Sharing the spotlight is easier said than done, and sometimes a star's shine is significantly
dimmed by their significant other.
From shady sabotage to alleged affairs, these celebs were all held back by their spouses.
Mariah Carey
Pop superstar Mariah Carey's first marriage to record executive Tommy Mottola sounded,
well, less than ideal.
According to the New York Post, Mottola isolated Mimi inside their mansion.
An insider explained,
"Carey had two bodyguards assigned to her at all times, even when she went to the bathroom.
She called the house 'Sing Sing' — a morbid reference to her caged-bird status."
"I wasn't really allowed out of the house."
Mottola allegedly tried to control her even after their split in 1997.
Record exec Irv Gotti told XXL magazine that Mottola attempted to sabotage Carey's 2001
Glitter soundtrack, ripping off some of Carey's musical arrangements to use for Jennifer Lopez's
album J.Lo, which would be released before Glitter.
Apparently, Mariah had already been extremely worried about her music getting out.
An insider added,
"When Jennifer Lopez's record came out, and had the exact same song, we knew [Mariah]
had a right to be paranoid.
We couldn't believe it."
For his part, Mottola denied everything.
After they divorced, Carey's career soared with Butterfly.
Shania Twain
A lot happened to Shania Twain in the whopping 15 years she went without releasing an album.
Between the releases of 2002's Up! and 2017's Now, Twain went through a brutal divorce after
her husband Mutt Lange, who was also her producer and creative partner, allegedly cheated on
her with her best friend and assistant in 2008.
E! News reported that Twain had an album originally slated for a June 2009 release that kept getting
delayed, partly as a result of the drama.
Thankfully, Twain recovered on all fronts.
She ended up remarrying, and dropped Now in September 2017.
Jennifer Garner
While Ben Affleck was winning awards for Argo and becoming Batman, actress Jennifer Garner
was essentially a housewife for nearly a decade.
She explained to W magazine in 2010,
"I have this internal battle between, 'I need to work, I need to work, I need to work' and
'I need to be home with my kids.'
And the kids win."
In March 2015, while the pair was quietly separated, she told Us Weekly,
"Ben is super busy and I'm super happy for him.
I chose to stay home this year and just said, 'Go for it babe.
Do it all.
Do 'Gone Girl,' do 'Batman,' do 'The Accountant.'
Do everything.'"
With their marriage now behind her, things seem to be looking up for Garner.
She's slated to go back to her action star roots in the film Peppermint, a revenge thriller
for which she's already getting back into fighting shape.
Steph Curry
In June 2016, Ayesha Curry, the wife of Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry, accused
the NBA of being "rigged" in a since-deleted tweet.
According to the New York Post, Ayesha later apologized, but an industry insider claimed
that her tirade damaged Steph's reputation just as much as her own.
For weeks, Ayesha's social media blew up with attacks from angry fans.
The insider added,
"She is paying the price for it.
[...] She really harmed her and her husband's brand in the short term.
She needs to be careful to not make that mistake again."
"I'm in love with my husband, so I was protective.
It's hard to portray your personality in 140 characters."
Olivia Munn and Aaron Rodgers
Actress Olivia Munn and NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers were never officially married.
And that's probably a good thing, as they seemingly blamed one another for their career
woes after they broke up.
Munn told Collider that she took a role in the all-female Ocean's Eight because, quote,
"During that time, I was in a relationship where I didn't work.
He played football, so during the season, for three years [...] I wouldn't work.
[...] But then, this came up.
It worked out that it was on a day off, so I flew out and did it."
Rodgers, meanwhile, seemed to suggest that his team's lackluster performances could be
blamed, at least in part, on his personal life.
He told ESPN,
"When you are living out a relationship in the public eye, it's definitely… it's difficult.
It has some extra constraints, because you have other opinions about your relationship,
how it affects your work and, you know, just some inappropriate connections."
Megan Fox
Transformers actress Megan Fox reportedly wanted to move past the generic "hot chick"
roles and snag some meatier parts in Hollywood, but husband Brian Austin Green may have had
other plans.
A source told People that Green wanted Fox to settle down into domestic life and quit
acting to focus full-time on motherhood, saying,
"Brian wants more of her time than she can allow.
She was overwhelmed with the children and her husband's expectations, which got in the
way of work responsibilities."
The couple split briefly, but after Fox became pregnant with their third son, they reunited.
And it looks like Fox may have found a good balance between her work and home life, with
several projects reportedly in the works.
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