Kensington sexcapades! Toe-sucking in the tabloids! And the most infamous
love affair in Hollywood! These insane scandals live in our heads rent free.
In 2012, the last installment of the "Twilight" franchise had just been released, and the film's
primary stars and IRL item, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, were young Hollywood's it-couple.
The duo was so beloved that there were Instagram accounts dedicated to posting paparazzi images
and videos of the couple, as well as fan bloggers devoted to tracking the pair's
every move. They were huge, which is why so many fans felt so betrayed when it came out
that Stewart had been carrying on an affair with her married director, Rupert Sanders.
In July 2012, Us Weekly published a series of photos showing Stewart
and Sanders cuddling and canoodling. The scandal picked up traction quickly thanks
to Stewart's huge fan base and forced both parties to issue public apologies
to their respective partners and families. Sanders told People,
"I am utterly distraught by the pain I have caused
my family... I am praying that we can get through this together."
Stewart, meanwhile, told the outlet,
"I'm deeply sorry [...] This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most
important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most,
Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."
Sanders' apology didn't seem to go very far with his wife,
and they divorced shortly after the pictures were made public. Pattinson, on the other hand,
was more open to it, and he dated Stewart for months after the affair was out.
"Nobody's ever loved anyone as much as I love you."
"There was one exception."
The couple eventually broke up in 2013,
with sources citing personal problems as the reason for their split, per Us Weekly.
"Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer's romantic past has been a wild ride,
particularly his marriage to Bravo star Camille Grammer.
Kelsey met Camille in 1996 on a blind date and married her the
following year. The couple had two kids, established their own production company,
and settled down in the LA area before Camille accepted a starring role on "The Real Housewives
of Beverly Hills" in 2010. During her first season on the show, she stunned fans when
she announced Kelsey was seeking a divorce and that he had been unfaithful for quite some time.
"I don't even remember being in bed with the man, for God's sake."
"Oh my gosh."
"I mean it's been that long."
Kelsey's new fling, viewers would come to find out, was an English
flight attendant named Kayte Walsh. It's never been clear when exactly Kelsey and Walsh met,
or when they began dating. By the time Camille found out, the illicit romance
had been going on for long enough that there was no hope for reconciliation.
The Grammers' ugly divorce played out on reality TV for all to see. To this day, neither party has
much of anything nice to say about the other. When prompted, Walsh did tell Oprah Winfrey,
"I'm not proud of the way we started out. Because you were in, he was in a marriage."
A couple weeks after finalizing his and Camille's divorce, Kelsey married Walsh,
and the couple has since welcomed three children.
Few royal scandals have rocked the monarchy quite so hard as when then-Prince Charles'
affair with Camilla Parker Bowles became public knowledge. The pair
were first introduced in 1970 by a mutual friend. They were both acceptably single
at the time and briefly dated. By 1973, Camilla was married to her first husband,
Andrew Parker Bowles, and in 1981 Prince Charles tied the knot with Princess Diana.
But the old flames were soon rekindled, marital vows be damned.
"Well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
According to insiders, Diana was aware of the secret tryst almost from the start.
A former bodyguard named Ken Wharfe wrote a book about his late boss in
2022 titled "Diana — Remembering the Princess." In a promotional appearance
on ITV's "Lorraine," Wharfe recounted that the princess once interrupted the lovers at a party.
"Diana just went up to both of them and said to Camilla,
'Look, please don't treat me like an idiot, I know what's going on.'"
For his part, Charles acknowledged his infidelity, telling Jonathan Dimbleby on
ITV that he'd been faithful for a time, and they'd both tried until the marriage became,
quote "irretrievably broken down." By the late '90s, both Charles and Camilla had divorced their
spouses, and in 1999 they stepped out together as an official couple for the first time.
Shockingly, King Charles III wasn't the only person in his marriage having an
affair. Sometime after Charles and Camilla began not-so-secretly seeing one another,
Princess Diana struck up a relationship with James Hewitt, a military man and riding instructor.
Princess Diana's former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, wrote about the royal in "Diana:
A Closely Guarded Secret." He says that before he began working for Diana,
she met Hewitt at a party thrown by one of her ladies-in-waiting. Struck by how normally he
treated her and charmed by his offer to help her get over her fear of horses, the princess
quickly made it clear that she was interested in being more than just friends with him.
The pair would remain together for several years,
sneaking around at Kensington Palace and writing long letters — which Hewitt later leaked — when
they couldn't be together. There's even been speculation that Hewitt is actually Prince
Harry's father — which is impossible, since the two met two years after Harry was born.
The romance would dwindle toward the end of the 1980s when Hewitt accepted a military
position that took him abroad. The break-up was amicable at first but turned sour when
Hewitt divulged the lovers' intimate details for the book "Princess in Love." In a 1995
interview with the BBC, Diana confirmed the relationship, and its ultimate end, saying:
"Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him. But I was very let down."
In the early '90s, James Cameron was directing "Terminator 2" and began dating the film's leading
lady, Linda Hamilton. The two were together for several years, welcomed a daughter in 1993,
and, by all accounts, seemed on the road to marriage. But then, Cameron began working
on "Titanic" where he met Suzy Amis, the actor who played Rose's granddaughter, Lizzy Calvert.
Smitten with the younger woman, Cameron reportedly began seeing her. Hamilton later
told the Daily Mail in 2011 that she and Cameron had actually been on a break from the marriage,
enabling him to see other people. Nothing scandalous there, right? Except that wasn't
the end of it. Cameron eventually broke up with Amis and went back to Hamilton, marrying her in
1997. Then in 1999, the pair divorced, and in 2000, Cameron tied the knot with Amis, to whom
he is still married. But was there any overlap in that whiplash game of romantic ping-pong?
Hamilton suggested as much, telling the Daily Mail:
"Yes, there was a period when he did sort of cross over because he was confused."
She added that there was also an emotional aspect to who Cameron
chose to be with at any given time, saying:
"It's interesting because while he was making Titanic, Suzy at that time was the gargoyle on
the end of my bed, waiting to swoop in. Now I'm the gargoyle on her bed because for Jim,
the one who doesn't end up with him is always the one he wants."
While the actor said she and Cameron loved each other quite a bit,
their bold personalities made a happy, healthy romantic relationship seemingly impossible.
"In an insane world, it was the sanest choice."
In 2005, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott were hard at work on a TV movie called
"Mind Over Murder." The project was a flop, as evidenced by its incredibly
low IMDb rating, but the stars still got something out of it — each other.
When they first arrived on set, both actors were married. But it didn't stay that way for long.
"Are you hungry?"
"My kids are with the sitter."
Rumors quickly began spreading that the co-stars were having an affair,
something they all but confirmed when they tied the knot right after Spelling's divorce
was finalized. In an episode of "True Tori" that aired in 2014,
the actor finally admitted what everyone had long suspected to be true: she and McDermott had,
in fact, begun seeing each other when they were both in other relationships.
"We had sex the first night we met, is that what you're asking?"
"No, no, no, no. But that's fascinating."
"It wasn't like, 'Oh, just get your rocks off, just have sex with someone just to have sex.’"
While they may have been head over heels for each other at the time,
things haven't all been smooth sailing since then. In 2014,
McDermott cheated on Spelling with another woman. He and Spelling appeared distant for
a while,but McDermott gave The U.S. Sun a good report on their marriage in 2022.
If the celebrity conspiracy theorists are to be believed, Marilyn Monroe was always in the
middle of one affair or another. And while many of these tales are unsubstantiated,
others, like her alleged romance with Robert F. Kennedy, also known as RFK or simply Bobby,
are much more of an open secret.
"You can believe this one. Every word of it."
At the time, both the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" actor and the Attorney General
didn't seem to acknowledge the dalliance. RFK, of course, would have been looking
out for the Kennedy legacy and trying to protect his marriage. Monroe, meanwhile,
likely would have wanted to avoid any press potentially damaging her reputation.
Those in their inner circles, however, reportedly knew all about the affair.
For example, in one letter that was found among Monroe's personal belongings,
RFK's younger sister, Jean Kennedy Smith, wrote to her:
"Understand that you and Bobby are the new item! We all think
you should come with him when he comes back East!"
Biographers for both parties have also claimed that the two
were almost certainly sleeping with one another.
"Someone wired up Marilyn's house on behalf of Hoffa. Bobby Kennedy was there many times."
One author, James Spada, told People that an affair between both RFK and
President John F. Kennedy was more than just likely, saying:
"It was pretty clear that Marilyn had had sexual relations with Bobby and Jack."
One of Hollywood's greatest love stories is that of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It's
also one of the most scandalous affairs in show business. Hepburn and Tracy first met in the early
'40s when they co-starred in "Woman of the Year." Tracy was almost 20 years into his own marriage
at that point and was not inclined, most likely due to his Catholic faith, to file for divorce.
"What is marriage? Tell me that."
"You tell me."
"Alright, I will tell you. It's a contract."
As a result, his romance with the younger Hepburn was carried on almost entirely in secret.
According to People, the duo took care to never be photographed together while out and about. But
that doesn't mean they weren't spending plenty of time together. People reported that Tracy
eventually moved into a home of his own that was just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Hepburn's.
Per Variety, Hepburn and Tracy would remain together until Tracy's death in 1967,
but it wasn't until much later that Hepburn spoke about the affair. In her 1991 memoir, she wrote,
"I loved Spencer Tracy. [...] I would have done anything for him. My feelings — how
can you describe them? — the door was always open. There were no reservations of any kind."
In 1990, the biggest celebrity scandal was, unquestionably,
the ugly dissolution of Donald Trump and the late Ivana Trump's marriage. The socialites
had tied the knot in 1977 and had welcomed three children. Outwardly, their marriage seemed happy.
"Then it's a deal?"
"Yes, we eat our pizza the wrong way."
"Crust first."
But behind closed doors, Donald had been carrying
on an affair with a younger model named Marla Maples.
In her memoir, "Raising Trump," Ivana recounted
how she learned about her husband's infidelity. While skiing in Aspen,
the socialite said she was approached by Maples, who introduced herself by saying:
"I'm Marla and I love your husband. Do you?"
Things spiraled from there, and just two months
later, the couple separated. Their divorce would be finalized in 1992.
Maples, who would eventually become Trump's second wife, said in an interview on ABC's "Journeys of
Faith with Paula Faris" podcast that she regretted starting a relationship with Trump before he could
divorce Ivana. Maples also claimed her faith was a big part of their relationship, saying:
"When Donald and I came together […] I believed that together, we
could do some very powerful things in the world."
"It's hot. It's pretty hot."
Prince Charles wasn't the only royal dealing with marital issues in the '90s. His brother,
Prince Andrew, who had married Sarah Ferguson in 1986, was also going through a separation.
While the couple wasn't forthcoming with an official reason for the dissolution of their
union, it was widely believed that various affairs had played a role in their decision.
In August 1992, The Sun published pictures of a
businessman named John Bryan sucking on Fergie's toes as she sunbathed.
The images and all they implied — that the couple was sharing an intimate relationship on a romantic
vacation while Fergie was still very much married to her husband — caused a huge scandal.
The palace was reportedly enraged with the duchess, and many commoners who
had previously been supportive of the royal now firmly saw her as a villain.
While the affair wasn't what initially drove Prince Andrew and Fergie apart, it certainly
didn't help the tension between them. These days, they seem to have moved past the incident,
seeing as how they've lived together in the Royal Lodge at Windsor for years, despite being
divorced since 1996. Bryan has spoken about the toe fiasco on "Lorraine," claiming the
photos represented a playful moment, and the media frenzy could have been handled better.
When Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher married in 1959,
they did so amidst one of the biggest scandals in Hollywood history. After all, Fisher was
still married to Taylor's best friend, Debbie Reynolds, when they began their relationship.
After Elizabeth Taylor's husband, Mike Todd, died in a plane crash, Fisher moved in with Taylor for
a couple days as friendly support. It must have been very friendly because shortly after that,
Fisher left Reynolds and their two children, Todd and Carrie, and got married to Taylor.
The whole affair caused a whirlwind media frenzy. In
the memoir "My Girls," Fisher and Reynolds' son Todd Fisher wrote,
"The world was stunned. […] Eddie and Elizabeth were vilified. Eddie was declared a philandering,
opportunistic loser, and Elizabeth was labelled a bad girl, home-wrecking sl-t."
In the late 1950s, Sophia Loren was a relative newcomer to the Hollywood scene,
having done only a handful of movies on this side of the pond. Cary Grant was a well-established
actor with a host of blockbusters under his belt. There was a 30-year age gap between the icons,
Grant was married to his third wife, and Loren was engaged. But when they
met on the set of 1957's "The Pride and the Passion," none of that mattered.
When Loren published her 2014 memoir, "Yesterday,
Today, Tomorrow: My Life," she admitted everything, adding:
"I, just twenty-two years old, was often confused by a life that was
going much too fast. He, at fifty-two, had lived a lot and suffered a lot, too,
although it appeared as though he had everything."
It seems that the romance only lasted for the length of the shoot,
or perhaps a little bit longer. By the time the couple shot their second film together,
"Houseboat" in 1958, things had soured.
Loren would eventually marry Italian producer Carlo Ponti,
while Grant would divorce his wife Betsy Drake in 1962.
Melanie Griffith arguably has one of the wildest stories in Hollywood,
so it honestly doesn't come as much of a surprise for us to learn that she got tangled up in an
affair at least once. The daughter of Tippi Hedren, Griffith married her first husband,
Don Johnson, for the first time when she was just 18 years old. That marriage didn't last long,
but in the late '80s, the couple reconnected and tied the knot for a second time.
Then, Griffith landed a role in the 1995 rom-com
"Two Much" opposite Spanish heartthrob Antonio Banderas, who was also married
at the time. According to the dreamy actor, their romance blossomed quickly.
"You've got everything — everything — I've always wanted."
Eventually, he and Griffith would go home together,
and they made their illicit romance official when they tied the knot in 1996.
In 2014, the couple filed for divorce, but they remain close and are known
for having one of the most amicable, generous divorces in celebrity history.
"Melanie is probably one of my best friends right now, the woman that
I was married with for 20 years. She is a dear friend of mine. I love her very much."