EXCLUSIVE: The World's Dirtiest Divorces: From Princess Diana's Agonies to the Will Smith Split Everyone Forgot

RadarOnline.com today begins the first of a two-part deep dive into the planet's nastiest splits.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana

The marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was always contentious, but the real fireworks began after they decided to divorce. She wanted total access to her two children plus a sizable chunk of the royal coffers – and nothing was going to stop her.

Diana meant to get back at her former Prince Charming for the pain he’d caused her. The princess hadn’t forgotten the way Charles had callously trivialized his young wife in 1994, saying, "I never really loved her." (At the time, a heartsick Diana had said, "I feel like the world's biggest prostitute.") And it was payback time for his flagrant affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.

Charles' opening offer was $700,000 a year for life. Diana balked. She wanted a lump sum in the $70-million range. If the Palace refused, she threatened to auction off all the jewels she'd been given during her 15-year marriage. In retaliation, Charles' lawyers sniped that she'd soon be named as the "other woman" in three divorce cases.

When the divorce was finalized in 1996, Diana had won. She got $23million outright, $600,000 a year for living and staff expenses, the right to remain in Kensington Palace – and, crucial to her, joint custody of Prince William and Prince Harry. She lost the right to keep using the title "Her Royal Highness."

Sadly, Diana had scant time to enjoy her new wealth and freedom. A year later, she died in that murky auto crash in Paris. But, said her grieving brother, while the House of Windsor may have taken away Diana's title, she'll forever remain the "People’s Princess."

Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley

The coupling of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson with daughter of "The King" Lisa Marie Presley was so wacky it was perhaps inevitable that it wouldn’t last. It didn’t. They wed in the Dominican Republic in 1994. Twenty months later, Elvis’ little girl filed for divorce.

Although each had $100 million–plus fortunes, there were reports that a prenup netted Lisa Marie another $15million. She also resumed using her maiden name — she had been calling herself Presley-Jackson.

Was this a real marriage or just a publicity stunt? In a TV interview with Diane Sawyer, Lisa Marie said, "Do we have sex? Yes, yes, yes." Added Jackson: "Like we’re faking this?" – at which point the androgynous singer began making goo-goo eyes at his wife.

But Lisa reportedly became disenchanted when Jackson began spending too much time with his gaggle of young boys. And talk of him helping launch her singing career went nowhere. Who did what to whom? Two sets of lipstick-coated lips aren't talking.

Princess Caroline and Philippe Junot

Princess Caroline’s first marriage, to Philippe Junot, fizzled in 28 months, but their war of words lasted a decade.

Everyone but Caroline expected the worst when the 21-year-old princess of Monaco wed the notorious French playboy in 1978. But the bride soon found out that Junot, 37, was a bounder. "One day you wake up and wonder what you've done," she later said. "I guess I started to wake up on our honeymoon."

She claimed a male pal of Junot accompanied them, "snapping intimate photos to sell to magazines," and that even before the wedding she knew Philippe was chasing other women.

Yet Junot claimed it was his wife's wild drive to party that drove a wedge between them. "She had to be the center of any set that along the way – to feel at peace with herself," he said. "If she was unsuccessful in her conquests… she would go into a profound crisis." Whatever the reason, the couple was history by October 1980, much to the relief of Caroline's mom, Princess Grace.

But to obtain a Roman Catholic annulment, Caroline had embarrassing personal details to a church court. "I was very inexperienced in sex and was sure our entire relationship was perfect," she said. "I found out, though, that my husband never had an affection for me and I didn't get the tenderness I should have from him.” She also charged that Junot had used her as a gray train while he chased other women.

Junot opposed the annulment, calling Caroline's request "an evident defect in her education" and said it showed "a total lack of consideration for me."

But the Vatican finally annulled the marriage in 1994.

O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson

Instead of "Happy New Year," the chilling words O.J. Simpson spoke to his wife Nicole Brown Simpson on January 1, 1989, were: "I’ll kill you."

Police arrived at the former football hero's Brentwood compound about 3:30am to investigate Nicole’s sobbing complaint that he’d punched, slapped and kicked her. O.J. pleaded "no contest" to spousal abuse and received two years' probation.

But his physical abuse and infidelity had become unbearable. Nicole filed for divorce, saying: "I’ve cared about him. He loves me and I know he swears he won't do it again. But he always does. And it’s scary. It's frightening." Said a friend: "She was so afraid of him. It’s eating my heart that she wants a divorce. He loves those children, he adores the kids I love, and I want to stay with them."

Nicole finally divorced O.J. on July 2, 1992, after seven years of marriage.

She kept their San Francisco condo, received $550,000 in cash, and some child-support payments of $10,000 for their two young kids.

But less than two years later, Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman were murdered, butchered by an assailant most Americans still believe was Orenthal James Simpson.

Billy Bob and Petra Thornton

In the film Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton played a gentle man who could be violent. In real life, he was just a violent man, said his wife Pietra. When she filed for divorce in 1997, it surprised the nation, since just days earlier at the Academy Awards – where Thornton won for Best Screenplay – they’d embraced and gazed soulfully at each other.

But in a court statement, Pietra said: "Over the past year, at least once or twice a month, he has hit me, pushed me, punched me, bit me or otherwise physically attacked me, sometimes in front of the children."

Thornton's all-too-cozy friendship with Jurassic Park star Laura Dern — whom he'd met while doing an episode of Ellen, fueled a bonfire that soon left the couple’s marriage in ashes. "It's almost as if two friends can't have lunch together without people turning it into something else," an insider said.

But in this case, the Thornton/Dern rumors turned out to be true.

Still, the actor denied his wife's tales of caveman diplomacy.

"I'm sorry that Pietra's advisers have convinced her to take this malicious and untruthful course of action by making false accusations of physical and mental abuse," he said.

"Our marriage wasn't perfect, but I never exhibited the behavior she's accusing me of. Our concerns right now should be about our sons (William, 5, and Harry James, 4), who will suffer the most as a result of her advisers' conduct."

George Jones and Tammy Wynette

They were the king and queen of country music, but after six volatile years, Tammy Wynette could no longer stand by her man, George Jones. Fed up with his drinking and drugging, Wynette filed for a D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

At first, Wynette had overlooked Jones' misbehavior. "He got drunk with friends, came at me swinging and threw a whiskey bottle at the wall," she said. "Sometimes we were madly in love, but this alternated with his drunken binges and violence."

To keep Jones off the sauce, she hid his car keys – only to discover he'd driven his lawn mower 10 miles to a bar.

"I was pretty wild, pretty wicked," said Jones. "But there's not much you can do about it because it's spilled milk. You just have to clean up your act, and that’s what I did," added the singer.

Wynette, 55, died in 1998.

"In the end, we were very close friends. I couldn't be sadder," said Jones.

Jerry Lee Lewis and Wives

Future rock star Jerry Lee Lewis was 14 when he married his first wife, Dorothy, divorcing her two years later – a week after marrying second bride Janet. He then wed third wife Myra, his 13-year-old cousin, a full five months before divorcing Janet.

The marriage to Myra was stormy. Lewis was drinking heavily, having affairs and slapping his wife around at home. While in Myra’s care, son Stephen, 3, drowned in their pool. Jerry Lee blamed Myra.

One night he phoned her from the road in a drunken rage and verbally abused her.

When she held a pistol to her head and threatened to blow her brains out, Lewis asked her to "put the phone close so I can hear it go off."

She divorced him shortly thereafter, in 1970.

The misfortune continued. Jaren, fourth wife of the man fondly known as "The Killer," drowned only days after filing for divorce.

And three months after marrying wife No. 5, Shawn Stephens, Jerry Lee awoke to find her lying next to him in bed, dead of a methadone overdose. An empty prescription bottle of his was found in their medicine cabinet.

Eight months later, in 1984, Lewis, 48, married Kerrie McCarver, 22 — and in 1989 vowed to wed Lisa Marie Presley next. When asked how current wife Kerrie might feel about that, he retorted: "That’s her problem. I never promised her a rose garden"

Will Smith and Sheree Zampino

When heartbroken Fresh Prince star Will Smith was dumped by long-time girlfriend Tanya Moore, he started a whirlwind romance with actress/model Sheree Zampino. They wed in May 1992, and son William C. "Trey” Smith III was born that December, with Will assisting.

The marriage soon hit the skids. Zampino longed for a simple family life, but Smith’s fast-lane career often kept him away from home. Zampino also began to resent his hordes of female groupies.

Despite Will’s attempts at reconciliation, Zampino filed for divorce in 1995.

Later, she got custody of Trey – and a settlement fit for a princess. Independence Day star Smith’s independence was brief.

He wed actress Jada Pinkett the last day of 1997 – but that's not going too smoothly for him either...