One day in 1987, an 18-year-old Patricia Arquette decided to get herself a sandwich
and headed over to Canter's Deli in Los Angeles. Little did she know, that decision would change
the direction of her life forever. Nicholas Cage was there, and when he saw Patricia,
he said he was going to marry her. So, she decided to send Nicholas on a quest to prove his love.
Stay tuned, Juicers, because that so-called "quest" began the decade-long
unfolding of one of Hollywood's most unconventional love stories.
At first, Patricia thought Nicholas was joking, but he wasn't. In fact, he was being totally
serious about his declaration to the actress. Patricia politely declined his proposal,
but when Nicholas persisted, she decided that in order for him to prove that he
was serious about it, she sent him on "a Princess Bride-level quest."
She wrote a list of impossible things to find and said that if Nicholas was
able to gather everything on that list, she would give him her heart in return.
Sounds ridiculously romantic, right? Like something that would start an epic rom-com.
Well, this time, it was real, and Nicholas was determined to win his way into Patricia's heart.
"One by one, they started coming to me," Arquette said of the gifts during an interview.
Nicolas Cage bought a rare letter written by J.D. Salinger for $2,500 in order to
fulfill Patricia Arquette's request for an autograph from the notoriously private author.
After Cage dropped it off at her house, the actress started to panic. She had no idea that
he was going to take the list seriously. Patricia then called him and asked him to stop and that it
was all a funny joke. But Cage was determined. He knew what he wanted, and he was going to get it.
Arquette's list also included a black orchid - which we might add is extremely rare - a Lisu
tribe wedding costume and a Bob's Big Boy statue. One day, Cage arrived at Arquette's
place with a purple orchid and a can of black spray paint. Arquette watched as he
spray-painted the orchid black, presented it to her, and then sped off on his motorcycle.
Cage said he had a chainsaw ready and was prepared to steal a Bob's Big Boy statue
for her, and Patricia finally gave in. While she said she wouldn't marry him,
she agreed to go away with him to Cuba for three weeks on a romantic getaway.
Unfortunately, just before they were supposed to leave for Cuba,
they were stalled in Mexico due to an issue with their tickets.
Cage lost his temper and threw a fit at the airport due to the inconvenience. Patricia
was not impressed with his meltdown and decided that it was best for them to part ways instead.
"His success was scary to me. I couldn't touch him." The actress confessed.
But their love story didn't end there, despite what you might think! Over the next few years,
they both moved on to date different people. Nicholas had a son with his then-girlfriend
Christina Fulton, and Patricia also had a son with her then-boyfriend Paul Rossie.
And then, one day in 1995, their paths crossed once again at the very same place.
Yep, that's right; they bumped into each other at the same deli they had first met.
If that isn't romantic, we don't know what is.
"I needed to be reassured that the depth of his love would be as brave as before,"
Arquette explained in an interview about their
chance meetup after almost ten years. And it seems the depth of his love was
proven because just two weeks later they got married and it was Patricia that proposed!
She arrived at his house, dressed head to toe in black vinyl,
carrying a big purple wedding cake, and asked him to marry her.
It was that very moment that Nicholas thought, "I was with the right woman."
For their wedding, Arquette swapped her black vinyl for a leopard-print jacket and married Cage
during a 10-minute ceremony on top of a cliff in Carmel. According to insiders, the couple had the
town's "former chief of police, a lady preacher and a raft of otters" as their only witnesses,
and they then "rode away in a blue Ferrari and off into the sunset."
It all seemed like the picture-perfect end to that rom-com… Until it wasn't.
It seems their wedding bliss didn't last very long. Sadly,
after just nine months of marriage, the couple separated.
"There were times when we weren't living together because we were fighting,
but it wasn't as reported, and I didn't feel that I needed to explain that." Arquette shared.
She explained that while her mom was dying from breast cancer, she went to live with her. Patricia
was taking care of her sick mom and needed to spend whatever time with her that she had left.
There were also times when Nicholas was working on a film, so he had to be away from home too.
So with everything going on in their personal and work lives,
they didn't get to see much of each other.
"I still don't feel like I owe it to anyone. It's funny when people are so wrong,
and they put you in this position and decide who you are." The actress said.
Following their separation after nine months of marriage in 1996,
the couple spent the next few years filing and withdrawing
divorce papers before citing "irreconcilable differences" in their final split in 2000...
"It's always hard to make that decision to get divorced. We've both moved on with our lives,
and I think it's important to honor the people we're with now and concentrate
on the future." Patricia shared about their ultimate divorce.
Though their union reportedly found a "mutual and respectful" end,
Cage admitted in 2018 that he and Arquette hadn't spoken, "in a long time."
After their divorce, Patricia welcomed daughter Harlow with actor Thomas Jane
in 2003 — they wed three years later, and Arquette filed for divorce in early 2009.
She's been linked to painter Eric White since 2014.
Nicholas, on the other hand, had a bit more of a bumpy ride to finding love. Soon after
splitting from Arquette, he began dating Lisa Marie Presley , and they got married in 2002.
In an interview, Cage said there was a "sense, a logic"
to marrying the singer-songwriter, given they both came from famous and artistic families.
"Oftentimes, when you have two people who are very strong and their own personalities,
and rather intense, sometimes you can have a hard time meshing.
We got into this unfortunate pattern of breaking up and getting back together again."
Unfortunately, they filed for divorce after only four months of marriage.
Nicholas admitted that he continues to miss Lisa every day, and he wished that they
hadn't rushed into the marriage and regretted that they went on to rush into the divorce.
In 2004 he married Alice Kim. They welcomed a son Kal-El the following year.
"We did it because we loved each other," Cage stated.
It seemed that Kim brought the best out of Nicolas,
and he credited his stable lifestyle to her.
The couple was together for 14 years until Kim suddenly filed for divorce,
which broke the actor's heart. It's no wonder that he was shocked by the file for divorce;
the actor finally thought that he had found his lifelong partner.
"It was a shocker for me - I definitely didn't see it coming,
and those feelings had to go somewhere, so they went into the performance."
The actor remained tight-lipped about what led to the couple's
split but said that they have remained on good terms to co-parent their son.
But his marriages didn't stop there. In 2019, the actor had one of his shortest marriages yet with
Erika Koike . It was a whirlwind romance, which resulted in a spur-of-the-moment wedding in Vegas.
Just four days after marrying, the actor filed for an annulment.
The couple had been together for a year before they decided to get married;
unfortunately, everything seemed to go downhill from there.
"I was pretty upset about that and the way things happened." He also
confessed that when he woke up the next morning, he had no idea he was married.
However, Erika was allegedly against the idea of the divorce and denied all of Cage's
claims that they were intoxicated when they decided to get married.
Following the divorce proceedings, Cage's fourth wife then continued to
demand spousal support from the actor even though they were only married for four days.
However, it's his most recent marriage that seems to be the one that's sticking.
In 2021, Nicholas married Riko Shibata. Cage told his brother that they had spent almost
six months apart due to the international pandemic. It seems like distance does make
the heart grow fonder because Cage made the decision to propose to Riko over facetime.
He admitted, "I got her a black diamond engagement ring.
Her favorite color is black, so she wanted black gold and black diamond.
I customized and personalized it, and I actually sent it to her FedEx."
"We're really happy together, and we're really excited to spend that time together,
so I finally just said," Look, I wanna marry you," The actor shared.
Close friends to the actor said in a statement that the pair "are very happy"
after they tied the knot in Las Vegas in February. It was a gorgeous affair
followed by a celebration that was even attended by Nicolas's ex-wife, Alice Kim.
While we can't help but swoon over his romance with Patricia, sometimes the big gestures don't
always mean a happily-ever-after. Their story is undoubtedly an epic one and will go down in
the books of ultimate Hollywood love stories - but it wasn't one built to last. Thankfully they
both moved on - although it took Nicholas several tries to finally find the woman to make him happy.
But who doesn't have to kiss a few frogs before finding their prince - or in this case,
princess? We just hope that they're both happy!