Love Scandals: 30 Celebrities Who Faced Relationship Dramas Off-Screen

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver were married for 25 years before they separated after The Terminator actor admitted he had fathered a child, Joseph, with their longtime maid, Mildred Baena, 14 years before the split.

"Maria and I went to counseling once a week and in one of the sessions the counselor said, 'I think today Maria wants to be very specific about something. She wants to know if you are the father of Joseph.' And I was like — I thought my heart stopped, and then I told the truth," Schwarzenegger recalled in his Netflix documentary series, Arnold.

He added, "She was crushed because of that. I had an affair in '96. In the beginning, I really didn't know. I just started feeling the older he got the more it became clear to me and then it was really just a matter of how do you keep this quiet?"

In 2005, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner tied the knot and welcomed three children in the years thereafter.

After their split, reports claimed the Justice League actor had an affair with their children's nanny, Christine Ouzounian. Affleck and his representatives constantly denied the rumors, but Garner shared her thoughts following their split.

"We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to do with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation," she told Vanity Fair.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's relationship was filled with drama as soon as it started. The actor was married to Jennifer Aniston when they allegedly had an affair while working on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

They later married and stayed together for years before the Maleficent star filed for divorce following the bombshell plane incident.

"While Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family's September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him," Jolie's representative noted in the filing.

After their breakup, they also dealt with legal disputes over a French winery and their six children.

Until today, Pitt and Jolie have yet to end their court showdowns due to different issues.

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner were both married to other people when they met at a club in 1943. One year later, Sinatra divorced his wife of 12 years, Nancy Barbato, and tied the knot with Gardner the same year.

"What I had mistaken for love was only the warm friendship Nancy had brought me," Sinatra said, per The Times.

Sinatra and Gardner divorced six years later but remained friends until the latter's death on January 25, 1990.

Elizabeth Hurley and the world learned about Hugh Grant's cheating issue when the authorities discovered him with Divine Brown in his car. Grant reportedly paid the woman $60 to perform an oral s-- on him.

He released a statement after the incident, writing, "Last night I did something completely insane. I have hurt people I love and embarrassed people I work with. For both things I am more sorry than I can ever possibly say."

His then-girlfriend told Barbara Walters how it felt like she had been shot when her agent informed her of what Grant did. Though she chose to stay with him after what happened, they broke up years later.

Five years after Jesse James and Sandra Bullock tied the knot, multiple women came forward to claim they had affairs with the entrepreneur.

James released a statement afterward, denying most of the allegations.

"There is only one person to blame for this whole situation, and that is me. It's because of my poor judgment that I deserve everything bad that is coming my way," he said.

He also addressed his infidelity in his interview with ABC News, during which he said it made him feel horrible.

Bullock filed for divorce from James after the news emerged.

Jude Law and Sienna Miller immediately felt the spark after meeting on the set of their film Alfie. A few months later, they got engaged and started preparing for their future.

However, things changed when reports revealed that Law cheated on Miller with their nanny. He reportedly slept with the worker, Daisy Wright, who cared for his three kids with Sadie Frost.

"I just want to say I am deeply ashamed and upset that I've hurt Sienna and the people most close to us. I want to publicly apologise to Sienna and our respective families for the pain that I have caused. There is no defence for my actions which I sincerely regret and I ask that you respect our privacy at this very difficult time," Law said in a statement.

Law and Miller stayed together until they split in 2006. They also briefly reunited in 2009, but things still did not work out.

Kenneth Branagh was married to Emma Thompson for eight years following a ceremony in 1989. They ended things between them when Thompson discovered her then-husband having an affair with his Mary Shelley's Frankenstein costar Helena Bonham Carter.

"I was utterly, utterly blind to the fact that he had relationships with other women on set," Thompson told The New Yorker. "What I learned was how easy it is to be blinded by your own desire to deceive yourself."

Khloé Kardashian and Tristan Thompson's relationship revolved around the NBA star's infidelity and the Keeping Up With the Kardashians alum's tendencies to forgive him.

The first cheating scandal emerged in 2018 when TMZ released footage of Thompson getting cozy with another woman. A second video went viral, showing Thompson making out with a different woman.

His earliest known cheating issue reportedly happened while Kardashian was pregnant with their first child, True.

In an episode of The Kardashians in November 2023, Thompson revealed he wanted to gain everyone's trust back following his multiple cheating scandals.

"At the end of the day, you want your family to be comfortable around you," he said. "You never want someone to look at you side-eye or question your character or your integrity as a human being. That's my motivation for anything. I never want my daughter to go to school and talk so great about me and then a little kid comes and says, 'Oh, well your daddy is like this,' and she'll be embarrassed."

In February 2019, Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kanye West after six years of marriage.

There were speculations that West's continuous issues and scandals took a toll on their marriage, leaving Kim struggling behind the camera.

"Why am I still in this, like, place where I'm stuck for years? Like, he goes and moves to a different state, every year, I have to be together so I can raise the kids, you know? And he's an amazing dad, he's done an amazing job," an emotional Kim told her sisters in an episode of KUWTK.

West sparked controversy due to his worrying mental health issues, questionable political comments and antisemitic remarks over the years.

Twilight couple Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson left fans obsessed as they started a real-life relationship while filming the hit franchise.

In 2012, Stewart was pictured having a major PDA moment with Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders, who was married to Liberty Ross at the time.

"This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry," Stewart said after the scandal.

Amid her divorce from Austin Chick, Morena Baccarin got pregnant with her costar Ben McKenzie's child. The divorce was finalized a year later.

Meg Ryan was married to actor Dennis Quaid when she met Russell Crowe. Reports said they filed for divorce because of the costar, but Ryan offered a different statement.

"My marriage was a ... very unhealthy marriage," she clarified, adding, "I probably should have left it much earlier. It was never about another man. I think once the tabloids get a hold of three celebrity names you're just really in trouble. It sounds like the tabloids really did paint an alternate version of reality!"

In March 2023, Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix called it quits after he cheated on her with Raquel Leviss.

Sandoval released statements online, with the second message serving as his direct apology to Madix.

"I made mistakes, I was selfish, and made reckless decisions that hurt somebody I love. No one deserves to feel that pain so traumatically and publicly," he wrote. "I can only imagine how devastating this has been for Ariana and everyone around us. I feel really horrible about that. My biggest regret is that I dishonored Ariana."

Sandoval added, "My love for Ariana was stronger than any camera could ever have captured. I wish things happened in a different order and our relationship was not severely tarnished, and that it ended with the same respect for her that it began with. I owed Ariana better."

Woody Allen dated Mia Farrow, who adopted Soon Yi Previn in 1978. Years later, the media learned about Allen and Previn's affair, which the filmmaker did not deny.

"Regarding my love for Soon-Yi: It's real and happily all true," he said in a press release. "She's a lovely, intelligent, sensitive woman who has and continues to turn around my life in a wonderfully positive way."

They got married in 1997.