Which fellow pop star has Ed Sheeran been writing songs about, if fan speculation is
to be believed?
Which TV co-stars had to keep working together for years after getting married and then quickly
divorced?
Clearly, fame is no cure for messy relationships.
Pop superstar Taylor Swift is famous for having relationships with some of the most famous
men on the planet, as well as writing hit songs about her breakups.
One such tune is "All Too Well," which fans believe details her split with actor Jake
Gyllenhaal.
The two reportedly began dating in late 2010, and the relationship had already fizzled before
the year was through.
In 2012, Swift released her album Red, and fans were quick to dissect the meaning of
the lyrics, particularly those in "All Too Well," as they fixated on the mention of her
scarf that he kept.
Fast-forward nearly ten years after the album's initial release, as Swift began re-recording
and re-releasing her old albums, including Red.
The 2021 edition featured a ten-minute version of "All Too Well" and subsequently reignited
the years-old drama, as fans looked for more lyrical clues about Gyllenhaal.
During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host asked Swift how her lyrical
muses might feel about her songs, to which she replied:
"I haven't thought about their experience, to be honest."
"I think that's the- That's the biggest burn."
Meanwhile, a source shared Gyllenhaal's thoughts on the matter, telling E! News,
"Jake has no interest in any of it.
He doesn't read gossip or pay any attention to that."
Modern Family star Sofia Vergara was engaged to businessman Nick Loeb for two years.
While they were together, they underwent fertility treatments in an effort to have a child.
They froze three embryos at a California clinic and signed a contract agreeing that neither
party could use the embryos without the other's consent.
After their relationship ended, Loeb fought for custody of the embryos, hoping to implant
them into a surrogate who would carry them until birth.
He even brought the case to Louisiana, hoping that he would get a different outcome than
he did in California.
Loeb's attempt was futile, though, as the court granted Vergara a permanent injunction,
barring Loeb from utilizing any frozen embryos without her consent, as was agreed upon in
their contract.
The outcome didn't sit well with Loeb, as he released a statement saying,
"It's sad that Sofia, a devout Catholic, would intentionally create babies just to kill them."
As of 2021, Loeb was still trying to gain custody of the embryos in Louisiana.
British musician Sam Smith, who uses they/them pronouns, can credit much of their success
to their 2014 debut album In the Lonely Hour, which spawned multiple hit singles and received
plenty of accolades. Smith had been dating actor-model Jonathan Zeizel during the recording
of that album.
The pair were reportedly together for a couple months and were quick to share their relationship
with the world, as they posted pictures to social media, which Smith later regretted.
In hindsight, the singer-songwriter doesn't back look too favorably on the relationship.
As Smith told ES Magazine,
"I would say it was a relationship, but I still feel like I haven't had a proper boyfriend."
Smith got the last laugh, though.
After writing their hit song "Stay With Me," which was about their relationship with Zeizel,
the musician took to the Grammys stage to publicly shade him again.
As Smith put it during the acceptance speech,
"I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year.
Thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four Grammys."
In the mid-2000s, Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray were one of Hollywood's hottest couples.
After meeting on the set of the iconic teen drama One Tree Hill, they started dating and
then eventually got engaged.
It didn't last long, though, as they announced that they were separating after only five
months of marriage.
But they kept working together on One Tree Hill until Murray's departure from the show
in 2009.
In 2014, after the show had ended and nearly 10 years after their split, Bush addressed
the topic on an episode of Watch What Happens Live, as she noted,
"My mother once said to me, that if you don't have anything nice to say, not to say anything
at all."
"We were two stupid kids who had no business being in a relationship in the first place."
A few years later, Bush was talking with Andy Cohen again, this time on Radio Andy, as she
revealed that she never wanted to get married.
This didn't sit well with Murray, whose rep told Us Weekly,
"This story is ludicrous.
Chad conducts himself in a completely professional manner and would never marry for any reason
but love."
More recently, the exes don't really talk about each other anymore.
As Bush put it on a 2012 episode of the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, she
doesn't want to discuss a decision she made as "a dumb kid" at 21, mainly because her
words are often twisted around after the fact.
Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson is known for dating some of the most beautiful
and famous women on the planet.
And perhaps his most high-profile relationship happened when he was engaged to pop superstar
Ariana Grande.
They moved in together and were clearly quite smitten with each other, but alas, the engagement
didn't last long.
TMZ broke the news of their split, and it seemed amicable at first.
Grande released her hit song "thank u, next," which mentioned Davidson, as well as her other
famous exes, and she also left him a message in the song's music video.
Davidson also had kind words to say, as he told Paper Magazine,
"I hope she's well.
I hope she's very happy."
Davidson's perspective may have shifted in the years since, though, as he offered more
of his thoughts about their breakup during his 2020 Netflix comedy special Alive From
New York.
As he quipped,
"She won Billboard's Woman of the Year and I got called 'butthole eyes' by Barstoolsports.com."
Grande eventually returned the shade, at least according to a fan theory.
As reported by People Magazine, one lyric from her 2020 song "Positions" is "I'm just
hoping I don't repeat history," and she supposedly references Davidson in the "peat" part of
"repeat."
Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth were the power couple among the Disney-Channel-obsessed millennial
set.
After meeting on the set of their 2010 film The Last Song, they were in an on-again-off-again
relationship for years before ultimately tying the knot in 2018, only to separate just months
later.
Cyrus has left many hints about her past relationship in her music.
During a 2020 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, the host asked her several questions
about their relationship and specific references on her album Plastic Hearts.
As she put it:
"I don't get off on drama or fighting.
I do not seek conflict at all [...] there was too much conflict."
In addition to her musical Easter eggs, Cyrus left a comment on a TikTok video, as she congratulated
a couple on their engagement with the message:
"Hope it goes better for you two than it did for me."
Hemsworth hasn't had much to say about his ex-wife, though his older brother Chris Hemsworth
has seemingly hinted at his feelings on the matter, as he said in an interview,
"We got him out of Malibu!"
This was in reference to the younger Hemsworth moving from California back to his home country
of Australia post-breakup.
Dating a prolific singer-songwriter almost certainly means that part of your relationship
is going to be immortalized in pop music, and the entire world is thereby going to have
access to intimate parts of your life.
That's especially true in the case of someone as famous as Ed Sheeran.
Ellie Goulding learned this the hard way, after Sheeran released his 2014 song "Don't,"
in which he seemingly called out Goulding for sleeping with another man while they were
together.
Fans speculated that the track was about his ex.
As Sheeran told Entertainment Weekly in 2015, he'd never actually confirmed the subject
matter, though the song was still a necessary way to process anger.
As he put it:
"For me, it needed to be done.
It didn't necessarily have to go on the album, but it definitely needed to be written."
Goulding later wrote a song called "On My Mind," which was seemingly about Sheeran.
When Seventeen Magazine asked her about it in 2016, she explained:
"We've bumped into each other and we've hung out and stuff, but the thing is if I hang
out with someone, it's instantly like I'm 'dating' them.
We were never in a relationship.
My song is not about him."
For nearly a decade, pop music icon Madonna was married to English filmmaker Guy Ritchie.
While they were together, she gave birth to a son, and they adopted two children.
Their marriage was marked by the underwhelming movie Swept Away, a rumored vow renewal, and
a messy, expensive divorce.
After the news of their divorce broke, details of their relationship were revealed that highlighted
the dysfunction.
As sources told People Magazine, the two had disagreements for years over relationship
needs, their children, and religion.
In a 2012 interview with Newsweek, nearly four years after separating from Ritchie,
Madonna all but confirmed the two had major issues by admitting,
"Time goes by, and you share a life, you have children, and there are cracks in the veneer.
It's not as romantic as it used to be."
While Madonna and Ritchie have maintained some sort of a relationship for the sake of
their children, things still seem to be tense between them.
As reported by the Daily Mail, they were spotted in 2020 at an art gallery event, as Ritchie
appeared "strained" upon seeing his ex-wife, who left only 30 minutes later.
As two of the most famous actors in the world, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie seemed destined
to be with each other.
Their relationship began after making 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith together, and immediately
they were Hollywood's It couple.
They had a few kids together, and Pitt even adopted the children that Jolie had adopted
independently prior to the start of their relationship.
They finally officially wed in 2014, putting a legal stamp on what seemed to be the perfect
union.
But the marriage didn't last very long.
In 2016, Jolie filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Since then, she and Pitt have been involved in legal proceedings pertaining to their divorce,
with issues ranging from custody agreements to the separation of their estate.
In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Jolie opened up as much as she could about the issues
she and her children now face.
When asked if she was referencing her divorce from Pitt, as well as the domestic violence
allegations she leveled against him, she nodded yes.
As she explained:
"I’m not the kind of person who makes decisions like the decisions I had to make lightly.
It took a lot for me to be in a position where I felt I had to separate from the father of
my children."
"It was a very difficult time, and…
And we are a family, and we will always be a family."
As for Pitt, he's focused on the future.
As a source told Us Weekly in December 2021:
"Brad hopes that one day he and Angelina find a way to forgive each other and move forward,
for the kids' sake if nothing else."
Rob Kardashian's personal life isn't any less complicated than that of his siblings.
Since dating model Blac Chyna on and off for about a year, the two have had to maintain
a relationship to co-parent their daughter.
Alas, things between them have been anything but healthy.
As of 2022, they're still involved in an intense legal battle.
In September 2021, Kardashian filed new court papers that pertain to the ongoing domestic
violence lawsuit he filed in 2017 against Chyna.
In January 2022, E! News reported that the court had allowed Chyna's legal team to depose
three of Kardashian's sisters and his mother for the case, striking down a motion they'd
filed to be left out of the proceedings.
Neither Kardashian nor Chyna have made public comments about the other recently, though
the court proceedings speak volumes about their troubled relationship status.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.