Unless you’ve truly found The One , relationships are bound to end eventually . The only question: how do you handle the breakup ? You can go for silent and stealthy, or big and loud.
Celebs are no different, apart from the fact that millions of strangers are weirdly invested in their relationship status. Let’s have a look at some big-name breakups, starting with the explosive ones before concluding with the stealthy ones.
RELATED STORIES
Billy Bob Thornton and Laura Dern
This high-profile late-’90s romance flourished for three years. Then Billy Bob had to go and ruin everything by getting married to Angelina Jolie while he was still with Laura Dern. Years later, Dern said that she never heard from him again.
Porsha Williams and Kordell Stewart
The former football star and Real Housewives star had a two-year marriage. How did Porsha Williams find out they were through? Well, Kordell made it official — very official — when he announced their breakup on Twitter.
Peter Cook and Christie Brinkley
Architect Peter Cook and model Christie Brinkley had a long-lived relationship and were married for 12 years. Things got messy after the breakup (caused by Cook’s infidelity), with Brinkley so eager to tell the public about their divorce that she obtained legal permission to do so.
Sienna Miller and Jude Law
Things were fairly serious for Sienna Miller and Jude Law, with the couple almost getting married. But the whole time, Law was having an affair with his kids’ nanny, which doomed his relationship with Miller. You’d better believe she spilled all the details in an interview.
Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart
Stewart and Pattinson were known to be a couple, but that all came crashing down when photos leaked of Stewart kissing film director Rupert Sanders, who was in a relationship of his own. She and Robert Pattinson ultimately weren’t able to patch things back up .
Noah Cyrus and Lil Xan
Miley’s little sis and rapper Lil Xan were an item briefly — very briefly. But in 2018, their breakup got messy and public. Lil Xan accused Noah of cheating, Noah fired back and denied it , and everyone got out the popcorn.
Rita Ora and Calvin Harris
If you ever need to tell the world that you and your partner are no longer together, try Twitter. Calvin Harris announced his breakup with Ora on Twitter, then doubled down by refusing to let her sing one of his songs at an awards show.
Minnie Driver and Matt Damon
Breakups are never easy, but they’re made way harder if they literally happen on live TV. That’s what happened in 1998 when Matt Damon told Oprah that he and Driver were no longer together. This came as news to Minnie Driver.
Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian
Every relationship involving a Kardashian becomes high-profile by default, and Kim’s short-lived marriage to NBA player Kris Humphries was, indeed, big news. Never one to eschew publicity, Kim broke the news of their breakup on one of her reality shows.
Nicole Kidman and Lenny Kravitz
This would have been the perfect early aughts power couple — if they’d bothered telling anyone they were together. Instead, their romance in 2002 and 2003 didn’t get publicly revealed until 2017 when Kidman discussed their time together in an interview.
Matthew Perry and Lizzy Caplan
Lizzy Caplan has tried to keep her private life private , but the details of her relationship with Friends star Matthew Perry eventually became public. Someone close to them did later confirm that while they’d been an item, they’d been broken up for a long time .
Paddy McGuinness and Christine Martin
McGuinness and Martin weren’t just dating, they got married. After nine years, they broke up, even though Martin denied the breakup rumors in an interview. Later, the former couple felt pressured by the speculation and confirmed that they were no longer together.
Alexis Bledel and Jared Padalecki
Both co-starred on Gilmore Girls , and they began a relationship while the show was being shot. Nine long years later, in 2016, it finally came out that Bledel and Padalecki were an item for a time.
Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini
The two American Idol icons didn’t date during Idol . They did get together later when filming the awful 2003 film From Justin to Kelly . Years and years later, both Guarini and Clarkson confirmed that they’d had a thing going for awhile.
Michael Cera and Aubrey Plaza
Plaza appeared in the Cera-starring 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World . She and Cera quickly started dating. Although the relationship was short-lived, it remained a secret until Plaza discussed their time together in 2016, saying they almost got a Vegas quickie wedding.
Katie Holmes and Jamie Foxx
Here’s one that slipped under the radar for many people. The two movie stars dated for six, count ’em, six years before anyone found out. The world did eventually figure things out when they broke up in 2019. The secrecy was reportedly due to a divorce agreement between Holmes and her ex, Tom Cruise.
Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki
What would have been a relatively high-profile relationship forged on the set of The Big Bang Theory turned out to not be news at all. That’s because the co-stars decided to keep things secret. After the breakup, Cuoco reflected on their time together in an interview . They’re still friends.
Josh Hutcherson and Vanessa Hudgens
How awkward can a breakup be? Let’s let these Aussie TV interviewers test the waters with Josh Hutcherson and Vanessa Hudgens. They’d had a secretive relationship at one point, but were broken up by the time they appeared in this interview. That interview …well, it didn’t make things better.
JoJo Siwa and Kylie Prew
Life has been moving pretty fast over the past few years for JoJo Siwa, a prominent YouTuber. She’s had an on-again, off-again thing with her best friend, Kylie Prew. The two have broken up and gotten together again before breaking up again, so it’s hard to know what might come next.
Florence Pugh and Zach Braff
Despite their 21-year age gap, Pugh and Braff seemed to have a good thing going. They kept practically their whole relationship on the down-low before quietly breaking up recently. Pugh said that the quiet nature of their relationship was no joke, as they wanted to keep their personal lives away from prying eyes.
