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Keeping secrets isn’t easy for anyone, but it’s especially difficult for people who are constantly being stalked by paparazzi and reporters. Still, some celebs managed to keep some really big secrets about their love lives from the rest of the world…but the truth always ultimately comes out.
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ROCK HUDSON
Despite onscreen romances with the likes of Doris Day and Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson’s offscreen loves were male. The actor was married to Phyllis Gates from 1955 to 1958 in hopes of keeping his secret safe from the world. However, by the 1960s, Hudson’s fame soared and his secret was relatively open in Hollywood, though hidden from the public. One of Hudson’s lovers, Lee Garlington, revealed to People in 2015 that he and Hudson took measures to keep their romance quiet, both literally and figuratively. “I’d come over after work, spend the night, and leave the next morning,” Garlington said. “I’d sneak out at 6 a.m. in my Chevy Nova and coast down the street so the neighbors wouldn’t hear. We thought we were being so clever.”
Garlington added, “Nobody in their right mind came out. It was career suicide. We all pretended to be straight.” Other old Hollywood stars allegedly rumored to have been closeted included Marlon Brando, James Dean, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Cary Grant.
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JANUARY JONES
January Jones gave birth to her son, Xander, in 2011. To this day, no one knows the identity of Xander’s dad, with speculation rampant that he may have been fathered by a married man. The Mad Men starlet offered no clues as to the paternity, telling The Edit, “I don’t have room for anything else, so I don’t know how I would have done it with a partner. I knew I would be raising my son alone. It was something I went into knowingly, I was prepared mentally—and I was excited about it.”
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COLE PORTER
Broadway songsmith Cole Porter was married to socialite Linda Lee Thomas from 1919 until her death in 1954. However, that doesn’t mean they were in love: Sources say Porter was homosexual, even deliberately leaving hints and vagueness in some of his famous lyrics. Thomas knew and accepted the fact and happily served as his “beard.”
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JANET JACKSON
No one knew that Janet Jackson was dating anyone, let alone married, for most of the 1990s. Ms. Jackson (since we’re nasty) turned out to be wed to Rene Elizondo, a songwriter who collaborated on over 30 of her tracks, from March 31, 1991 until their separation in January 1999. Elizondo filed for divorce in June 2000, citing irreconcilable differences, and the court filings were the only public indication that they were ever an item to begin with. Fun fact: on Jackson’s iconic topless Rolling Stone cover, it’s Elizondo’s hands that are acting as her bra, making it quite possibly the only existing photo of the former couple together.
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MARILYN MONROE
Marilyn Monroe is more famous today for her troubled life off-screen than she is for her film work. The iconic sex symbol was notorious for her affairs, which included husbands Arthur Miller and Joe DiMaggio, as well as the Kennedy brothers—allegedly. The evidence reportedly goes beyond Monroe’s seductive rendition of “Happy Birthday” that she sang to John F. Kennedy: Hollywood private investigator John Otash claimed to have had wiretap recordings of Monroe having sex with both JFK and Robert Kennedy.
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ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
Arnold Schwarzenegger had a pretty sweet life until 2011. The Terminator star was a successful politician, a box office draw, and a loving husband to Kennedy family heiress and journalist Maria Shriver. That all came crashing down when it was revealed that Ah-nold had fathered a lovechild with his and Shriver’s housekeeper, Mildred Baena, 13 years prior. Baena’s son, Joseph, was a dead ringer for the Governator, and after Shriver saw the boy and gently confronted Baena, the marriage was donezo.
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PAUL WALKER
As successful as the Fast & Furious franchise was, the series’ star, Paul Walker, kept a relatively low profile before his untimely death in 2013. The blue-eyed hunk may have flown under the radar deliberately: he had a penchant for significantly younger women. Walker’s girlfriend at the time of his passing, Jasmine Pilchard-Gosnell, met him when she was 16 and he was 33. His previous girlfriend, Aubrianna Atwell, began dating Walker when she was 16 and he was 28. If you’re noticing a pattern, well…you should be.
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MADONNA
Just when we thought we knew everything there was to know about Madonna’s love and sex life, the Material Girl dropped a truth bomb in March 2015: she told Howard Stern that she dated Tupac Shakur three years before the rapper’s death in 1996. The Queen of Pop says she met the “California Love” rapper at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1993 through mutual pal Rosie Perez. The couple went strong until February 1995, when Shakur went to prison for first degree sexual abuse.
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HEALTHY STARS WHO LOVE THEIR COMFORT FOOD
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No matter who we are, we’ve all compared ourselves—consciously or subconsciously—to the seemingly unattainable physiques some celebrities have achieved. The discipline (and money) they bestow upon their bodies—at yoga, at Pilates, at the gym with their private trainers—isn’t necessarily something we have the time or money to mimic. Same goes with their diets. You’d kill for a personal chef, right? But the truth of the matter is, while you think these fantasy-evoking stars are munching on cardboard and twigs during the day, some of them are secretly getting down with carbs.
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JESSICA ALBA
Jessica Alba has one of the hottest bods in all of Hollywood. Although she’s acknowledged that working out can be a challenge, she knows how to switch things up to keep herself committed. In an interview she gave to Shape Magazine during the spring of 2015, she opened up about her workout routine which varies from hot yoga and strength training, to spinning. As for her typical pre- or post-workout snack, she’s a fan of combining vegan protein powder, matcha green tea powder, a banana, coconut water, and ice. But even this healthy combo doesn’t stop her from enjoying the “swiner” things in life. Alba was seen at an NFL football game a few seasons back pigging out on a hotdog, bun and all. This yogi knows a thing or two about balance.
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JENNIFER LAWRENCE
Jennifer Lawrence is like America’s Sweetheart 2.0. Plus, she acts like a human, and she eats like one, too. In an interview with Teen Vogue, her celebrity trainer spilled the beans on what it took to get her physically prepared for her Hunger Games roles, and it doesn’t look that impossible: 20 minutes a day focusing on cardio, building muscle, occasionally switching things up with yoga, and above all, maintaining a good attitude. Lawrence stuck to the plan and rewarded herself by beelining it to a McDonald’s before the Oscars.
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SHAILENE WOODLEY
Shailene Woodley is super strict when mealtime comes around. In a 2015 sitdown with Bon Appétit, she revealed she’s all about foraging food from the Earth, she’s obsessed with Farmers Markets—she actually makes it a point to visit them no matter what city she’s in—and she won’t eat catered food when she’s on set of a movie. She prefers her homemade leftovers, thanks. She even eats insects. But that doesn’t mean she’ll turn her back on a slice of pizza.
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MINKA KELLY
It seems as though Minka Kelly hasn’t aged since her days in Dillon, Texas. She replaced her cowboy boots with an apron and Instagrammed her way through Culinary School in Los Angeles where all of her followers got to watch her make homemade pasta and raw zucchini dill feta fennel salad. Not surprisingly, she also jumped on the yoga-mobile and mastered a pretty nice downward dog. That, or she just loves wearing yoga pants. But don’t let her health-centric lifestyle fool you. She knows a good ice cream cone when she sees one. Riggins would be so proud.
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TAYLOR SWIFT
Despite her height, Taylor Swift is about as tiny as they come. But that skinny frame isn’t courtesy of just worldwide tours and a fridge full of Diet Coke. According to an interview with WebMD, the country-music-turned-pop star makes it a point to eat healthy Monday through Friday, while indulging on the weekends. A NY Magazine journalist actually tried out her regimen for approximately one week one year and actually enjoyed herself. Some of the Swift-approved foods she made sure to try: crepes topped with cheese, ham, and a fried egg, and Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Lattes. She peppered in a lot of SoulCycle, though.
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ELIZABETH BANKS
You remember Elizabeth Banks in her skintight yellow dress running all around downtown Los Angeles for the 2014 movie Walk of Shame. But don’t let her figure fool you. If there’s one thing Banks is good at besides making you laugh, it’s eating. In fact, she, too, opened up to Bon Appétit about one of her favorite restaurants—a fried chicken joint down in Atlanta where you really should make reservations—and how much she loves watermelon, but not seedless watermelon. She even has her own website full of recipes dedicated to all sorts of comfort foods. Bourbon brownie cookie meringue? It’s there. Sour cream coffee cake? That’s there, too. And you know she taste-tested them.
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KHLOE KARDASHIAN
With a lot of hard work (and probably some money to throw at a trainer), Khloe Kardashian has transformed her body into the shape of a real-life hourglass. The younger Kardashian sister reveals in her book Strong Looks Better Naked that she kicks off her day at 5 a.m. by drinking water, followed by black coffee. From then on, it’s about balancing hearty meals with working out and lots more water. But just because she’s living a healthy lifestyle doesn’t mean she can’t have a little fun. In between her celebrity endorsement photos for waist trainers and detox teas, she loves a good slice of pizza. Afterall, those hips still need padding.
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GWYNETH PALTROW
Gwyneth Paltrow spends a lot of time trying to provide ways for you to live a life like hers. You can dress like her, you can exercise like her, you can eat like her—you just have to have the same bank account as her. She revealed to Epicurious that it was her father, not her mother, who inspired her to start cooking. She has a few recipes she’s mastered—her bruschetta is frequently requested—and while she no longer follows the strict, macrobiotic diet, she does continue along the organic, non-processed-food path. But for all her bougie ways, even Paltrow knows a good burger when she eyes one. In fact, she has an article on her website, GOOP, in which she compiled the best food trucks in town. Grilled cheese, pizza, and brisket sliders also welcome.
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CELEBRITIES WHO RUINED THEIR FAMILIES' LIVES
Celebrities who make terrible decisions often don’t suffer the consequences alone. These stars’ poor choices—some accidental, some deliberate—didn’t damage just their own careers and lives, but also took down their own families as well. Seriously, these are enough to make you wish blood was actually thinner than water.
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NICK HOGAN
The Hogan family was relatively drama-free (except for their Hogan Knows Best antics) for a long time. Sadly, that ended on Aug. 26, 2007, when Hulk Hogan’s son Nick drag raced with his best friend, Marine veteran John Graziano, as his passenger. Nick crashed, escaping with minor injuries, but Graziano was left with permanent brain damage and will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life. The fallout doesn’t end there: in October 2007, Linda Hogan filed for divorce from Hulk, citing irreconcilable differences…then moved on with one of Nick’s best friends, Charley Hill, who was 19 years old to her 48. That cougar has some claws.
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TYGA
Tyga had a fiancee in Blac Chyna. He also had a child with her, son King Cairo. Both Blac Chyna and Tyga had friendships with the Kardashians…and that led to the demise of their relationship. Blac Chyna, once BFFs with Kim Kardashian, watched Tyga ditch her for then-17-year-old Kylie Jenner. Tyga initially denied the dating rumors, only officially coming clean once Jenner turned 18.
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JON VOIGHT
Angelina Jolie’s been estranged from her father, Jon Voight, for most of her adult life following his cheating on her mother, Marcheline Bertrand. Despite their differences, Bertrand reportedly wanted Jolie to maintain a relationship with Voight. Jolie tried to create one when she got Voight cast as her on-screen father in Tomb Raider. The goodwill didn’t last: in 2002, Voight told press that Jolie had “serious mental problems,” leading to a longstanding and public rift. That rift included gems like Voight telling press all about Jolie’s daughter, “Shakira,” despite her actual name being Zahara, as well as Voight being in the dark about Jolie’s double mastectomy in 2013 until after he read her New York Times editorial. Voight was also persona non grata at Jolie’s wedding to Brad Pitt. Talk about daddy issues.
WOODY ALLEN (AND MAYBE MIA FARROW)
Around 1980, Woody Allen began a decade-long relationship with his then-muse Mia Farrow. Though they never married, 10 years later, Allen took the serious step of formally adopting two of Farrow’s adopted children, daughter Dylan and son Moses. But then it got creepy: Farrow claims that in January 1992, she found nude photos of her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn at Allen’s home, revealing that he was in a relationship with Previn, whom he went on to marry in 1997. (When they began their relationship, Allen was 56 to Previn’s 21.) A bitter custody battle followed Allen and Farrow’s breakup, with Farrow attempting to nullify Allen’s adoptions of Dylan and Moses, a motion that court denied. Farrow also alleged that Allen sexually abused Dylan, an allegation Allen and the rest of his family have adamantly denied.
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WHITNEY HOUSTON
Whitney Houston battled lesbian rumors for years until she married Bobby Brown. Because of his bad boy reputation, Brown is often blamed for corrupting then-America’s sweetheart Houston in her prime, though Houston’s own brother, Michael Houston, told Oprah that he introduced the singer to drugs in the 1980s—before she even met Brown. The world got a close look at the couple in 2005 when their short-lived reality show, Being Bobby Brown, premiered, depicting the couple’s often-erratic behavior. Insiders claim that Houston pressured Brown into filming the series that ultimately chronicled their decline.
Further issues occurred in Houston’s life. Her unofficial adoption of Nick Gordon, who she raised for 10 years alongside daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, earned a bit of side-eye and raised brows. Tragically, Bobbi Kristina also allegedly took up her parents’ bad habits and reportedly struggled with addiction and abuse at Gordon’s hands before her untimely death in July 2015 after being found in bathtub—a passing eerily similar and as tragic as her mother’s.
CHARLIE SHEEN
Charlie Sheen married Denise Richards in 2002, and the pair raised daughters Sam and Lola together. In 2006, the couple divorced, citing the ever-reliable “irreconcilable differences,” and Richards filed a restraining order against Sheen, alleging that he made death threats against her. The couple fought a three-year custody battle, but finally came to an amicable agreement in 2009.
Sheen married Brooke Mueller in 2008. On Christmas 2009, Sheen was arrested on suspicion of spousal abuse, and the couple divorced in November 2010. In March 2011, police removed Mueller and Sheen’s two children from his home. After another allegedly drug-fueled incident in 2013, Richards was granted temporary emergency custody of Sheen and Mueller’s sons. When Sheen moved on yet again and became engaged to adult film actress Brett Rossi in February 2014, he and Mueller soon joined forces against Richards, with Sheen tearing into the former model on Twitter. Ugh. No one is #winning here.
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JOAN CRAWFORD
Joan Crawford’s adopted daughter, Christina Crawford, wrote the first quintessential Hollywood tell-all with Mommie Dearest in 1978 about her alleged abusive upbringing. However, it’s unclear who the villain of the story is, because two of Joan’s other adopted children, Cathy and Cindy, dispute the tales in the tome. So does Joan’s ex-husband, Douglas Fairbanks, and actress pal Myrna Loy. In Charlotte Chandler’s Not The Girl Next Door book about Christina Crawford, Cathy says, “[Christina] had her own reality…I don’t know where she got her ideas. Our Mommie was the best mother anyone ever had.”
Still, Joan wasn’t without her faults: she was a reported alcoholic who went through four husbands and countless affairs. Christina also claims that Joan told her that her birth mother died in childbirth, which was false—and Christina never learned the truth until the 1990s when both her biological parents had already passed away. Ouch.
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DIVORCES THAT DESTROYED HOLLYWOOD CAREERS
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Divorce is never an easy thing to go through, but it can be an especially painful process when you’re rich and famous and constantly scrutinized in the tabloids. Over the years, many stars’ careers in Hollywood have come to a screeching halt after their high-profile relationships ended in divorce, to the point where they’re still trying to pick up the pieces today. We’ve pulled together seven divorces that truly destroyed a celebrity’s career. Check them out, below.
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MEG RYAN
Meg Ryan unceremoniously lost her “America’s Sweetheart” crown after she ditched her husband of many years, Dennis Quaid, for her Proof of Life co-star, Russell Crowe, around 2000. Since then, Ryan’s spent much of her time out of the spotlight, appearing only in a handful of movies over the last 15 years (many of them awful). Ryan has since alleged that Quaid cheated on her multiple times during their marriage. Sure — but that still doesn’t excuse The Women.
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TOM CRUISE
Tom Cruise shocked practically everyone in Hollywood when word got out that he was ditching his wife of almost 10 years, Nicole Kidman, in 2001. To be fair, Cruise has managed to stay in the spotlight ever since, landing one moderately — if underwhelming — blockbuster after another. It was mostly his personal reputation that was tarnished, thanks to a number of bizarre feuds (Matt Lauer; Brooke Shields) and his notorious courtship of his now ex-wife, Katie Holmes, in 2005. Plus, his close ties with Scientology haven’t done him any favors, as anyone who saw the HBO documentary Going Clear will tell you.
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KRIS HUMPHRIES
Odds are, if you enter into the Kardashian family in even the smallest of capacities, your reputation is going to be tarnished. Such was the case for NBA star Kris Humphries, who became the laughing stock of both Hollywood and the basketball scene after his highly publicized marriage to Kim Kardashian ended after just 72 days. The New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets forward was often booed during games, and was eventually traded twice — first to the Boston Celtics, then to the Washington Wizards, for whom he is currently playing.
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ROBIN THICKE
Talk about a hard fall. After dominating the charts for the entire summer of 2012 with his hit single, “Blurred Lines,” Robin Thicke’s career essentially died overnight after his high school sweetheart, Paula Patton, left him amid rumors that he had been unfaithful. Thicke tried to win back Patton by releasing the sappy, critically maligned album, Paula, in 2014, which didn’t go over well with either Patton or his fanbase. Case in point: The album sold just 530 copies (yes, 530 copies) in its debut week in the U.K. Ouch.
LEANN RIMES
Read More: www.looper.com/1700/divorces-destroyed-hollywood-careers/
