Our fascination with the personal lives of the rich and famous sells millions of newspapers, magazines, and books. Here are more celebrity marriages and divorces, listed in no particular order.
Jim Carrey and Melissa Womer: Carrey’s comedy career was just getting started when he met and married waitress Melissa Womer. The couple had one daughter before the marriage ended in a messy divorce after which Carrey married Lauren Holly. Womer was asking for $7 million to end the marriage and Carrey countered with $500,000. Reportedly Carrey settled close to Womer’s $7 million figure.
Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly: Carrey and Holly married in 1996 but their marriage ended after ten months when Holly filed for divorce citing “irreconcilable differences” although the tabloids claimed she had fallen for actor Edward Burns.
Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra: The marriage between Electra and Rodman lasted for a total of nine days during November 1998. The marriage was annulled after baskeball bad-boy Rodman claimed he was too drunk to know what he was doing when he married buxom Baywatch babe Electra.
Charlie Chaplin and Mildred Harris: Actress Harris was sixteen when she and Chaplin, 29, were married in 1918. The marriage ended in 1920.
Charlie Chaplin and Leta Gray: Gray was sixteen and pregnant when she and Chaplin, 35, were married in 1924. They had two children before they divorced.
Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard: The marriage in 1935 between actress Goddard, 19, and Chaplin, 44, wasn’t acknowledged until a year later. They divorced in 1942. The next year, Chaplin, 54, married Oona O’Neill, 18. The couple, who had eight children, were married for the remainder of his life.
Lorraine Bracco and Daniel Guerard: Frenchman Guerard was a salon owner and occasional actor whom Bracco married after she became pregnant with her first daughter. The marriage lasted from 1979 to 1982.
Lorraine Bracco and Harvey Keitel: Bracco’s 1982 marriage to Keitel ended in 1993 when she had an affair with Edward James Olmos. Divorce from Keitel locked the couple in a vicious custody battle over their daughter with resulting legal costs forcing Bracco into bankruptcy. During the divorce, Stella, their daughter, was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
Lorraine Bracco and Edward James Olmos: Olmos and Bracco married in 1994, separated in 1999, and divorced in 2002. In 2005, Bracco reportedly found new love with Jason Cipolla, a 30-year old former Syracuse University basketball player.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz: Comedienne Ball wed Cuban bandleader Arnaz in 1940. Their hit television program, I Love Lucy, which premiered October 1951 ran for six years and made the couple very rich and famous. They divorced in 1960 splitting their financial empire evenly. A few years later Ball bought out Arnaz’ interest in Desilu, the studio they built together.
Robin Givens and Mike Tyson: Boxer Mike Tyson, who held the title of world heavyweight champion, and actress Robin Givens were an unlikely pair to wed in 1988. In June of 1988, Givens accused Tyson of domestic violence which Tyson denied. In September, during a television interview, Givens said Tyson was a manic-depressive and that she was afraid of him. A couple weeks later, Givens filed for divorce and a week later Tyson countersued. Givens was quoted in the press as saying: “Our marriage was like a PG-13 movie: too much violence and not enough sex.” The year ended up with two women suing Tyson for allegedly grabbing them at a nightclub. The couple were finally divorced on Valentine’s Day, 1989, in the Dominican Republic.
Uma Thurman and Gary Oldman: Thurman and English actor Oldman married in 1990; Thurman divorced him two years later.
Ulma Thurman and Ethan Hawke: Thurman married actor Hawke in 1998 and their daughter was born three months later. Their son was born in 2002. The couple separated in 2003 and filed for divorce in 2004.
Tom Hanks and Samantha Lewes: Hanks, whose parents divorced when he was a child, married college sweetheart Lewes (aka Susan Dillingham) in 1979. Their daughter was born in 1982 and their son in 1977. Lewes and Hanks separated in 1985 and divorced in 1987. In 1988, Hanks married actress Rita Wilson with whom he has two sons.
Sonny Bono and Cher Bono: Sonny Bono and Cherilyn Sarkasian LaPier met in 1963; he was 27 and she was 16. Reportedly the couple exchanged rings in a Tijuana motel bathroom in 1964 and told everyone they were married. In 1965 they made the hit “I Got You, Babe.” In 1969 they had a legal marriage and in March of the same year their daughter, Chastity, was born. The extremely popular “Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour,” which debuted in 1971, put the spotlight on their marriage as it fell apart and their spirited bickering became bitter. In 1974 Sonny filed for a legal separation and little more than a week later Cher filed for divorce. Their divorce was final on June 27, 1975, and on June 30 Cher married rocker Greg Allman.
Cher and Gregg Allman: Cher and rocker Allman married three days after her divorce from Sonny Bono was final. Allman was a heroin addict and Cher filed for divorce ten days after their marriage. They reconciled around the time their son Elijah Blue Allman was born in 1976. They officially divorced in 1977.
Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley: Elvis met Priscilla while he was in the U.S. Army stationed in Germany. She was 14 years old. When Priscilla was 17, Elvis convinced her mother and stepfather to allow her to move to Memphis to live with his father and stepmother. Gradually Priscilla began spending more time at Graceland with Elvis and, according to Priscilla in her autobiography Elvis and Me, Elvis told her they would have to wait for marriage to have intercourse. She said: “Instead of consummating our love in the usual way, he began teaching me other means of pleasing him.” The couple was married May 1, 1967, and their daughter, Lisa Marie, was born February 1, 1968. Reportedly her involvement with a karate instructor in 1972 put them on the path to divorce and their marriage was officially over in 1973.