Break-ups are nothing new in Hollywood or the celebrity scene. Every year there are couples breaking up that everyone knew wouldn’t make it and a few couples that people are shocked couldn’t make it work.
In the past years we’ve seen the shocking break-ups of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, and most recently Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra. Navarro and Electra are the second MTV reality couple to have called it quits.
Simpson and Lachey, though both having moderately successful singing careers pre-marriage, are most recognizable from their MTV reality show “Newlyweds”. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for a few years you know what I’m talking about. But if you don’t, this is the show that chronicled their first few years of marriage beginning in 2002. By the time Season 3 hit shelves on DVD, the marriage was over.
Electra and Navarro also had an MTV reality show called “’Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave” that chronicled their weeks leading up to their wedding in 2003. The season finale was their beautiful wedding set in a gothic version of the Garden of Eden. Very dark yet extremely beautiful! They just announced on July 18, 2006 they are “amicably separating” after 2 ½ years of marriage.
This latest celebrity break-up got me thinking about all the divorces and break-ups that seem to be happening just within the past months, weeks and even days. After the plethora of stories surfacing every day about celebrities divorcing you have to wonder why the divorce rate in Celebrity-land seems so much higher than “real life”.
My first theory is what many celebrities use as their scapegoat to their failed marriage; the tabloids broke them up. Many people say the constant attention and scrutiny on their marriage leads to them breaking up. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, or “Bennifer” as the tabloids dubbed them, said the constant paparazzi presence and parade of stories about them made it hard for them to keep their relationship alive.
Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s reps said quite the same thing. For months, Us Magazine and other publications were speculating problems in their marriage after seeing them apart more often and Simpson not wearing her wedding ring. Denial after denial they assured everyone that their marriage was rock solid. A few months later, they were announcing their separation.
This doesn’t make sense to me because if they don’t want their relationship scrutinized, don’t put it on reality television and then expect people to leave you alone! Also, if your marriage is solid then it doesn’t matter what people speculate or say about it.
Other theories that are out there include constant temptation taking the forms of other people being attractive and also the temptation of being a big star. Lachey said Simpson became a different person once the temptation of being a big star went to her head. There was also talk of infidelity on Simpson’s part. Seems she gave in to both temptations; fame and sex. She cared more about how famous she was and being seen than working on her marriage.
In the case of Hilary Swank and Chad Lowe, it seemed, to some, they were separating because Swank wanted to further her career more than her marriage. Their nine-year marriage went south and no one was saying why. Then the mudslinging began when a Vanity Fair interview with Swank surfaced. She said the reason her nine-year marriage broke up was the fact Lowe was hiding a substance abuse problem. When asked if he was jealous of her successful career, she has two Oscars, Swank responded he wasn’t jealous of her career but blames “the lack of opportunities in his own career.” Ouch.
Whatever reason celebrities break up, and there is always a new reason, it seems they will always remain close friends and still care deeply for each other…or so their reps say.
With the string of MTV reality break-ups, this should be a cautionary tale to other celebrities looking to put their relationship on television and in the public eye. But not only the MTV crowd should be aware. This may be contagious and VH1 could catch it. Britney Spears and Kevin Federline with their show “Chaotic” and Chris Knight and Adrianne Curry, of “America’s Next Top Model” fame, with their show “My Fair Brady” should watch out. They could be next!
Below is a list of current celebrity break-ups:
v Paul McCartney & Heather Mills McCartney
v Dave Navarro & Carmen Electra
v Nick Lachey & Jessica Simpson (Lachey is rumored to be dating Vanessa Minnillo and Simpson is rumored to be dating….everyone)
v Christy Brinkley & Peter Cook
v Shannon Miller (Olympic gymnast in 2000 & 2004) & husband
v Chad Lowe & Hilary Swank
v Denise Richards & Charlie Sheen
v Heather Locklear & Richie Sambora (Sambora is now dating Denise Richards)
v Penelope Cruz & Matt McConaughey
v Tori Spelling & Charlie Shanian (Tori is now remarried to Dean McDermott)
v Matt LeBlanc & Melissa McKnight
v Nikki Sixx & Donna D’Errico
v Christina Applegate & Johnathon Schaech
v Lance Armstrong & Sheryl Crow
Copyright 2006 by Katy Gaffney
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