Breakups happen all the time, especially in Hollywood where relationships seem to all run on a double-speed timeline. Engagements can happen after two months, weddings after four and divorce after six. In fact, celebrity breakups are so frequent that if a couple can make it to a decade of marital bliss in Hollywood, it’s basically like being married for 50 years in the real world.
But, in spite of breakups being such an everyday occurrence in Tinseltown, it’s rare that we’re ever privy as to why our favorite pairs split up. Which, honestly, seems a little unfair. We put so much energy into following certain relationships and cheering them on, that we just want some kind of explanation when they fall apart. Usually, all we get is “irreconcilable differences” or that “work” and “crazy schedules” were the deciding factor. But once in a while, a celebrity will give a rare interview outlining exactly what went wrong. We’ve rounded up 17 celebrities who got real about their breakups. Prepare to feel indulged.
17. Eva Longoria
It may seem like celebrities would have a much easier time getting over breakups than normal people — what with all the glamour and distractions, and how easy it would be to find a new partner. But, that’s definitely not always the case. At least for Eva Longoria, whose split with ex-husband Tony Parker left her just as devastated as any other woman. After finding texts on his phone to another woman (who turned out to be a teammate’s wife), Eva filed for divorce, but also began to suffer from depression. “I was not eating. I was depressed. I was sad. My diet was coffee. So people kept saying, you look amazing. Divorce agrees with you. And I was like, I don’t feel good.” The fact that people would say “divorce agrees with you” is psychotic! Luckily, she’s in a much better phase in her life again.
16. Kylie Jenner
Kylie Jenner’s on-again-off-again relationship with rapper Tyga was tabloid fodder for years. So when the couple broke up again in early 2017, fans were sure it was just another phase and that they’d reunite in a few weeks’ time. But when Tyga started stepping out with other models, and Kylie was caught canoodling with her maybe, probably baby-daddy Travis Scott, we all started wondering if it was really over once and for all.
On an episode of Life of Kylie, Kylie spilled the dirt on their split saying: “There was absolutely not one thing wrong with me and T. He and I will always, always have a bond. There was no crazy fight, we just decided… Well, I decided that I’m really young. I don’t want to look back in five years from now and feel like he took something from me when he’s really not that type of person.”
15. Taylor Swift
If Taylor Swift is known for anything other than her music, it’s her affinity for breaking up with guys. For the most part, the singer stays tight-lipped about her break-ups — the most her fans ever get are thinly veiled references to them in her songs. But when the Reputation crooner was dumped by former boy-bander Joe Jonas in 2008, she held nothing back.
The two were only officially together for a few short months, and it seems that Joe didn’t think it was necessary to handle things appropriately. Taylor went on the record about the whole thing, saying: “You know what, it’s like, when I find that person that is right for me, he’ll be wonderful. When I look at that person, I’m not even going to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 27 seconds when I was 18.”
14. Katy Perry
Fans were ecstatic when Katy Perry tied the knot with Russell Brand. He seemed to treat her right, and she was clearly head-over-heels in love. And besides, their wedding at a tiger sanctuary in India was just so romantic. But it wasn’t long before rumors started to spread, and less than a year later they were divorced. Ever the private couple, no one really had an answer as to why they split until recently when Katy opened up about the current state of her relationship with the comedian in an interview. She said, “Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011. At first, when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, ‘I can’t handle the equalness.’” Harsh words — but even Russell has admitted he didn’t always handle things right when it came to him and Katy.
13. Luann de Lesseps
The Real Housewives of New York fan-favorite Luann de Lesseps got very candid in an interview with New York Magazine about one of her most trying breakups. Without naming names, or even giving us any sort of timeline to help us figure out which former love she was talking about, Luann spilled the beans on her ex’s naughty behavior. She said, “I caught my boyfriend in a very awkward position with another woman… you don’t know what that person looked like. I thought, ‘Oh my God, all right, it’s time to move on.’ It actually catapulted me to move to New York.” As much as we’re dying to know who this guy is, we’re loving her juicy honesty and her bold confidence in the face of heartbreak.
12. Khloe Kardashian
Part of the price you pay for being a Kardashian is that every boyfriend and every breakup will be scrutinized on a global level. The Kardashian-Jenner clan can hardly step foot outside without being photographed, let alone get into any sort of serious relationship. So when Khloe Kardashian split from Lamar Odom, rumors of his infidelity started flying immediately. And while Khloe kept tight-lipped about the official reason for the divorce at first, she’s been much more open about it recently.
She’s said: “He was so good. Nothing was on his cell phones, he had an assistant and they were all on his assistant’s phones so he was really crafty. It’s disgusting, and I was pissed at the assistant. And all these rumors kept coming out in the weeklies, and as much as I know they’re bullsh*t, where there’s smoke there’s fire. Something has to be right here. But then this one girl did an interview and she was so adamant, and when I confronted him, he blamed another teammate. This was when he was playing for the Clippers, his last season. Once I found out about all the cheating, I was very worried about STDs. I went and got checked. I’m clean, thank God.” Talk about spilling the dirt.
11. Jennifer Garner
When Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck separated in June 2015, hearts broke everywhere. They had been married for a decade, together for even longer, and seemed like a pillar of light in a Hollywood littered with divorces and broken relationships. Both stayed mum on the reasons for their decision to go their separate ways, until Jennifer gave an interview almost an entire year later, in March 2016. In it, she said that “[Ben]’s just a complicated guy. I always say, ‘When his sun shines on you, you feel it.’ But when the sun is shining elsewhere, it’s cold. He can cast quite a shadow.” She denied that his affair with the nanny was the reason for their split, but really, anyone reading the article could figure out that Ben had been guilty of “bad judgment” multiple times throughout the marriage.
10. Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez were every pre-teen’s fantasy couple from 2010-2012. And then they were off. But then they were on, again. And then off, again. And this has continued to the present day, where we’re pretty sure they’re back together. While it’s never been too difficult to guess what drove them apart (they were so young), it took a while for either one of them to open up about the deeper issue in their relationship. In an interview with Complex magazine, Justin said this about their relationship: “I moved in with my girlfriend when I was 18. Started my own life with her. It was a marriage kind of thing. Living with a girl, it was just too much at that age. But we were so in love. Nothing else mattered.”
9. Big Sean
Rapper Big Sean and Glee alumni Naya Rivera made up one of the hottest couples of the last five years. The attractive duo was even engaged before calling it all off in 2014. There was a lot of post-split drama on Twitter (Naya accused Sean of stealing a Rolex, and he shot back that he had all the receipts for every Rolex he owned, thank you very much!). But after Naya’s recent arrest on domestic battery charges against her husband, Sean went back to Twitter to spill some more dirt on his former love. He re-tweeted an “I told y’all” meme, backing up his allegations that Naya had been violent towards him and had broken a lamp at his home while upset over his being photographed around other women. She claims he cheated on her with Ariana Grande in the house they shared. Sounds like there’s a lot more drama to be unpacked from this insane relationship!
8. Nick Lachey
At one point in time Newlyweds was the it-show on TV. So many of us grew up on it, which made Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson’s divorce all the more painful. We longed for answers, and in Nick’s 2006 Rolling Stone interview, we finally got some. While he didn’t answer anything too specifically, he gave us enough that we can work it all out for ourselves.
First of all, the show was part of the problem: “Jessica and I began playing these parts even when we were by ourselves. It became a really blurred line. There was a question about what truly was our reality. During those last months, we weren’t fighting. It was just an overall state of tension. It was suffocating. And it just got worse and worse.”
Second of all, her dad’s overreaching was a problem as well: “I don’t pretend to understand Joe. I don’t know if he ever liked me. To this day, I couldn’t say. It was painful.”
And finally, it wasn’t mutual: “’ll tell you how I knew my marriage was over. I was told.”
7. Blake Shelton
Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert were country music’s royal couple. When they divorced after ten years together, fans knew they were in for some good albums. When Blake’s first post-divorce album dropped, all of the questions were about how much of it was based on his split. The answer? Almost all of it. Particularly the song “She’s Got a Way With Words,” which talks about a lover who lied, cheated and ruined everything. Blake’s even given us some insight into his current girlfriend Gwen Stefani’s divorce, saying that people couldn’t even “imagine the similarities between our divorces.” Interesting. No wonder that odd-couple got together!
6. Elin Nordegren
Elin Nordegren is a Swedish model and the former wife of professional golfer Tiger Woods. When all of the dirt about Tiger’s infidelities and addictions began to surface, Elin gave her own interview to set the record straight, giving us a few juicy tidbits along the way. First of all, she was blindsided. “I’m so embarrassed that I never suspected—not a one. For the last 3 1/2 years, when all this was going on, I was home a lot more with pregnancies, then the children and my school.” And second of all, there’s no chance the two will ever reconcile, “Initially, I thought we had a chance, and we tried really hard. I don’t want to go into details of why I didn’t think it was possible.”
5. Madonna
Madonna and Guy Ritchie, Another one of those celebrity couples people were sure would actually go the distance. Until, of course, it didn’t, and the two split in 2008. There were tons of rumors about what had caused the split: Madonna’s devotion to Kabbalah, the decision to adopt their son from Malawi, his refusal to follow hre around on tour… the list goes on an on. In the end, though, it seems that what did it was Madonna’s obsession with living like a celebrity, and Guy’s desire to have a normal, quiet life. She went on the record saying that she felt as if her former husband disapproved of her art, and alleging that their relationship felt like being “incarcerated.” He shot back that she was “obsessed with her own public image, obsessed with being seen as some kind of global soothsayer.” We get it, these two were anything but a match made in heaven.
4. Iggy Azalea
In 2016, “Fancy” singer Iggy Azalea broke up with her NBA baller boyfriend Nick Young after rumors began spreading that he had cheated on her. Iggy took to Twitter to speak her piece about the end of their engagement. She held nothing back, saying: “I broke up with Nick because I found out he had brought other women into our home while I was away and caught them on the security footage.”
She went on to address the gossip that one of these women might be pregnant: “I have never been told by Nick that his baby mother was pregnant so if this is true I’m finding out via E-News. This is just like a second shot to the chest. And I feel like I don’t even know who the hell it is I’ve been loving all this time.” We love the honesty though that situation REALLY sucks!
3. Kelis
You may not recognize Kelis by name, but you absolutely know every word to her most famous song, “Milkshake.” Kelis was also married to rapper Nas from 2005 to 2009. They divorced because of “irreconcilable differences.”
But when a fan pushed Kelis harder about the reasons on Instagram the truth finally came out: “I divorced his cheating behind lol I don’t want him back at all thank you very much. But thanks for the concern boo lol.” Addressing her feelings about the rumors that she’d been the one to cheat, Kellis said, “I couldn’t care less [about the rumors] love. The truth is the truth. Everything else is just hot air.” Case closed.
2. Jennifer Lawrence
Many celebrity couples meet while working on projects with each other. And sometimes it’s those projects are also what drive couples to split in the end. That’s the case for Jennifer Lawrence and Daren Aronofsky, who met working together on Mother! and split shortly after its release. Jennifer told People this about the end of their relationship: “Normally, I promote a movie, ask people to go see it, and then it’s just out of your hands… Dating the director was different… He comes back from the tour, and that’s all he wants to talk about…” She added that reading the negative reviews, and Darren’s reaction to them, made things even harder, saying “I finally was just like, ‘It’s not healthy.’” Considering J.Law’s performance in Mother! got her a nomination for a Razzie Award for Worst Actress, it’s a good thing they split a while before awards season.
1. Selena Gomez
Finally, Selena Gomez handled her very, very public break up with Justin Bieber in the classiest way possible. Despite being peppered with questions about Biebs on every stop of her Revival press tour, she never sunk low enough to bad mouth her former flame. Instead, she got really honest about her emotional struggle, saying, “I’ll forever support him and love him in a way that… We grew up together. I think people want it to be different… Nobody was married. There was no… I respect him. And I think he respects me, in a healthy manner.” And finally, when asked if they’d ever get back together, she gave us all the answer we wanted to hear: “I don’t know!” Classic Sel!