Paris Hilton was not the first Hilton to know her way around a scandal. Her grandfather, hotel heir, and Hollywood playboy Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, married movie star legend Elizabeth Taylor when the actress was just 18 years old. MGM paid for the wedding and it was a lavish affair with 600 guests and many of Hollywood’s elite in attendance. The marriage fell apart in less than a year, which included a three-month-long European honeymoon.
In court, a young Liz threw all the blame on Nicky and accused him of being verbally abusive. Later she would say that the marriage had been a mistake and that she was “very naïve.” Taylor did not give up on love and went on to get married seven more times over the years.
The Most Expensive Divorce Ever
Music superstar Janet Jackson and Qatari billionaire Wissam Al Mana married in secret in 2012. This was Jackson’s third marriage and the first in which she had a child. After Janet gave birth to their son, Eissa, in January 2017. The couple announced their separation just a few months later.
In an interesting coincidence, it is rumored that if their marriage lasted for five years, Janet was set to receive $100 million and another $100 for bearing a child.
Too Goofy for Marriage
Famous actress Drew Barrymore and somewhat famous actor and comedian Tom Green didn’t think getting married was serious business. Their original idea was to get married on the comedy show “Saturday Night Live.” Tom asked Drew to marry him in a skit at the start of the show and she said yes. Drew is known as kind of a free spirit and Tom is known for being strange, so the whole thing didn’t seem so out there.
By the time the end of the show came around, Drew had a change of heart and decided she didn’t want to get married on live television. The two were engaged for a year and finally eloped to the South Pacific in March 2001. After less than a year of marriage, Tom filed for divorce, stating that he “wished it could have worked out.”
Shameless Secret Wedding
Emmy Rossum, of "Shameless" fame, has some wild secrets in her past. She wed music executive Justin Siegel when she was just 22 years old. The pair decided to pretend that they were dating, but keep their marriage a secret to keep it out of the public eye. Despite this tactic, or maybe because of it, the marriage was not built to last.
After tying the knot on February 17, 2008, Justin filed for divorce just nineteen months later, on September 25, 2009, the reason being of course - irreconcilable differences.
Practice Makes Perfect?
Ethel Merman is a classic Hollywood icon, widely known for starring in musical pictures that highlighted her impressive vocal range. The musical legend married her suitor, actor Ernest Borgnine, in 1964 in the garden of his house. Relationship problems are nothing new and celebrities had a hard time staying together even in the golden age of Hollywood. For Ethel, this was marriage number five and for Ernest number six!
Unfortunately, this marriage didn’t last either. Only 32 days after they tied the knot, the couple petitioned for divorce, leaving Ernest Borgnine divorced six times over. Years later Borgnine jokingly talked about the marriage, “If you blinked, you missed it ...”