10 Films That Ended Actors’ Marriages

Til death do us part doesn’t usually mean much in Hollywood—on screen or off—but for some actors (and their spouses) the very act of making a movie can be the thing that ruins their marriage. Sometimes, their other half takes umbrage with what they have made and calls it a day, and sometimes, the many pressures of filming crack the foundations of the relationship. However, most often, it is the sparks flying with a co-star—especially those found in romantic roles—that set fire to actors’ marriages and blaze the trail to divorce.

Related: 10 Most Convincing Duet Performances by Non-Couples

10 Borat (2006)—Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock

Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat was a cultural phenomenon in the mid-aughts. Posing as the fictional Kazakh reporter, Cohen and his crew crashed headlong through an unsuspecting U.S.A., dismantling cultural norms and prejudices alike while setting a new standard for the docu-comedy genre.

In the film’s closing sequence, Borat tracks down the long-term object of his affection—Pamela Anderson—in the hopes of making her his wife. His public proposal doesn’t go well, and after he tries to kidnap her in a burlap sack, he is tackled to the ground by security while the Baywatch star escapes.

Although everyone had a good laugh at her role—in one of the movie’s few scripted scenes—her husband at the time, Kid Rock, didn’t see the funny side. Rock stormed out of a private screening of the film, calling Anderson a “whore” and leaving her behind. When she caught a lift home, she found him destroying their photos. She filed for divorce the next day and, according to Cohen himself, put the reason for divorce as simply “Borat.” ^[1]

9 Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)—Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston

Doug Liman’s action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, in which a husband and wife discover they are both assassins working for opposing agencies and must go to war, was Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s first film together. And by all accounts the rocky relationship depicted onscreen paralleled other romantic deceptions happening in real life as the married Pitt found a new passion with his co-star.

After filming for the movie wrapped, Pitt and his then-wife Jennifer Aniston announced their divorce, ending a five-year marriage in a flurry of media coverage. While the Fight Club star was adamant about not having had an affair with Jolie, the pair were nevertheless seen together more and more frequently during his divorce proceedings.

Jolie’s own bodyguard later confirmed that there had, in fact, been a budding romance from the start on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Jolie and Pitt were openly flirting and shared plenty of alone time making out with each other in their trailers, and this, more than any other factor, contributed to the untimely end of Pitt and Aniston’s marriage.^[2]

8 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein(1994)—Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh

The 1994 movie Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is not remembered fondly amongst horror fans, as it took a beloved Gothic novel, a cast of great actors including Robert De Niro, John Cleese, and Ian Holm, and cocked it all up. Kenneth Branagh directed and starred (taking the part of Victor Frankenstein for himself), but he failed to bring to bear his established theatre and filmmaking talent on the misguided production.

Perhaps it is merely the way things go, or maybe it had something to do with the actor-director’s sights being set elsewhere. Branagh had cast the then-27-year-old Helena Bonham Carter as his in-film love interest, Elizabeth Lavenza, and he was as taken with her in real life as his character was onscreen. There was only one problem: Branagh was married to fellow thespian Emma Thompson.

Thompson found out about the affair while Frankenstein was being made, and despite feeling “half alive,” kept things together and on the down-low so she could finish filming Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. By the time the film was released, their marriage was no more.^[3]

7 Days of Thunder (1990)—Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers

Despite his all-American gloss and sheen, Tom Cruise has had a fair number of whirlwind, high-profile love affairs throughout his life, including with the likes of Cher and Penelope Cruz. And some of them have even overlapped. Such was the case for his now-iconic relationship with Nicole Kidman, which began on the set of Tony Scott’s NASCAR movie Days of Thunder, while Cruise was still married to Mimi Rogers.

Cruise stars in the movie as hotshot racer Cole Trickle, who is brought into contact with neurosurgeon Dr. Claire Lewicki (Kidman) by a life-changing crash, and a romance begins to blossom. The Top Gun star had a good idea who he wanted opposite him from the outset, meeting Kidman personally and sweeping her off her feet.

Kidman was smitten from the outset and “fell madly, passionately in love.” And the feeling was mutual—Cruise divorced Rogers during production, and proposed to his new girl just a few months later.^[4]

6 The Misfits (1961)—Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller

Marilyn Monroe’s final movie, the John Huston-directed Western The Misfits, was not just the end of the iconic actress’s screen career but also her marriage to the film’s writer, lauded playwright Arthur Miller.

An odd couple from the start, Monroe and Miller had a turbulent marriage, with Miller attempting to turn America’s beloved blonde bombshell into a housewife. Despite Miller writing one of the main roles in The Misfits movie specifically for Monroe, their troubles came to a head during production.

Miller met German-born photographer Inge Morath on set, and the pair grew a little too close for comfort, fuelling Monroe’s substance abuse issues. Huston had to shut down production so that Marilyn could get clean at a clinic, and despite coming back to finish the movie, the physical and emotional demands had taken their toll. In January 1961—just a few weeks before the film’s U.S. release—the couple was granted a divorce on the grounds of “incompatibility.”^[5]

5 Northern Lights (2009)—Brandi Glanville and Eddie Cibrian

The name LeAnn Rimes may not mean much to people today, but back in the aughts, Rimes was a multi-hyphenate, regularly placing top 40 singles on international charts and featuring in films and TV shows like Coyote Ugly (2000) and American Dreams (2003). By 2009, her star was dimming, but she still had enough juice to score a leading role in the Lifetime movie Northern Lights.

Rimes stars as a young pilot who is thrown together with Eddie Cibrian’s homicide detective on a cold case that soon morphs into a steamy romance. And the pair fell for each other in real life, too. There was only one problem: Cibrian was married to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville.

This created much drama on the reality show when Glanville found out about her then-husband cheating on her, and shortly after the news broke about the on-set infidelity, Glanville and Cibrian were divorced. Cibrian and Rimes, however, got hitched in 2011 and are still together today.^[6]

4 Cleopatra (1963)—Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s historical epic Cleopatra brought together some of the biggest names in Hollywood, pairing Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and Roman General Mark Antony.

Appropriate then, that the actors were portraying one of the most famous romances of all time because they soon fell for each other—no matter how much they wished not to. Prior to Cleopatra, Taylor knew of Burton’s reputation as a lothario and found him unbearable. Thus, when she discovered she would be starring opposite him, she was determined not to become one of his conquests.

But when the production forced them into close proximity, Taylor abandoned all reservations and fell madly in love. The pair’s on-camera kisses lasted longer with each take, to the point where, even after calling cut, Mankiewicz couldn’t break them up. Despite Taylor being already married to singer and actor Eddie Fisher, she found that her and Burton’s “attraction was so powerful [they] were unable even to try and stop it.” Her divorce was finalized less than a year after the film’s release.^[7]

3 Proof of Life (2000)—Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid

Proof of Life may not have found a permanent place in the broader film canon, but for one summer, at least, it was big news. The story of a hostage negotiator falling for the hostage’s wife became famous for all the wrong reasons when Russell Crowe (the aforementioned negotiator) and Meg Ryan (the aforementioned wife) shared a romance on set that jeopardized Ryan’s marriage.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the media got in on the story early and made a meal of it, ensuring everyone knew the smallest of details—especially Ryan’s then-husband Dennis Quaid. The couple announced their separation in the summer of 2000, the film was released in the winter, and their divorce was finalized the following year.

Far from just destroying a marriage, though, Proof of Life’s director Taylor Hackford claims Crowe and Ryan’s antics were the downfall of the film itself, which was overshadowed by the affair and didn’t manage to break even at the box office.^[8]

2 The Rum Diary (2011)—Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis

When the opportunity arose to star in an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Rum Diary, Johnny Depp—who was friends with the late writer and had already played his fictional alter-ago in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)—was a shoo-in. Portraying renegade newspaper reporter Paul Kemp, Depp starred opposite Amber Heard as Chenault Holdsworth, a P.R. consultant’s wife whom he has a passionate affair with.

Soon after the film’s release, Depp divorced Vanessa Paradis and entered a very public relationship with Heard. But, while Paradis, Depp, and Heard were tight-lipped for years, despite rumors swirling around potential unfaithfulness and the suspicious timing of Depp’s divorce, the highly publicized Depp v. Heard trial in 2022 uncovered the truth of the matter.

It turns out Depp fell for Heard while still married, during their first proper scene together on The Rum Diary, in which they kissed passionately, going far beyond what was expected. Filming on location in Puerto Rico, they went on to share poetry and other gifts, spend time together flirting and getting physical in private, and declare their love for each other.^[9]

1 Titanic (1997)—Linda Hamilton and James Cameron

Titanic is a love story for the ages, taking the tragedy of the titular boat sinking on its maiden voyage and spinning it into a human tale about a working-class American hustler and upper-class English lady falling for each other at sea. Unfortunately, things weren’t as romantic behind the scenes, as director James Cameron grappled with a monumental production that would ultimately kill his marriage.

Cameron had worked with Linda Hamilton on Terminator and T2: Judgment Day (1984; 1991), and the pair shared a relationship in the ’90s that culminated in marriage. However, when Titanic came along, the director passed some of this pressure onto his wife. He was, in Hamilton’s words, “terribly insecure that I was going to ruin it for him somehow” and couldn’t handle the success when the film was released.

Despite Cameron’s on-set romance with actor Suzy Amis, who had a minor part in the film, it was the pressure of the film itself that Hamilton cites as the thing that caused their relationship to fall apart behind the scenes. They divorced shortly thereafter, and Hamilton gave away her massive diamond ring.^[10]