Divorces can get messy when they are between us mere mortals. When they involve celebrities, it all takes place on a much larger stage in front of the entire world. All of the dirty laundry is out there for everyone to see. People judge celebrities for the way their marriages have failed and for the spectacle of celebrity divorces. Of course, deep in our hearts, we know that the sorts of things happening with celebs happen to the rest of us, too.
People do terrible things. They cheat. They become abusive. They grow apart. No amount of fame or money, or lack thereof, will change this. When it happens with celebrities, it tends to be front-page news though. We just can’t get enough of all the salacious details. And sometimes, we are justified because some celebrity divorces get truly messy.
Below, we’ll be talking about some of the messiest celebrity divorces, but we’re not going to be taking sides. We’re just going to look at the mess from above.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard
You would need to have been living under a rock over the past few years if you haven’t heard anything about the feud between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.
After meeting on the set of The Rum Diary in 2009, the two became friends and then started dating in 2012. They married in 2015, but the bliss did not last for long. In 2016, Heard filed for a divorce. She accused Depp of physically abusing her during the relationship and said that he was often on drugs or alcohol when he did it. Depp denied this and said there was never any intent of harm.
A lot of people came to Heard’s defense, while others rallied around Depp. The divorce was finalized in 2017 and Heard received $7 million in the settlement. She claimed that she would be donating that money to a children’s hospital.
However, the fight continues. At the time of this writing, there is an ongoing $100 million defamation case between Heard and Depp. He filed the case against her in 2019, alleging that an opinion piece she wrote in The Washington Post implied that he was physically abusive toward her. He said that the article irreparably damaged his career, and he may be right about that. He lost roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and the latest Fantastic Beasts movie. Heard, however, has continued with her career.
During the defamation trial thus far, we’ve learned that Heard was abusive toward Depp on multiple occasions, she didn’t donate her settlement in the divorce, as she claimed she did, and a host of other facts about the dysfunctional duo and other people in their orbit.
This is one of the messiest splits among celebs to have happened in a long time. However, it’s certainly not the only messy divorce in recent memory.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
These two had been friends for several years before beginning dating and then getting married in 2014. The two were married for six years before Kardashian filed for divorce in 2021. She said that there were irreconcilable differences, and that counseling would not help their relationship. If things had ended there and the divorce proceeded simply, it wouldn’t be included in this article, though.
Things were getting strange between the couple for a while. West moved to Wyoming, where he was living most of the time. Kardashian did not want to move there, but that’s just the start of the troubles. West said he was going to run for president in 2020, but no one in the Kardashian family declared support for him publicly.
Despite the split, Kanye remained a jealous person. When Kardashian started to date Pete Davidson, from SNL, Kanye was not happy. You have to keep in mind that he was already publicly dating other people at this point.
West went after Davidson on social media and even released a music video that showed him burying someone who looked an awful lot like Davidson. The song lyrics even mention his name.
He later apologized, but the damage had already been done.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston… and Angelina Jolie
In the very early part of the 2000s, Pitt and Aniston were a pair of beautiful people who were at the height of their careers. She was on Friends, and he was starring in hit after hit. Of course, things weren’t quite as lovely as they seemed.
There were rumors that Pitt was having an affair with his costar in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. His costar in that film was Angelina Jolie. Some didn’t believe that Pitt would cheat on Aniston, but boy were they wrong. Aniston filed for divorce from Pitt in 2005.
While this might not seem too messy, it does get a little worse. Shortly after the divorce, Pitt was seen vacationing with Jolie in Kenya. The world realized that it wasn’t just rumors, and people were suddenly divided into two camps—Team Aniston and Team Pitt.
Pitt was with Jolie for a long time. By 2012, they already had six children, three who were adopted. They were married in 2014 in France. They weren’t a big happy family though because it was just two years later that Jolie filed for divorce. She wanted to have primary custody of their children, as well. Jolie accused Pitt of physically abusing one of the children when he was drunk. However, he was cleared of these charges.
They are still going through problems in the court, too. Even though the marriage is over, they are still fighting over custody and other matters.
As you can see, whether we are talking about celebrity divorces or not, people can go through the same sorts of issues in their love lives. Just because the celeb gets their information blasted out in the media doesn’t mean that the same sorts of things aren’t happening with your neighbors and friends.
