've kept from the public," Weir told Access Hollywood. "I was losing myself by being married to my husband. I was losing my objectives in life. I was very isolated from the world." Weir accused Voronov of hitting him, giving him herpes and more.
A small attempt to reconcile ended with Voronov cut up in a scratching fight, reports TMZ. Weir allegedly discovered text messages in Voronov's phone talking about him in a negative way, which was the catalyst to the cat fight.
After things officially went south, Voronov, a lawyer, filed a defamation suit against the skater, reports the New York Daily News. Their divorce proceeds were nasty. They fought and bickered over a dog and a $20,000 Faberge egg — which both went to Weir, per TMZ. Their divorce was finalized in 2015.
Monica Lewinsky
In 1995, Monica Lewinsky was a regular White House intern. But her name would become synonymous with scandal after news leaked she had a sexual relationship with then-president, Bill Clinton.
According to the BBC, over the course of a year, Lewinsky met President Clinton had ten different sexual encounters. During the investigation, which garnered international attention, Lewinsky turned over a blue dress that contained semen on it. Tests concluded the semen was that of the president — locking him into a scandal with no way to deny it or escape it.
According to Politco, the president was impeached on December 19, 1998, and acquitted the following February.
In 2014, after years out of the spotlight, Lewinsky emerged to tell her own story with Vanity Fair. "It's time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress," she wrote in the first person piece. "I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton. Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened."
She says the media ripped her apart following the scandal. "Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship," she wrote. "Any 'abuse' came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position... The Clinton administration, the special prosecutor's minions, the political operatives on both sides of the aisle, and the media were able to brand me. And that brand stuck, in part because it was imbued with power."
Karrine 'Superhead' Steffans
Few women have a lengthy bedroom resume like Karrine Steffans. She's most known for being a video girl and for carrying out several sexual relationships with some of hip-hop and Hollywood's most famous faces.
In 2006, she released Confessions of a Video Vixen and detailed her sexual dalliances with men such as Method Man, Usher, Ice T, Ray J, Fred Durst, Dr. Dre, Shaq, Diddy and more.
Years after the book made headlines and caused drama, scandal and fire across Hollywood, Steffans is still stirring up chaos. In 2016, she came forward to say she carried out sexual acts on rapper Jay Z. The resurgence of news came on the heels of Beyoncé's song "Sorry" containing the viral lyrics "Becky with the good hair" about a cheating husband. But as Steffans noted, she got together with Jay Z before he met Beyoncé. "Over 15 years ago, I had Beyoncé's husband," Steffans wrote in a first-person piece for XOJane (via the New York Daily News). "Yes, I was one of Jay Z's Beckys back in the year 2000 for about three minutes, which is about as long it takes me to satisfy a man in the back of a Maybach while overlooking the beaches of Malibu."
Egor Tarabasov
The relationship woes of Lindsay Lohan introduced the world to Russian millionaire youngster Egor Tarabasov. While their union started out on a good note, it quickly progressed to an engagement, and it ended after video and audio of numerous violent altercations shed light on a dark and twisted relationship.
Speaking with the Daily Mail in the summer of 2016, Lohan accused Tarabasov of being abusive during their relationship. "The truth is, I wanted to make things work, but now I'm not sure that I can," Lohan said. Her comment came on the heels of newly released footage showing the couple in a violent tussle on the beach in Mykonos, Greece. Although she didn't address that fight directly, she said Tarabasov "drank too much and he went crazy."
Earlier in the summer, another incident caused British police officers to get involved after Lohan was overheard screaming she was being attacked. As the story goes, officers arrived to her London residence after neighbors heard her begging for help. "Please, please. He just strangled me. He almost killed me." No charges were filed in the drama, reports People.
Later that fall, she revisited that traumatic night telling a Russian TV network (via the Daily Mail), "I went to bed and he broke into my house. He started strangling me. I was scared that Egor would throw acid in my face..."
Tarabasov has yet to speak on his side of their rocky relationship.
Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin
Anthony Weiner wasn't a well-known New York City congressman when his sexting scandal made national headlines. According to CNN, Weiner's political career began to descend after a photo of a crotch in underwear surfaced on his Twitter account in May 2011. After denying the photo was his and blaming the situation on a prankster, Weiner came clean in a tearful confession in June of that year. He apologized for lying about the photo and admitted to carrying out several online affairs with women. To make matters worse, it was also announced days later that he and wife Huma Abedin, an advisor to Hillary Clinton, were expecting their first child together. That same week, the scandal unfolded even further when TMZ published a set of racy photos of the politician undressed in a gym locker room. He, of course, apologized again and this time resigned from his post in government.
After a period out of the spotlight, he attempted to regain the public's confidence by running for New York City mayor in 2013. But that plan was thwarted after screenshots of a sexual conversation with been Weiner and an unknown woman were published. He confessed the conversation took place after his initial indiscretion. His wife, Abedin, refused to leave his side, saying, "What I want to say is I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and as I have said from the beginning, we are moving forward." He earned fifth place in the mayoral race.
Weiner and Abedin's marriage suffered another blow when the couple announced a separation after news leaked that he sent, again, sexual photos to a woman online. What made this particular around of misbehavior so shocking was the sexually suggestive photo with their 4-year-old son asleep next to him.
Amanda Knox
Amanda Knox was thrust into the spotlight in November 2007 when her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, turned up dead in Perguia, Italy, according to CBS News. Kercher was discovered with a slit throat, lying in a pool of blood. Italian police rounded up Knox, her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, bar owner Patrick Diya Lumumba, and Rudy Hermann Guede in connection with Kercher's death. After a lengthy period behind bars, a trial for Knox and Sollecito began in January 2009.
In December 2009, Knox was found guilty of murder and was ultimately sentenced to 26 years behind bars — Sollecito was given 25 years. Knox was also put on trial for allegedly slandering police officers, telling the public she was beaten by them.
This case took a wild turn in July 2011, when an independent forensic report discredited police, suggesting the DNA evidence used against her was contaminated. In October 2011, an appeals court overturned Knox and Sollecito's murder conviction. Both were released from jail, and the next day Knox flew back home to Seattle.
In May 2013, another Italian court ordered a retrial of both Knox and Sollecito and both were found guilty again. This time Knox, who was still in the United States, was sentenced to 28 1/2 years in jail. She refused to return to Italy.
After a lengthy back and fourth, the Italian court once and for all tossed out its conviction granting innocence to Knox in March 2015, according to the Associated Press (via CTV News). "Right now I'm still absorbing what all this means and what comes to mind is my gratitude for the life that's been given to me," Knox said after the final decision was made.