Hollywood Romance
Fleeting Fairy Tales: 12 Celebrity Couples You Totally Forget Were Once Married
Hollywood romances change like the seasons, and many fade from memory as soon as they get bumped from the tabloids.
But in their fleeting time in the spotlight, there have been some memorable—if not downright wild—pairings that you may have forgotten about over time. Not every romance between stars is as culturally iconic as the Brangelinas and Bennifers of the world. Few can say they’ve lasted the test of time in our collective consciousness.
Let’s see how many of Hollywood’s forgotten fairy tale romances you remember.
Melanie Lynskey and Jimmi Simpson
Today, people are head over heels for Melanie Lynskey‘s marriage to Jason Ritter. But before the adorable got hitched, Lynskey was married to her Rose Red costar Jimmi Simpson. If that rings a bell, the ABC miniseries was a chilling adaptation of the Stephen King novel. But their relationship was anything but scary! The two met while filming in 2001 but didn’t marry until 2007 in her native New Zealand. They finalized their divorce in 2014, but remain close friends.
Elisabeth Moss and Fred Armisen
Elisabeth Moss has made a career of commanding the screen in some of the most important dramas on television with Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale. Fred Armisen built his own career by being the funniest man in any room he’s in, a tall feat as part of the Saturday Night Live cast. Yet, these two managed to find common ground (at least for a time) when they met in the fall of 2008 and married just a few months later in 2009. She filed for divorce in 2010.
Eva Longoria & Tyler Christopher
Soap opera worlds collided when Eva Longoria, who appeared on The Young and The Restless from 2001 to 2003, married the late Tyler Christopher, a General Hospital mainstay, in 2002. The couple divorced in 2004 before going onto other high-profile relationships. But for a brief moment, they bridged the fictional worlds of daytime TV.
Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger
They managed to produce some of the most defining pop rock music of the 2000s, but it would be years later when Avril Lavigne and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger found romance. While working on her album in 2012, the Canada natives sparked a whirlwind relationship that found them engaged after just a month of dating. They married a year later but divorced in 2015.
Jennifer Garner and Scott Foley
Before she was ever kicking butt on a global scale in Alias, Jennifer Garner made a small recurring appearance on Felicity starting in 1998. It was on that set where she met her first husband, actor Scott Foley. The young couple became an instant hit among fans of their respective shows and careers, and they married in 2000. But it was not destined to last, ending in divorce in 2004.
Jenna Fischer and James Gunn
Audiences know her as Dunder Mifflin receptionist turned superstar saleswoman Pam Beesley in The Office, but Jenna Fischer played another receptionist—albeit an absurdist version of one—in James Gunn‘s 2006 horror comedy Slither. It is the only major collaboration between Fischer and Gunn, who were married at the time. They met through his brother, Sean Gunn, and married in 2000. They divorced on good terms in 2008.
Helen Hunt and Hank Azaria
Talk about a 1990s power couple. Helen Hunt, in the heyday of NBC’s sitcom Mad About You, married Hank Azaria, in the early days of his decades-long run on The Simpsons, in 1994. While the couple only stayed hitched for 17 months, it proved to be a source of fascination for the press while it lasted.
Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum
You might think it was trauma bonding that brought together Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum on the set of David Cronenberg’s 1986 gross-out horror film The Fly about a scientist who turns himself into, you guessed it, a fly. But that was actually the second film starring the real-life couple. They met a year prior while filming Transylvania 6-5000 and also starred in 1988’s Earth Girls Are Easy. Their working relationship lasted longer than their marriage. They wed in 1987 and divorced in 1990, though Davis has since told People their time together was “magical.”
Gary Oldman & Uma Thurman
In the 1990s, fewer stars were bigger than Uma Thurman and Gary Oldman. But the two actors actually ushered in the new decade as a couple. They seemingly started dating in 1989 and married in 1990. But the marriage wouldn’t last long, with the couple divorcing in 1992. Still, during the relationship, they managed to make one film together—1990’s Henry & June.
Lyle Lovett & Julia Roberts
This one might be a little easier to remember because Julia Roberts and anything new about her love life were inescapable in the 1990s, up until she married her longtime husband Danny Moder in 2002. But nearly a decade prior, she was married to country music superstar Lyle Lovett. Roberts had previously been engaged to Kiefer Sutherland, but it was Lovett’s soulful tune that got her to the altar. They had only been dating for three weeks before they pulled together a wedding ceremony in Indiana in just 72 hours. They divorced in 1995.
George Clooney & Talia Balsam
George Clooney‘s love life has been a source of media fascination since he was breaking hearts and saving lives on ER. But before he ever scrubbed in for the NBC series, he was married to actress Talia Balsam. The pair wed in 1989 and remained married until 1993. Balsam, who recently starred in series like Divorce and Wilderness, admitted to People in 2016 she probably shouldn’t have been married at that time in her life but says Clooney remains charming.
Paula Abdul & Emilio Estevez
“Straight Up” singer, renowned choreographer, and American Idol founding mother Paula Abdul was one of the most popular artists of the 1980s, and she proved it by marrying one of the decade’s most beloved actors, Brat Pack heartthrob Emilio Estevez. The pair married in 1992, to great attention from fans and the media, but divorced in 1994. Abdul has said since the “heartbreaking” separation was due to her wanting children and Estevez, who already had two from a previous relationship, not wanting anymore.
