Love or Luxury? 10 Celebrities Accused of Being Gold Diggers

Some celebrities marry for love, while others marry for Louis Vuitton. In fact, whenever a celebrity couple gets together and one is much older and wealthier, fans start wondering if money is the motivation behind the relationship. As Kanye West says, “I ain’t sayin’ she’s a gold digger.” In most cases of celebrity gold diggers, the marriage is usually short lived with a bitter divorce and big payout to follow. Although fans love to speculate whether a new celebrity couple is together for money or love, such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, no one really knows except for the two people in the relationship.

More: Jeff Bezos’ Wife Will Take Billions in Divorce — Or Spills His Secrets!

There are those celebrities who have practically made a career out of being called a gold digger like Hugh Hefner’s ex-wife Crystal Harris. In fact, recovering from that label can be difficult unless you do something drastic — such as Amber Heard who donated all $7 million of her divorce payout from Johnny Depp to charities. It is not just women who are called gold diggers. Jessica Simpson’s husband Eric Johnson and J.Lo’s ex Casper Smart have also been slapped with the title. From Salma Hayek to Katharine McPhee, find out who has been accused of marrying for money and how or if they have tried to prove the accusations false.

More: Shocking Celebrity Age Gaps!

Love or Luxury? Check out the 10 celebrities accused of marrying for money!

As soon as Amber Heard started dating her The Rum Diary costar Johnny Depp, it was reported that Depp’s ex, Vanessa Paradis, was less than thrilled.

“Vanessa doesn’t care for Amber at all. She’s convinced that Amber’s trying to get her hooks into Johnny and his money by getting him to propose,” reports one source.

Paradis and Depp were together for 14 years before splitting in 2012, which is right around the time Depp and Heard got together. Although Depp and Paradis were never married, they did have two children together. He gave her $150 million — which was reportedly half of his net worth — when they split, says Forbes.

Depp was 52 and Heard was 30 when they married in 2015, but their marriage lasted just 18 months before they split. Things got ugly … really ugly.

She said he physically and mentally abused her. He said she was faking it.

Their divorce was finally settled with her being awarded $7 million, and she donated the entire sum to the ACLU and the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

“As described in the restraining order and divorce settlement, money played no role for me personally and never has, except to the extent that I could donate it to charity and, in doing so, hopefully help those less able to defend themselves,” she said.

“As reported in the media, the amount received in the divorce was $7 million and $7 million is being donated. This is over and above any funds that I have given away in the past and will continue to give away in the future.”

When the news broke that billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was divorcing his wife of 25 years for sexy news reporter Lauren Sanchez, the gossip mill went into overdrive.

"Lauren is very beautiful and talented, so we knew she'd go far,” a source told Sun Online. “She was very popular with rich and successful men - especially athletes. She was so good at attracting these guys we’d refer to it as ‘The Sanchez Method.’ It's no surprise that despite her marriage not working out, she's landed on top.”

Bezos and Sanchez say their relationship began only after their marriages had ended. She was married to Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell.

The couple obviously have a strong physical chemistry, and Sanchez does have her own career going (she is reportedly worth $30 million), so perhaps this is the real deal!

Kimora Lee Simmons was a 17-year-old model when she met and began dating 35-year-old Russell Simmons, who was founder of Def Jam Recordings and Phat Farm clothing. They were married in 1998 and had two children together before splitting up in 2006.

While they were married, Simmons lived very extravagantly. She slept on a $200,000 bed (purchased from Gianni Versace’s estate sale) and lived in a $23.9 million dollar home according to The Cut.

Simmons wasn’t after his money. She actually took over running his clothing company and expanded it with the Baby Phat line.

When the couple divorced, she made off well! In 2009, her ex was ordered to pay her $40,000 per month in child support payments. In addition, he had to buy her a new car — worth at least $60,000 — every three years until the kids turned 16.

She has moved on to marry banker Tim Leissner, and in 2017, it was reported they purchased a $27.5 million mansion in Beverly Hills.

It’s hard to imagine Kim Kardashian being called a gold digger as she is reportedly now worth $350 million dollars from her reality show, beauty line and endorsement deals. Her husband Kanye West, who ironically wrote the song called “Gold Digger,” spoke out at the 2015 BET Awards by saying that Kardashian has been called one in the past but defended her.

“At the barbershop ... I used to hear people always talking about, ‘Man you know when an entertainer get on, of course you know he gon' go and get a white girl and blah blah blah and a white girl gon' get a rich black dude.’ But I wanna say that my wife has dated broke black dudes. It got nothing to do with the money."

Yeezy has spoken.

Singer Katherine McPhee and record producer David Foster married in 2019, and there were immediate whispers of her being a gold digger. Fans pointed out their age gap (34 years! Foster’s daughter, Erin, is just two years older than McPhee) and the fact that he is very wealthy.

McPhee and Foster met in 2006 when he was on American Idol as a mentor. They struck up a friendship and remained close before tying the knot. Foster, who is reportedly worth $80 million, has been married five times, and this is McPhee’s second marriage.

It was Foster’s daughter, Amy, who came to McPhee’s defense telling Page Six,

“It’s sexist to drag Kat and call her a gold digger, which people are doing, and have done, because Kat has a life and she makes her own money … They genuinely love each other. It really pisses me off as a feminist when I hear people saying that she’s with my dad because she’s trying to get something.”

When Jennifer Lopez began dating backup dancer Casper Smart in 2012, there were immediate talks of his being with her for her money. He was 24, and she was 42 when they dated. She is worth around $400 million, and he was making just $250 a night dancing when they met, says RadarOnline.

In fact, at one point she was allegedly giving him an allowance of $10,000 a week!

Regardless, they were together for 5 years and obviously had fun together. Lopez is currently engaged to Alex Rodriguez, who definitely cannot be called a gold digger.

Elin Nordegren met golfer Tiger Woods when she was a nanny for another professional golfer, and they were married in 2004. The couple divorced in 2010 after his scandal, where he reportedly cheated on her with at least 120 women.

Nordegren received $110 million in the divorce settlement.

Woods’ former mistress wrote a tell-all book in which she accused Nordegren of being a gold digger.

“Obviously they didn't have such a close relationship because if I was in his house where the hell was she?” she said. “If I had my husband, I would make sure I knew who was coming to my house. At that point I started realizing it was more or less a financial reason they were married - she was in it for the money.”

After her divorce from Woods, Nordegren dated billionaire Chris Cline until 2016 when he tragically died in a helicopter accident.

She has moved on from those tragedies and is currently with former NFL player Jordan Cameron, and they recently had a baby together.

Jessica Simpson is reportedly worth around $1 billion, thanks to her booming fashion line, so when she got engaged to former NFL player Eric Johnson, there was immediately talk of his being with her for her money.

A source close to the couple insists he "is not a gold digger."

"He really loves her. He's a low key guy. He's not into the glitz and materialism of Hollywood at all."

In fact, he reportedly was on board with signing a prenuptial agreement, but the prenup agreement still would make him a rich man.

"Eric is on what you might call a vesting plan," a source reveals. "He'll get $500,000 as a wedding present. Then, on each anniversary, he'll get another $200,000. If he and Jessica make it to five years of marriage, he'll get an additional $500,000 bonus — and a $1 million bonus if they make it to 10 years."

Johnson and Simpson married in 2014 and are still going strong with three children together.

A few eyebrows were raised when gorgeous actress Salma Hayek married the billionaire François-Henri Pinault in 2006. She is a very talented actress who makes her own money, but he is reportedly worth $34.8 billion!

Hayek, who has a daughter named Valentina with Pinault, said in an interview that she told him she wasn’t marrying him for his money.

“I have a system in my life that I’ve chosen, where my expenses from before the marriage are my expenses. And he goes, ‘I know. That’s why I want to marry you.’ Maybe that’s also part of what works great in my marriage. I still have my independence. But he likes it…. And I get a lot of respect from him.”

She did admit, however, that after they got married she wanted to stop working, and it was Pinault who insisted she continued.

“I said, ‘I don’t think I want to work anymore.’ And it was François who said, ‘Oh, no, you’re going back to work.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to.’ ‘Well, you have to he said. We’re not putting up with some lazy girl in the house. That’s not who I married. I don’t want to be deprived of your work. I want to watch it, too. And the world has not seen the best of you yet. So you cannot stop until some of that is put out.'”

When 26-year-old Crystal Harris married 86-year-old Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in 2012, there was a lot of talk of her being a gold digger.

She did admit they only had sex once ... and it lasted “two seconds.”

Hefner died in 2017, and even though they had a prenup, she did inherit some of his $45 million inheritance. She reportedly received $5 million and a Hollywood Hills home, but the remainder of his money went to various charities.