1. Arnold Schwarzenegger And Maria Shriver
No one is immune to affairs, not even the most boring among us nor the mostly saintlike. These things happen and they definitely happen to celebrities. Some more cynical people might say that celebs are part of scandals more often.
However, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle: celeb affairs only seem more dramatic because they’re out in the open.
In any case, today, we will be looking at some of the most incredible and widely publicized celebrity affairs that have occurred over the years. You will read about lapses in judgment, about year-long betrayals and everything in between.
You might say that Arnie has a number of things going for him that make him almost bound for extramarital affairs: he is a mega-popular and mega-rich actor, AND he is a politician. For years, if not decades, his marriage to Maria Shriver from the Kennedy family seemed like just another part of his American Dream coming true. He effectively married into American royalty when Maria became his wife and their marriage did last for 25 years.
2. Sandra Bullock And Jesse James
It all ended in 2011, when it was discovered that Arnie not only cheated on Maria, but that he had a secret daughter who was 14 at that time. The mother of his lovechild was the family’s maid which probably made things even worse for Maria. As you can imagine, they split up.
Most people were quite surprised when famous actress Sandra Bullock married TV show mechanic and all-round bad boy Jesse James in 2005. Everyone imagined someone much more elegant ending up with Sandra, but she chose Jesse. As it turned out, he really was a bad boy, as Sandra discovered a whole string of affairs that had been going on during their 5-year marriage.
3. Brad Pitt And Jennifer Aniston
All of this went down in 2010 and the couple actually tried to get through it. However, as more and more women came forward claiming to have been involved with Jesse, it all became too much for Sandra and she put an end to their marriage. It seems to have been one of her best decisions as her career literally exploded after that, earning her an Oscar among other things.
It is hard to believe that it has already been almost ten years since the whole Pitt-Aniston-Jolie thing started unfolding, but it has. It was back in 2005 that Brad and Angelina starred in the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith together, which is where their relationships is rumored to have started. At that time, Brad was still married to Jennifer and they were hailed as the darling couple of Hollywood.
4. Billy Bob Thornton And Laura Dern
According to some, Angelina Jolie then took matters into her own hands and stole Brad. Others say that Brad was unhappy with Jennifer and that Angelina was the best thing that ever happened to him. People still take sides and everyone has an opinion about this mega-celeb-affair triangle. We are only interested in the facts and we are not taking sides. At least not publicly.
Before Angelina stole Brad from Jennifer, she had a practice run, this time with Billy Bob Thornton and his then-girlfriend and fellow actress Laura Dern. At the time, Billy Bob and Laura were together for some time and they were planning on getting married. Laura then went off to work on a movie and Billy did the same. Unfortunately for Laura, the movie her boyfriend was working on starred Angelina Jolie.
5. Robert Pattinson And Kristen Stewart
The brand new couple eloped in Las Vegas and as Laura tells it, she returned home to find out that her boyfriend was married to another woman. Moreover, she never heard from him again after that. Thornton and Jolie’s relationship was later much talked about, which could not have been easy on Laura. You simply shouldn’t let your man make movies with Angelina Jolie.
For a few years, Robert and Kristen were the cutest and the most lovable new couple in Hollywood. They hit it off immediately on the set of the first Twilight movie and even though they did everything in their power to keep their relationship on the down-low, it was impossible to keep it a secret after the movie franchise became huge. Then, in 2012, photos came out showing intimate moments shared between Kristen and Rupert Sanders who was the director on the movie she was making at the time, Snow White and the Huntsman.
6. Tiger Woods And Elin Nordegren
Robert was totally stunned by Kristen’s infidelity which she soon admitted to. Another person who got hurt was Rupert’s then wife who could not believe her 41-year old husband was cheating on her with the young actress.
Somehow you just can not imagine golf players having affairs, or doing anything even remotely interesting, for that matter. They are these buttoned-up, decent guys who have somehow managed to scam the world into paying ginormous amounts of money for watching them enjoying their hobby. As it turns out, even golfers aren’t immune to the allure of women who are not their wives, or at least Tiger Woods wasn’t. In what was one of the biggest celebrity affair scandals of all time, the world found out that one of the best golfers of all time cheated on his wife with almost 20 different women.
7. Ashton Kutcher And Demi Moore
Tiger apologized for his indiscretions and even went to sex addiction rehab. His wife Elin didn’t buy it and she divorced the golfer. Good for her!
When Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore got together, no one bought that they were going to turn out to be one of those forever couples. In what has been one of the biggest cases of celeb-gossip double standards, no one could believe that a famous actor like Ashton could fall in love with a woman 16 years his senior. They were the butt of innumerable jokes, but they didn’t seem to mind it. After two years of dating, the couple married in 2005 and everything seemed to be going smoothly.
8. Jude Law And Sienna Miller
Then, after 6 years of marriage, just a day before their anniversary, Ashton had an affair with a random girl he met at a party. Demi found out about it and it all went downhill from there. Their divorce was finalized in 2013, when Ashton was already in a relationship with Mila Kunis.
Jude Law and Sienna Miller – an undoubtedly gorgeous Brit actor couple – have had quite a tumultuous relationship over the years. It all started sometime in the first part of the 2000s when they first became a couple. In late 2004, they got engaged. Even before the wedding, Jude cheated on Sienna with a nanny that watched his children from a previous marriage. We later found out that Sienna was also cheating on Jude with the newest James Bond, Daniel Craig.
9. Uma Thurman And Ethan Hawke
They finally split in 2006. In 2009, the couple got back together again and they spent Christmas in Barbados together with three of Jude’s children. This time no affairs were made public, but by 2011, the couple split again. Truth be told, it is probably for the best. Not to sound too cynical.
Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke met on the set of Gattaca in 1997. By June 1998, they were already married. They had two children, one born in 1998 and the other in 2002. In 2003, the relationship fell through and it was all because Ethan was cheating on his famous wife. And out of all the women in the world, he chose their nanny (what it is with famous guys and nannies?).
10. Hugh Grant And Elizabeth Hurley
The divorce was finalized in 2005. The surprising thing is that Hawke actually stuck with his new lover and they got married. They even have two children of their own. In true Hawke fashion, he never owned up to what he’d done and he insisted that fidelity is overrated and that it is not natural to us humans.
Hugh Grant has perfected the clumsy but charming dude thing in his movies and really, no one does it better. However, after a while, you get the feeling that he is a bit smarmy and smug and that he can probably be a jerk at times. His characters, not the real Hugh. Or maybe it is the real Hugh? He was in a relationship with Elizabeth Hurley for more than a decade, 13 years to be precise.
11. Mario Lopez And Ali Landry
When he was arrested for trying to procure the services of a professional lady, Elizabeth actually stuck with him. She claimed she was strong and she was not going to give up. After a few years, however, their relationship did fizzle out on its own and they separated. Elizabeth moved on and has had a few relationships that didn’t last since then.
If you blinked at the wrong time, you probably missed this entire affair. Mario Lopez and Ali Landry got married on April 24, 2004 and by mid-May, they were already divorced. It was Ali who filed for divorce a mere two weeks after the wedding and it was because of an affair that the popular TV star somehow managed to have in that short time. It took Mario 7 years to finally come forward about what happened and why their marriage didn’t last.
12. Mel Gibson And Robyn Moore
As it turns out, his infidelity actually happened during his bachelor party, which was more of a bachelor tour of the wildest places in California and Mexico. Mario admitted that he was not ready to settle down and that he was not man enough to know how to handle it all. See how it’s done, Hawke?
Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore got married in 1980, before Mel became the star he is today. Sure, he was already in Mad Max, but he was still to become a huge star and one of the richest people in Hollywood. Their marriage actually lasted for 26 years before Gibson got involved with Oksana Grigorieva. Gibson’s divorce from Robyn was not publicized much, definitely not as much as his subsequent breakup with Oksana.
13. James Cameron And Linda Hamilton
In 2010, the LAPD actually investigated domestic-violence reports and the couple filed for restraining orders on one another. The story kept on unraveling, as did Gibson’s career and quite probably his grasp on reality. The couple broke up not long after and Oksana got half of Gibson’s more than hefty wealth which was at one point estimated at around $1 billion.
James Cameron knows how to make a movie. He has been making huge hits for more than three decades now and there is no sign that he is slowing down. According to one of his four ex-wives, Linda Hamilton of Terminator glory, one thing James does not know how to do is stay faithful and be content with what he’s got when women are in question. Linda felt this on her own skin in 1998 when she divorced James, only 7 months after they got married in 1997.
14. Meg Ryan And Dennis Quaid
James had an affair with an actress from his movie titanic, Suzy Amis and Linda found out about it. Linda later told the press that James has always been like that, chasing women he cannot get. While that might have been true at the time, James and Suzy have been married since 2000. You know what they say: fifth time’s a charm.
Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid made three movies together in the late 80s, early 90s and they started a relationship somewhere around this time. Before they could get married, Meg insisted that Quaid stop using cocaine, which he did. They wed in 1991. For the next 9 years, they seemed like the happiest couple in Hollywood and they looked perfect for each other.
15. Katie Price And Kieran Hayler
In 2000, Meg was making a movie called Proof of Life with Russell Crowe and they started dating. Dennis was completely blindsided and most of the public sided with him as the affair was publicized far and wide. The couple divorced in 2001. In 2008, Meg finally came forward to talk about the affair and the things that preceded it and she insisted that Quaid was unfaithful to her throughout their marriage.
Katie Price is an English glamour model, TV personality and a published author in the best tradition of the likes of Snooki and similar “talented individuals”. The man who was unfaithful to her and who we will be talking about today, Kieran, is a body builder and a stripper. So, why are we writing about them? Well, for one, Katie is quite huge in the UK and there might be some fans here in the states as well. Also, the whole thing just screams of drama and whatnot.
16. Ashley Cole And Cheryl Cole
For instance, Kieran cheated on Katie with her best friend and another woman. Also, Katie actually went on air to talk about her ex-best friend, calling her all kinds of nasty names and warning other women about her. By the way, this particular affair story actually has a happy ending as the couple are still close and trying to reconcile. Aww.
We’re sticking with the Brits for the next entry on our list as well. Ashley Cole and Cheryl Cole rose to fame as member of Girls Aloud. Cheryl is one of the best loved Britain’s pop stars and her marriage with Ashley was supposed to be a fairytale, with the gorgeous singer marrying a successful and charming footballer (soccer player). The couple got married in 2006 after two years of dating.
17. Ryan Phillippe And Reese Witherspoon
By 2010, the marriage was effectively over and it was all because Cheryl’s husband was cheating on her with pretty much every woman within a 10-mile radius. Cheryl was devastated when she found out and she later said that she was feeling really down until she realized that there is no reason for that. She was treated badly and there was nothing wrong with her. We agree.
Ryan and Reese met at her 21st birthday party and they spent the entire evening talking to each other. It didn’t take them long to start dating and by mid-1999, they were married. Witherspoon was six months pregnant with their daughter.
18. Wayne And Coleen Rooney
While neither of the couple said it publicly, the press and the public blamed their breakup on the alleged affair that Ryan had with actress Abbie Cornish with whom he starred in the movie Stop-Loss. Whether they had an affair before the divorce is debatable, but what is not debatable is that they had a three-year relationship following Ryan’s divorce from Reese. In an interview that he gave later, Ryan said that the time following the divorce was the hardest of his life and that he couldn’t get out of bed for a few months.
Wayne Rooney is one of the best English footballers (soccer players) in the last 20 years and trust us when we tell you this is a huge thing over in the UK. He married his high-school sweetheart Coleen in 2008 and it was one of the biggest UK weddings of the decade. Over the years, however, Wayne has had a number of affairs, most of which made it to the press which are piranha-like in the UK.
19. Christie Brinkley And Peter Cook
Way worse than here, if you can imagine. Among his alleged affairs was a granny prostitute, another prostitute and a vice girl named Helen Wood who went on about their affair when she was on the UK Big Brother. The weirdest thing perhaps is that Coleen actually forgave him for all those affairs.
Christie Brinkley is a legendary beauty whose career exploded in the 1970s and whose editorials made Sports Illustrated the institution that it has been ever since. She was widely considered to be one of the most beautiful women in the world and as a result of this; she married 4 times. The last time she married was to Peter Cook, a famous architect. They were happily married for 12 years and everyone thought that Christie finally found the man of her life.
How wrong everyone was! Peter cheated on her with an 18-year old girl called Diana Bianchi who wanted to become a singer. Peter did everything he could to keep the affair under wraps, buying Diana expensive gifts including a one-time $300,000 payment to keep her quiet. It is safe to say that it didn’t work.