You know how you love to watch sparks fly between your favorite characters on screen? Well, in some cases, those sparks are believable because they were flying in real life too. The concept of co-stars experiencing real attraction and developing real feelings is certainly nothing new. It has happened during a number of movies throughout the years. The problem with that is sometimes one or both of the actors are already married!
At other times, the culprit is too much time spent away from home or maybe even too much pressure from increasing fame. When disruptive factors come into play while filming a movie, the results can be disastrous for couples. Let’s take a look at some of the most notorious movies that shattered celebrity marriages.
Mind Over Murder
Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott were both married to other people when they met on the set of the Lifetime TV movie Mind Over Murder. McDermott even had a child with his wife. Still, their chemistry was so strong that they spent the night together on the same day they met!
After that, they continued spending time together, both breaking off their relationships with their respective spouses. Less than a year after filming, Spelling and McDermott eloped in Fiji. The couple went on to have five children together, and they are still together and going strong (although with a few bumps along the way). They have even had a reality television series together.
Green Lantern
Today, Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are a couple’s goal for their many Instagram followers, but not all those followers realize they met on the set of Green Lantern. Even though Reynolds was married to beauty Scarlett Johansson at the time, he and Lively were caught looking like more than friends during filming.
Lively, who was dating Penn Badgley at the time, broke up with him shortly after filming wrapped. Reynolds also divorced Johansson around the same time. (You do the math.) The popular pair married back in 2012 and are still seemingly deep in love today.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Brad Pitt’s divorce from America’s sweetheart, Jennifer Aniston, came from what is probably one of the most well-known celebrity cheating scandals out there. Pitt met co-star Angelina Jolie on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and the two immediately hit it off.
The duo quickly fell in love, and those on the set talked about their “undeniable chemistry.” Pitt and Aniston divorced soon after the rumors started flying. Pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie circulated soon after that when the new couple vacationed together in Africa. Eventually, the pair married, all because an on-screen romance heated up off camera as well.
The Misfits
Marilyn Monroe had been married to playwright Arthur Miller for four years when they worked together on the film The Misfits. It was reported that Monroe became annoyed with her husband when she worked with him, as he kept making rewrites that she perceived as sexist.
At the time of filming, Monroe’s health was declining, and the pair apparently couldn’t stand being trapped and working together for months. They divorced, and it ended up being the last film that Monroe ever made. She died a year after the movie’s release. Ironically, critics called it her finest performance.
House of Wax
After the horror movie’s filming, it was revealed that Chad Michael Murray had hooked up with Paris Hilton. At the time, Hilton was dating Nick Carter, and Murray was married to Sophia Bush. In fact, the two had only been married for five months when news of Murray’s cheating came out, prompting their divorce.
The scandal actually resulted in more media coverage for the less-than-stellar horror flick, although many criticized the film itself. Who would have thought that a fun horror movie could actually shatter a real-life marriage? It definitely happens.
Dream House
Rachel Weisz was in a long-term relationship with Darren Aronofsky for nearly 10 years when she started filming Dream House. Daniel Craig was her co-star in the film, and the two were immediately drawn to each other. Despite both Weisz and Craig being engaged to other people, the pair fell in love on set.
Their romance resulted in Craig and Weisz both calling off their engagements. The couple came clean to the public after filming and were married just seven months later. They are still together today but keep their relationship very private.
Northern Lights
Who would have guessed another Lifetime movie would break up a marriage? (It’s supposed to be the feel-good, happy-ending network!) That’s exactly what happened on the set of Northern Lights. Eddie Cibrian, who was married to a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, Brandi Glanville, was in the film and cheated on his wife with married co-star LeAnn Rimes.
It seems that the chemistry between the two was the real deal, because after Cibrian divorced his wife and Rimes divorced her husband, the two got married in 2011. The couple is still seemingly happily married, and their hook-up inspired a lot of drama on Cibrian’s ex-wife’s reality series.
Daredevil
This 2003 film may have left viewers bored, but behind the scenes, there was a more interesting story happening. Co-stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were on set together a lot, and they later admitted that’s when they fell in love, even though they had met before on Pearl Harbor.
The problem was that Jennifer Garner was already married to Scott Foley, and Ben Affleck was engaged to Jennifer Lopez. A year after the premiere of Daredevil, Affleck called off his engagement to JLo, and Garner divorced her husband. Sounds like a pretty messy superhero set!
Proof of Life
Meg Ryan was married to Dennis Quaid when she and Russell Crowe met on the set of Proof of Life. Crowe and Ryan were caught cuddling up, and there were rumors that more than just cuddling was going on. This caused Ryan and Quaid’s already crumbling marriage to finally fall apart.
The pair had a child at the time, and they ended up sharing custody after their public divorce. Ryan and Crowe never officially got together, so it would seem that whatever “spark” they experienced on set didn’t last long. Still, it shattered a marriage.
Days of Thunder
When Days of Thunder started filming, Tom Cruise was married to Mimi Rogers. There were rumors that the couple was already having marital issues due to Cruise’s cheating. Cruise met Nicole Kidman on the Days of Thunder set, and the two began having an affair.
Rogers found out and filed for divorce. After filming ended, Kidman and Cruise got married a year later and remained together for about 10 years. They even adopted two kids, but their love wasn’t meant to last, and they eventually divorced. There are rumors that Cruise’s affiliation with Scientology had something to do with their split.
Stop Loss
Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe famously got together on the set of the movie Cruel Intentions, but the film Stop Loss ended up wrecking their marriage. During filming, Phillippe hooked up with his co-star Abbie Cornish, according to countless rumors.
The rumors must have had some truth to them, because once Witherspoon and Phillippe officially separated, he and Cornish announced they were dating! The chemistry between the two didn’t last, and they broke up relatively quickly. (Worth it, right?) Phillippe still gets hassled for cheating on Witherspoon to this day — and rightfully so!
Cleopatra
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton hated each other when they first started filming Cleopatra, but those negative feelings were clearly short lived. During their first kiss on set, the pair wouldn’t stop kissing, even after the director yelled cut!
Unfortunately, both of them were married at the time. Taylor was on her fourth marriage, and Burton was married to his first wife, Sybil Williams. Word of their kiss got out quickly, and both of their marriages were pretty much toast. After they divorced their spouses, the two married, got divorced — and then got married again! In 1976, however, they parted ways for good.
Snow White and the Huntsman
Fans of Twilight lost their minds when Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson became a real-life couple. It seemed they would be together forever, but that all changed during the filming of Snow White and the Huntsman when Stewart met director Rupert Sanders.
Sanders was married with children at the time and was much older than Stewart, making the news of their affair even more shocking. Sander’s wife divorced him when she learned about his infidelity, and Pattinson decided to move on from Stewart too. They briefly reunited it, but it was never meant to be after the cheating fiasco. Twilight fans everywhere may still dream of the impossible, but they are wasting their time.
Gigli
This movie was a total flop — except for what happened behind the cameras. This is the film where Ben Affleck met Jennifer Lopez. There was obviously something between them, because Lopez divorced her choreographer husband Cris Judd and started dating Affleck.
Within five months, “Bennifer” was engaged. It seems that Affleck has quite a problem separating his on-screen romances from real life, as we already discussed how this relationship ended when he met Jennifer Garner on the set of Daredevil. Maybe suffering through bad movies isn’t so bad when you’re hooking up with your co-star.
Gone Girl
Really, Ben? Okay, so Ben Affleck really has issues when it comes to hooking up with other actors on set. While filming Gone Girl, Affleck struck again, but this time he didn’t opt for the leading lady. Rumors circulated that he hooked up with model-turned-actress Emily Ratajkowski, who ironically played Affleck’s character’s side piece in the film.
Garner found out and filed for divorce in 2017. Ratajkowski and Affleck didn’t stay together or even date. Maybe the third time isn’t a charm after all! Unlike his other hookups on set, at least this one came from a really great movie.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Clint Eastwood is known for playing some of the best Western roles of all time. On the set of this particular Western, he met co-star Sondra Locke. The two reportedly did little to hide their relationship, even though Eastwood was married to Maggie Johnson at the time.
Eastwood’s wife had enough of his cheating scandals, so she divorced him. Locke and Eastwood lived together for a while, but the same chemistry that brought them together on set eventually fizzled out, at least from Eastwood’s perspective. The pair parted ways in 1989, but their relationship lasted a while in “Hollywood years.”
Titanic
Directors can fall in love on set too! James Cameron, who was married to actress Linda Hamilton, quickly developed an infatuation with another woman while filming the blockbuster Titanic. While he was still married, Cameron actually started dating Suzy Amis during shooting.
Word of their blossoming relationship quickly got out, and Hamilton obviously wasn’t too happy about her husband openly seeing another woman. She divorced him, paving the way for Cameron and Amis to marry. Their relationship is still going strong, and they are seemingly happy and have three children.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Kenneth Branagh was married to Emma Thompson when he started filming Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Helena Bonham Carter was also in the movie, and the two immediately felt an attraction to each other.
Branagh had been with his wife for five years, but that didn’t stop him from starting a relationship with Carter while on set. Eventually, he divorced Thompson, and Carter and Branagh were together until 1999. She and Thompson had some understandable issues for a long time, but it seems they are all good now. Strange how that works in Hollywood!
To Have and Have Not
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall went on to become one of the most famous couples in Hollywood history, but when they met, Bogart was already married. Even though the two had quite an age gap between them and, you know, the whole married-to-someone-else thing, the two fell in love. They said they started out as friends, and the romance developed throughout filming.
Bogart divorced his wife and married the 19 year old when he was 44. It must have been the real thing, because they stayed together until his death in 1957.
By the Sea
Infidelity isn’t the only thing on a movie set that can shatter a celebrity marriage. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie learned this while they were on the set of By the Sea together.
It’s unclear if things were rocky before they started filming. The movie is about a grieving couple, and maybe the two became too entrenched in their respective roles. Twelve years after Mr. & Mrs. Smith ripped apart Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston, By the Sea was the nail in the coffin for his marriage to Jolie. A year after its release, Jolie filed for divorce.
The Rum Diary
Technically, Johnny Depp wasn’t married to French singer Vanessa Paradis, but the pair had been together for 14 years and had two kids together! On the set of The Rum Diary, he met actress Amber Heard, who played his love interest in the film.
It seemed that the attraction between the two was unmistakable. Not long after the movie wrapped, Depp ended up leaving Paradis and marrying Heard. However, trouble brewed quickly in paradise. Heard and Depp had all sorts of marital issues, including allegations of domestic violence. The two divorced in 2017 after a very rocky relationship.
Rosemary’s Baby
There has always been controversy surrounding actress Mia Farrow. She married Frank Sinatra when she was just 21, and he was 50. The two seemed very happy together, but in her autobiography, she wrote about difficulties she had with her husband while on the set of Rosemary’s Baby.
It turns out that things between the two were rough at the time. Add the prolonged shooting schedule of the film to an already strained relationship, and it resulted in trouble. Frustrated, Sinatra actually served Farrow with divorce papers while she was on the set of the movie!
Honey Boy
Shia LaBeouf isn’t a name you hear very often anymore unless you watch a lot of indie films. He was married to Mia Goth for two years when he wrote and starred in the film Honey Boy. The movie was about his real-life, quite troubled relationship with his dad.
On set, he met a pop star named FKA Twigs, who played his character’s love interest. The two became interested in each other very quickly, and it caused LaBeouf to end his marriage. It’s unclear if FKA Twigs and LaBeouf were officially a couple or not, but rumors are definitely circulating that LaBeouf has reunited with Goth.
Planet Terror
Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan met on the set of Planet Terror. At the time, Rodriguez was married to producer Elizabeth Avellan. McGowan and Rodriguez got together, which ended his marriage. After that, it became clear that the two were very toxic together.
They have admitted some pretty strange details of their relationship, including a time when Rodriguez made McGowan take a lie detector test to prove she wasn’t in love with Quentin Tarantino. Weird, right? The unhealthy relationship thankfully ended before things got even more toxic.
Stage Beauty
Billy Crudup wasn’t married to Mary-Louise Parker at the time this move was made, but they had been together for seven years. Oh, and Parker was also pregnant when Crudup started filming Stage Beauty. On set, he met the young Claire Danes. He was instantly attracted to her, so he broke up with his long-time, pregnant girlfriend!
Parker wrote about the heartbreak she endured as a result of the on-screen romance in her memoir. She even named their son after Crudup! Danes and Crudup didn’t work out either and went their separate ways. Worth it? That’s debatable.
Phantasmagoria
Marilyn Manson wasn’t married to Dita Von Tesse for long, and part of the reason was that he met Evan Rachel Wood on the set of Phantasmagoria. They were both drawn to each other from the start, and Manson decided to divorce Tesse to be with Wood.
It may have seemed like a strange match, but the two appeared to have a lot of fun together — for a time. Wood and Manson were engaged for a short period before calling it quits. They have nothing bad to say about each other — but Tesse probably can’t say the same.
Dangerous Liaisons
Dangerous Liaisons broke up the six-year marriage between John Malkovich and Glenne Headley. On set, Malkovich met co-star Michelle Pfeiffer, and the two hit it off on and off screen. They began an affair that ended up ruining Malkovich’s marriage.
The movie was very sexual in nature and may have fanned the flames of the attraction between the two. Either way, the affair was short lived. Both Pfeiffer and Malkovich went on to make a ton of blockbuster hits, and many believe Dangerous Liaisons was a key accomplishment for them both.
The Getaway
Ali MacGraw was married to producer Robert Evans when she started filming The Getaway alongside co-star Steve McQueen. MacGraw described her attraction to McQueen as “chemical,” so needless to say, the two became involved almost immediately when the film began shooting.
She eventually left her husband and married McQueen. They seemed to have a lot of ups and downs in their relationship after that. It finally became too much for them, and they divorced in 1977 after just five years of marriage. McQueen passed away three years later from cancer.
You, Me and Dupree
One of the lesser known on-set scandals was between Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson while filming the comedy You, Me and Dupree. At the time, Hudson was married to rock singer Chris Robinson, and the pair had been together for six years. Despite that, Hudson had an affair with Wilson that lasted six months.
As a result, she and Robinson divorced. Hudson and Owen got back together for a brief time, but it ended for good in 2008. Apparently, plenty of chemistry exists on comedy sets as well. We think they made a pretty adorable couple — even if the circumstances were deplorable.
Pushing Tin
Billy Bob Thornton was engaged and living with actress Laura Dern when he started filming Pushing Tin alongside co-star Angelina Jolie. It seems that she had a knack for getting in between couples, even before she met Brad. She and Thornton had a lot of chemistry, and he ultimately left Dern to be with Jolie. Dern was completely blindsided.
Thornton and Jolie got married in 2000, but it only lasted three years. We all remember those weird red carpet interviews, right? It’s probably a good thing the odd couple didn’t last, although Jennifer Aniston probably doesn’t agree, considering Brad Pitt was next on her radar.
