It’s no secret that men are trash, and unfortunately, this applies to even the most famous of celebrities. Maybe it’s the fame, maybe it’s the money, but it seems that a lot of male celebrities are really awful partners. Whether it’s a cheating scandal, or other kinds of misogynistic and gross behavior — these celebrity boyfriends are great examples of how not to be a good partner. While some may have learned their lesson, it seems like a lot of them may never change. So, here are 18 wildly-famous men who are notoriously bad boyfriends.
18. Justin Bieber
In news that kind of shocked no one, Justin Bieber grew up to be kind of a bad boyfriend. Granted, most of his love life has revolved around Selena Gomez, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve been the best pair, primarily due to Justin’s bad behavior. At one low point in their relationship, there were rumors of a reconciliation, which were followed by Justin fleeing to Miami and getting a DUI. On top of that, he’s notorious for being crazy disrespectful and acting like a child — not unusual for celebrity boyfriends TBH. Jelena’s reunion has allegedly caused quite a rift between the “Good for You” singer and her family because they don’t forgive him for how he treated Selena in the past. Perhaps he’s changed his bad boyfriend ways now he is a husband to Hailey Baldwin? We hope so!
17. Chris Brown
This one should be pretty obvious. The only thing more disgusting and absurd than Chris Brown’s behavior is the fact that he still has a hugely successful career in the music industry. After he committed domestic abuse against Rihanna, we all hoped that (at the very least) his career would be over. Somehow, he’s still collaborating with countless artists and maintaining his success. In addition to being an abuser, Chris has also gone on homophobic and misogynistic Twitter rants almost too many times to count and fathered a love child while publicly dating Karrueche Tran. Ugh and ugh and ugh.
16. Rob Kardashian
Despite being basically raised exclusively by women, Rob Kardashian is another one of the world’s worst celebrity boyfriends. After cheating on ex Adrienne Bailon, we all thought he couldn’t get any worse. He proved us wrong last year during his horrific breakup with Blac Chyna. While it seemed like a mutually-destructive relationship at first, Rob proved he’s truly the worst when he published nude photos of Chyna without her consent. Talk about scummy.
15. P. Diddy
For a bit of a ~throwback~, let’s talk about why P. Diddy joins our list of bad celebrity boyfriends. It all started in the late ‘90s when he and J. Lo began dating. The two dated for a few years and J. Lo later said that she knew he had been cheating the whole time. After that, he started dating singer Cassie in 2007, and the two have been dating on-and-off ever since. The two have had a few domestic incidents, one of which involved the police. Plus, Cassie once posted an Instagram meme that showed a baby sleeping with the caption “How I sleep at night knowing that I’m single and nobody cheating on me.” Will he ever learn?
14. Aaron Carter
Let’s not forget when Aaron Carter was relevant enough to be considered a celebrity. Either way, he’s still one of the worst celebrity boyfriends ever because he managed to break the hearts of two of America’s sweethearts. Everyone was obsessed with his relationship with Hilary Duff, which he immediately ruined by trying to date Lindsay Lohan at the same time. Everyone tried to play it off as a catfight between the two tween girls, but we know better — Aaron was clearly a master manipulator.
13. Jesse James
Where do we even begin with this one? Honestly what astonishes us the most is that Jesse James managed to date the women that he did. This motorcycle mechanic and reality show star was blessed enough to marry Sandra Bullock, and then cheated on her with about 4 women. He then went on to give an “apology” in which he said that cheating is just a part of life. Oh, and on top of that, he posed in several photos with his mistresses, in which they wore Nazi paraphernalia. Nice!
12. Brad Pitt
Who could forget what is most likely the most highly-publicized cheating scandals of all time? For a brief refresher, we’re referring to when Brad Pitt cheated on his then-wife Jennifer Aniston with Angelina Jolie. The incident was so divisive, there were even “Team Jen” and “Team Angelina” tee shirts available for purchase. However, this was only strike one for Brad, who went on to have a messy breakup with Angie, too.
11. Ryan Phillippe
After starring in the hit movie, Cruel Intentions together, it seemed like Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon were an unstoppable power couple. They were married for seven years and had two children together. Unfortunately, that all ended when Reese found an incriminating text message conversation between Ryan and Abbie Cornish. The two are on good terms today as they co-parent their children, and Reese has even gotten remarried to Jim Toth. However, Ryan’s more recent ex girlfriend Elsie Hewitt accused the actor of domestic violence in September. Uh-oh.
10. Adam Levine
Let’s be honest, we all thirsted after Adam Levine at one time or another. Not only is he crazy attractive, he has the voice of an angel. Unfortunately, it also seems as though he’s a pretty awful partner. In a classic example of what not to do as an ex-boyfriend, Adam decided to “make amends” with all of his exes via text after getting engaged. Hopefully, he included Jessica Simpson, who he allegedly broke up with over texting as well. Talk about too little too late.
9. James Franco
Technically, it would be kind of inaccurate to consider James Franco one of our bad celebrity boyfriends, seeing as he seems to just be a serial one-night stand-er. However, his actions have been so creepy that we can guarantee he would be a bad partner. Franco got caught sliding into the DMs of an underage fan and has now been accused by around five women of sexually inappropriate/exploitive behavior. That’s a whole new level.
8. Tiger Woods
This one’s pretty self-explanatory, as the name Tiger Woods has pretty much become synonymous with “serial cheater.” It seems like just days ago, but in 2009, Tiger famously got cheating on his wife, Elin Nordegren. At first, he denied any infidelity, when only a few days later over a dozen women came forward and admitted to having affairs with Tiger. Unfortunately, Tiger’s story is just another example of the extreme entitlement of rich and famous men.
7. Russell Brand
Yet another one of Katy Perry’s famously-bad ex-boyfriends. Russell Brand and Katy kind of shocked everyone with their whirlwind romance and almost immediate engagement and marriage. Unfortunately, their seemingly-fairytale romance was too good to be true, and the couple divorced after two years. Apparently, Russell left to go on a soul-searching expedition in Kenya and came back with a new outlook on life. While that could be a good thing, he took the opportunity to become super narcissistic and condescending towards Katy. He ended their MARRIAGE via text. *Sigh*.
6. Wilmer Valderrama
We’re still pretty confused as to how Wilmer Valderrama even managed to become one of the most notoriously-bad celebrity boyfriends, but here we are. While riding his fame from That ‘70s Show, Wilmer started dating Mandy Moore, then Mischa Barton, Lindsay Lohan, Ashlee Simpson, Demi Lovato — you get it. After dating Mandy Moore, Wilmer made a bunch of seriously gross comments about taking her virginity on the Howard Stern show. He was also photographed flirting with tons of girls and partying way hard while dating Demi. Basically, he’s a scrub.
5. Offset
The relationship between Offset and rap legend Cardi B is one of hip-hop royalty. Basically, we were all rooting for this crazy-talented and adorable couple… that is, until we weren’t anymore! Offset proposed to Cardi on stage at one of his concerts but while the two are still together, their relationship seems to be less-than-ideal. Offset was caught cheating after the release of a sex tape, and it seems like Cardi is choosing to stand by his side. While we understand that she still loves him, we all know Cardi could do soooo much better than someone who takes her love for granted.
4. Johnny Depp
Although he started as one of the most-adored celebrity heartthrobs, Johnny Depp is now just another one of Hollywood’s famously-bad celebrity boyfriends. While he had a long and seemingly-happy marriage to his ex-wife, Amber Heard, things were not nearly as good as they seemed. During the divorce proceedings, Heard’s management filed documents claiming they had witnessed Depp being violent towards Amber. While she ended up dropping the charges, there was a video that surfaced online that appeared to show Depp in a drunken rage towards Amber, even throwing a glass bottle at one point. Scary stuff.
3. Hugh Grant
Here we have Hugh Grant. Talk about throwbacks. Love Actually forever, right?! Hugh was yet another victim of rising to stardom way too quickly and got caught acting out in a major way after the release of Four Weddings and a Funeral. At the time, he was dating model and actress Liz Hurley, and was caught participating in “lewd behavior” with sex worker Divine Brown in public. Hugh has since apologized for his bad behavior and is expecting his fifth child with girlfriend Anna Eberstein.
2. Eminem
Not only is Eminem an awful partner and huge misogynist, he seems to be pretty proud of it. While his relationship with ex-wife Kim was a highly-publicized disaster, his acts and songs against Kim are terrifying, graphic, and textbook examples of abusive behavior. For example, his song “Kim,” is entirely about his fantasy to murder her. He also acted out the actions in the song during a performance using a blowup doll. When Kim saw it, she said it drove her to attempt suicide. The two have reconciled since, and seem to be in a good place now, but WOW.
1. John Mayer
Despite the fact that he writes some of the most beautiful love songs in the world, John Mayer is hands-down one of the worst celebrity boyfriends. From Jessica Simpson and Katy Perry to Jennifer Aniston and Taylor Swift, John has disappointed countless female celebs. Let’s not forget when John went on a misogynistic and extremely personal rant about Jessica Simpson’s bedroom skills post-breakup in a Playboy interview. John himself has admitted to being “just a jerk” to his exes. Basically, we hope that John stays away from any more of our favorite celebs.