Marrying out of their league, arguing over officiates, screaming at the bride in front of the guests – this is just some of the sorry behavior some celebs have exhibited at their very own wedding ceremonies. Not surprisingly, many of the stars on this list barely made it through their vows before their marriages were over. Here are some of the more scandalous celebrity couples to ever get hitched.
Britney Spears and Jason Alexander : People sure do it differently in Louisiana. In 2004, Britney Spears and her old childhood buddy Jason Alexander from Kentwood, Louisiana, were hold up in her posh hotel suite in Las Vegas watching the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” when they gazed over at each other with a crazy thought. “We were just looking at each other [Saturday morning] and said, ‘Let’s do something wild, crazy. Let’s go get married, just for the hell of it,’” Alexander told a entertainment show reporter. The marriage, which the couple attended in blue jeans and black shirts (presumably also “for the hell of it), lasted all of 55 hours – enough time for Britney’s handlers to fly to Sin City, smack some sense into her, and help her file papers for an annulment.
Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds: It was a big ol’ controversial year for Eddie Murphy. After denying that he impregnated Scary Spice Melanie Brown (paternity tests later proved he was the father), Murphy embarked on a very public romance with music producer Tracey Edmonds. The couple dated for almost two years before they flew to Bora Bora for a non-legal wedding ceremony. Though they planned to follow it up with a legal ceremony in the U.S., Edmonds was apparently turned off by the fact that Murphy repeatedly verbally assaulted her, screaming at both herself and her mother multiple times during the “symbolic” ceremony. Upon their return to America, the couple announced they decided to just be friends. Though after a display like that, it’s doubtful Edmonds is holding up her end of that bargain.
Britney Murphy and Simon Monjack : In May 2007, the petite actress with the enormous collagen lip injections married British screenwriter Simon Monjack in a secret ceremony at her home in Los Angeles. Sounds simple enough, right? Well at the time, the clandestine wedding was said to have taken place only because Murphy was trying to keep Monjack from being deported back to England. Just weeks before their wedding, Monjack, who wrote “The Factory Girl” was arrested and charged with having an expired visa. The couple did not comment on the allegations and, judging by the fact that the couple has now been together for a little over one year, it seems like there might be some falseness to the alleged falsity.
Pamela Anderson and Rick Solomon : The sleazy, big-chested actress famous for making a legendary sex tape with her ex-husband Tommy Lee married another Hollywood sleazoid famous for making a legendary sex tape with Paris Hilton. In October 2007, Pamela Anderson married Rick Solomon at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. The couple first got together, as Anderson told Ellen Degeneres, because it appeared Anderson owed Solomon a little money. “I paid off a poker debt with sexual favors, and I fell in love,” she said. How cute! Maybe prostitution does pay? But, alas, the couple, who held their ceremony during a 90-minute break between two magic shows in which Anderson was appearing, split a mere two months later. Both filed papers claiming fraud against the other. Shocking.
Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz : This controversy is definitely sheer hearsay at this point, but rumor on the street is that Ashlee Simpson objected to having her father Joe Simpson officiate her wedding to Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz. At the last minute, Simpson allegedly said she wanted to be married by a Buddhist monk, and expressed her feelings to her father who insisted on marrying the couple. If this is true, it’s certainly not being corroborated by the couple, who was married merely weeks ago. Wentz has told the media that he couldn’t imagine having anyone other that Mr. Simpson unite the two in holy matrimony. File this one under: scandal unconfirmed.
Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra : The outrageous former Chicago Bulls star and the sexy pinup girl were married on Nov. 7, 1998 in, yep – you guessed it, Las Vegas. Rodman, who at the time liked to step out with Electra when the two were both wearing dresses, was known as a person who pushed the boundaries. How many NBA stars have you seen with pink hair? But Rodman showed up so drunk to his nuptials to Electra that his agent alleged that Rodman didn’t know what he was doing. Nine days later the union was annulled, and according to Rodman’s lawyer the groom’s intoxication at the wedding meant the wedding was doomed from the start by Electra’s money-grubbing ways. “Obviously, anyone that would marry somebody that was intoxicated to the point that they couldn’t speak or stand had ulterior motives of some sort,” Dwight Manley, Rodman’s agent, told the press at the time. Whatever the issue between the couple, it’s definitely one of the shorter-lived Hollywood weddings in the pages of history.
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley : OK, what wasn’t sketchy about the oddly-paired marriage between Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Jackson? The public was skeptical from the get-go and the creepy couple even had to go on Primetime Live and insist that they actually liked each other and had sex. Jackson repeatedly said that they weren’t faking, and the couple even appeared on the MTV Music Video Awards to prove their love to the world with a really awkward kiss that sent shivers down the spines of America. But while they swore up and down the wedding, which conveniently occurred shortly after Jackson was accused of child molestation, was the real deal, Jackson and Presley filed for divorce only 18 months after they wed. Presley claimed she hadn’t seen the pop singer in six months at the time she filed for divorce. She later went on Oprah and said she believed Jackson used her.
Liza Minelli and David Gest: The marriage of Liza Minelli and David Gest was a bit of a freak show, alright. With a crazy-looking Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson serving as the wedding party onlookers could have reliably predicted the relationship’s demise before it legally began. The strange partnership lasted only 16 months before the couple filed for divorce. But the controversial details of the union came out in 2003 when Gest filed papers claiming that Minelli beat him regularly during their marriage and struggled with addiction. According to Gest, during one limo ride to a rehab center, Minelli drank a bottle of red wine and began beating him mercilessly, open fisted, in the car. He also claims that she once threw a lamp at him and tried to choke one of his employees. Minelli denies the claim, but it’s definitely one of the more controversial divorces in Hollywood history.
Fergie and Josh Duhamel: It’s another one from the unsubstantiated rumor mill, but some bloggers out there have been writing that Fergie and Josh Duhamel are arguing over the type of wedding they will have. Fergie, who sings almost solely about money, her glamourousness and her penchant for “working on her fitness,” allegedly wants a luxurious ceremony costing around $1.5 million, while Duhamel, who was born and raised in Minot, North Dakota, wants something laid back and casual. Adding further fury to their marriage rumors was one which claimed Fergie was pregnant, hence the proposal. Doesn’t seem to be any truth to that one, seeing as though it originated five months ago and she’s still thin as a rail, but it will be interesting to see whether it will be diamonds or daisies to decorate this couple’s wedding reception.
Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett: Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett met in 1993 and wed just three weeks after their first encounter. It was obvious to many entertainment reporters and observers that Roberts seemed to be slightly out of the unorthodox-looking country singer’s league. Their union made headlines for its duration, as people lobbed impolite comments at the couple, repeatedly pointing out the strangeness of their coupledom and referring to them as “beauty and the beast.” As if the fact that they married a mere 21 days after initially meeting wasn’t a sign that the marriage wouldn’t last, it seemed impossible that the couple would be able to withstand the near-constant public criticism. Whatever caused the split, the couple divorced in 1995 – less than two years after their wedding.
Charlie Sheen, Denise Richards, and Brooke Mueller: As if there hasn’t been enough controversy surrounding the tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce of Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, the couple is making headlines again – this time over Sheen’s latest marriage to Brooke Mueller. Despite the fact that Richards has filed a restraining order and some pretty hefty allegations against Sheen – including claims that he physically abused her, is a drug addict, and hired prostitutes during their marriage (all of which he denies) – she also sent Sheen and his new wife a wedding gift, though she said it was officially from her daughters.
Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney : No could have ever guessed that Renee Zellweger and country singer Kenny Chesney would start dating – the unlikely pair didn’t seem to have common friends, interests, or even common invites to Hollywood parties. Rumors that they had become an item started after Zellweger appeared at one of Chesney’s concerts in Florida and walked on the stage to hand him a margarita and give him a kiss on the cheek. But aside from that, it was a quick and barely noticeable courtship. The world simply opened the paper one day to find out that the two had tied the knot in a small, private ceremony in the Virgin Islands. But just five months later, the couple was in the news again when reports surfaced that the duo had filed for an annulment citing “fraud.” To this day, neither Zellweger nor Chesney have come forth to reveal the real reasons behind their split, though Chesney did seem to be caught off guard by Zellweger’s initiation of the annulment. He later said he didn’t see it coming.
Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas: Drew Barrymore had barely recovered from her childhood addictions to drugs and alcohol, when at the age of 19 she impulsively married Los Angeles bartender Jeremy Thomas mere hours after she had met him. Barrymore, who was partying in Thomas’ bar one night, accepted a marriage proposal from him on the spot. The couple called a clairvoyant Justice of the Peace from the bar’s pay phone and someone arrived around 5 a.m. to conduct the ceremony. Not surprisingly, the couple divorced just 19 days later – together for precisely one day for every year that Barrymore had been alive!
Jennifer Lopez and Chris Judd: Another wedding that shocked the world, Jennifer Lopez stunned the public when she walked down the aisle in 2001 with one of her backup dancers, Chris Judd. They divorced only nine months later amid rumors that they hadn’t been physically living together for some time. This is a story akin to the Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts situation, except the gap between the two career-wise was even greater this time. Though Judd is considerably better looking than Lovett, he was virtually unknown by the public leaving many to wonder what J. Lo could see in him.
Anna Nicole Smith and J. Howard Marshall II : It doesn’t get any grosser than this one. In 1994, Houston oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II married Playboy bunny Anna Nicole Smith. She was 26 and he was 89. Think she was out for his money? Duh! After he died just one year after their wedding, Smith put on a riveting display of tearworks for the judge who would decide where his billions would go – to his gold digging wife or his gold digging children. The couple met when Smith was working in Houston as a stripper. Can you imagine what they had to talk about? This partnership is reminiscent of a scene from “Best in Show” where a similar couple – a wealthy old man with no teeth and a young buxom blond – are married and trying to convince filmmakers they have a lot in common. When asked what their shared interests are, the wife replies that they both “like soup.”
