Love is blind, and sometimes it's also deaf, dumb,
delusional, and in denial. That's the only way we can really explain how these
otherwise delightful stars wound up tying the knot with alleged cheaters, gold
diggers, control freaks, and not-so-better halves.
Sure, there are two sides to every story, but the
court of public opinion seems to have made up its mind about these famous
musicians, actors, comedians, models, and more.
Find out which celebs have recovered from their dark
and twisted romances and who is still battling to escape with some peace and
closure.
Sandra Bullock is beloved by most movie-going
audiences, so when she got teary thanking then-husband Jesse James at the 2010
Oscars, we all rooted for them. That also made it hurt twice as much when news
broke that James allegedly cheated on America's sweetheart. He didn't just
cheat, though—he cheated with a slew of women, at least one of whom had no
issue rocking Nazi regalia. That may not have bothered James, though. He's
reportedly been linked to Nazi-related art for quite a while, and some very
unsettling photos of him in Nazi gear went public. Sources told Us Weekly that
James is "into history…The swastika deal is to scare people. It's part of
biker culture."
Bullock kicked him to the curb and told People (via
the New York Daily News), "The photo shocked me and made me sad. This was
stupid, this was ignorant. Racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, homophobia, anything
Nazi and a boatload of other things have no place in my life."
Paul McCartney's marriage to Heather Mills didn't seem terrible—until they divorced. The couple was married for less than six years before finalizing the divorce in March 2008. Justice Hugh Bennett, who presided over the split, wasn't impressed with Mills' efforts to snag $250 million from the former Beatle.
"I am driven to the conclusion that much of her evidence, both written and oral, was not just inconsistent and inaccurate but also less than candid," Bennett wrote in his ruling (via People), noting that her requests for $400,000 annually for private flights, $80,000 for wine, and $250,000 for clothes were "ridiculous…unreasonable, indeed exorbitant."
As recently as March 2015, Mills was still insulting McCartney, despite being awarded $48.6 million in the divorce settlement. She told U.K.'s The Late Late Show that McCartney was irrelevant, saying "No, they're not [interested in McCartney]…When I go down the street, I get kids coming up to me—half of them don't even know who he is—that's why he's got to do songs with Rihanna and Kanye West, so people remember." She added, "When I go down the street, it's 'Oh my God, you're a ski-racer' or 'You help the animals.' You know, I own the biggest vegan company in the world. This is just someone I fell in love with who to me was a normal guy that happened to write a few cool songs in the '60s and a few in the '70s. Like everybody that's a partner—you fall in love, you get married, you sometimes then go, 'Oh my God, this is completely wrong,' you wake up, and you move on."
Mariah Carey's first marriage to record exec Tommy Mottola was the stuff of Lifetime movies: rich, powerful, and allegedly very controlling. Vanity Fair reported that Mottola, who was married with kids when he met Carey, often dished to his colleagues about his intimate life with Carey. Even worse, he allegedly wouldn't let her leave their mansion alone and employed security guards to follow her 24/7—even to the bathroom. He also allegedly dictated Carey's entire life, even telling her when to sit and stand. Mottola was also accused of sabotaging her 2001 album and film, Glitter (2001).
Though he denied any abusive behavior, he wrote in his memoir (excerpted by Billboard) that the relationship was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate" and that he is "truly sorry for any discomfort or pain that all of my good intentions inevitably caused her, and most of all for the scars it left on my two oldest children." Sure he is, but that still hasn't stopped him from talking about Mimi every chance he gets.
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, seemed to capitalize on her December 2016 death as much as he could. According to The Hollywood Reporter, von Anhalt made much of his speech at her memorial service about Hollywood and about himself, even admitting that he met her because he paid a photo agency $5,000 to snap him with a star to establish himself as a celebrity—and that star was Gabor. He also used his platform to call Elizabeth Taylor fat when she was wheelchair-ridden at the end of her life, because, you know, he's classy.
Before Kanye West, Kris Humphries, and Reggie Bush, Kim Kardashian married Damon Thomas. Kardashian was 19 when they eloped in 2000, and by February 2004 they'd split. Court documents obtained by Daily Mail paint a terrifying picture of the marriage. Kardashian accused Thomas, who was 10 years her senior, of "poisoning" her against her friends and family, urging her to drop out of college. She also claimed he was violent and slammed her into walls, pulled her hair, and punched her in the face. Kardashian alleges that Thomas encouraged her to get plastic surgery in order to become "perfect."
He denied the claims to In Touch Weekly and alleged that Kardashian was trying to get more money out of him in their divorce settlement, claiming she cheated on him with Jennifer Lopez's second husband, Cris Judd.
Jennifer Lopez's first husband, Ojani Noa, probably seemed like a nice guy at the time, but once she became famous after they divorced, he reportedly tried selling her out. He dished about their relationship on Million Dollar Matchmaker in September 2016, complaining that she "chose her career" over their marriage. (It seems to have worked out pretty well for her, no?)
That was only the most recent of Noa's offenses. In 2006, Lopez sued him to prevent him from publishing a tell-all book about their relationship, alleging that it violated a confidentiality agreement. A year later, Noa was issued a permanent injunction forbidding him from "criticizing, denigrating, casting in a negative light or otherwise disparaging" his iconic ex. He was also forced to pay La Lopez about $545,000 and give her all hard copies and materials related to the book he'd been trying to sell, according to The New York Times.
In 2015, Noa reportedly tried to release an intimate video featuring Lopez that was filmed during their brief marriage
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, seemed to capitalize on her December 2016 death as much as he could. According to The Hollywood Reporter, von Anhalt made much of his speech at her memorial service about Hollywood and about himself, even admitting that he met her because he paid a photo agency $5,000 to snap him with a star to establish himself as a celebrity—and that star was Gabor. He also used his platform to call Elizabeth Taylor fat when she was wheelchair-ridden at the end of her life, because, you know, he's classy.
