All of the money and power in the world can’t buy a perfect marriage. These Hollywood celebrities put a little too much effort into their movies, and ended up wrecking their relationships.
Hollywood has a ridiculously high divorce rate, and it’s easy to understand why. They work weird hours, their jobs often involve filming intimate scenes with people that are not their spouses, and they often have to spend a lot of time apart.
The majority of the couples on this list were torn apart because of an affair, where two actors worked so closely for such a long period of time that they became connected and felt sparks fly. Some of these people ended up regretting their actions, while others felt that their previous marriages were already broken.
Regardless, here are just a few out of the many movies that destroyed Hollywood marriages.
The Rum Diary (2011)
Johnny Depp and French actress Vanessa Paradis were together for 14 years, and had two children together, when he began an affair with his Rum Diary co-star Amber Heard.
Depp didn’t realize that he had fallen for Heard until after they had finished filming the movie.
“She was in my head, so I tracked her down,” Depp said onstage at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2016. “We tracked each other down. Actually, incidentally, it was amazing. It was at the first day of press on The Rum Diary. Then we married that very day!”
Of course, that didn’t end very well. Heard ended up accusing Johnny of abusing her, and destroying his career. Later, evidence came out that it was actually Amber who was abusing Johnny.
Stop-Loss (2008)
While on the set of the movie Stop Loss, Reese Witherspoon discovered texts between her husband, Ryan Phillippe, and co-star Abbie Cornish. After the divorce, Phillippe dated Cornish for four years.
Speaking with W Magazine, he tried to defend Abbie for knowingly sleeping with a married man.
“It was unfair for her [Cornish] to be called the names that she was, because it wasn’t about that,” Phillippe told the publication in 2008. “I don’t think an outside person can ever cause a divorce. I had difficulties in my relationship, and in my marriage, long before I ever met her.”
In the end, Witherspoon and Phillippe hinted that their marriage failed because they got married too young.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were painted as Hollywood’s golden couple, until their five year marriage suddenly ended because of “irreconcilable differences.”
Pitt quickly moved on with his Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-star, Angelina Jolie. The relationship was announced just one month after his separation from Aniston, leading many to speculate about an affair.
In 2011, Pitt explained his split wasn’t because of the movie, claiming that it was because of his life.
“I started to get sick of myself sitting on a couch, holding a joint, hiding out,” he said. “It started feeling pathetic… I 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.”
In a Vanity Fair interview, Aniston bit her tongue but said, “He makes his choices. He can do whatever. We’re divorced, and you can see why… There’s a sensitivity chip that’s missing.”
Cleopatra (1963)
One of the most legendary stars of classical Hollywood cinema, Elizabeth Taylor, began a decades-long romance with Richard Burton on the set of Cleopatra in 1963… But there was one problem: they were both married. To become one of Hollywood’s most iconic couples, they had to leave their spouses. Burton was married to actress Sybil Williams for 14 years, while Taylor had been married to Eddie Fisher for five years. Even worse, Fisher had left Taylor’s best friend, Debbie Reynolds, to be with her.
Dukes Of Hazzard (2005)
In 2002, just three years after getting married, rumors began to swirl that Jessica Simpson was cheating on her husband, Nick Lachey. The rumors specifically claimed that she cheated while filming the 2005 movie Dukes of Hazzard.
While speaking with Howard Stern, Jackass star Bam Margera claimed that he and Simpson had a short affair while being co-stars, stating that he “wound up at her parent’s house drinking margaritas and it went from there,” and telling Stern that he left the house at “8 in the morning,” implying that he spent the night.
While Simpson denied the claim, she and Lachey separated that same year.
Proof Of Life (2000)
Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid were married for 10 years before allegations of her cheating with her Proof of Life co-star Russell Crowe shocked fans around the world. The couple got divorced soon after.
Snow White And The Huntsman (2012)
Twilight stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson seemed like the perfect couple on-screen and off-screen, until Stewart decided to cheat with her Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders, who was also married at the time. Stewart and Pattinson had been together for three years at that point.
She quickly realized her mistake, issuing a formal apology letter to try and make amends.
“This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob,” Stewart wrote.
The couple managed to work through the incident and dated for one more year before officially breaking up in 2013.
Unfortunately for Sanders, his wife, Liberty Ross, was not so forgiving. She filed for divorce as soon as the news came out.
“I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family,” Sanders told People in an exclusive statement in July 2012. “My beautiful wife and heavenly children are all I have in this world. I love them with all my heart.”
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow were only married for one year before their relationship fell apart. They got married when he was 50 and she was 21, and soon after, Sinatra wanted Farrow to give up her acting career.
According to her autobiography What Falls Away, Sinatra wanted her to step away from Rosemary’s Baby because of its long filming schedule.
He believed that it took time away from their relationship, but she refused. He reportedly served her with divorce papers on set.
Pushing Tin (1999)
Billy Bob Thornton and Laura Dern had been together for two years and were engaged to be married when he was cast in the movie Pushing Tin alongside Angelina Jolie.
Despite a significant age gap (Thornton is 20 years older than Jolie), the two fell in love and decided to elope.
The worst part of this entire incident was how Thornton chose to break the news to Dern… He simply changed the locks on their shared home and left to elope with Jolie.
“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,” Dern told Talk magazine in 2000, adding: “It’s like a sudden death. For no one has there been any closure or clarity.”
