7 Celebrity Marriages That Lasted Less Than a Year

The only thing hotter than an A-list celebrity on a red carpet is two of them together. Even as far back as the days of silent film power couple Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, fans have never been able to get enough of romance among Hollywood's finest. But, for every long-lasting marriage like that of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, there are even more that burn out quickly. Take Britney Spears and Jason Alexander, who were officially married for just over two days after getting hitched in Vegas, or the glamorous Zsa Zsa Gabor, who was married to actor Felipe de Alba for all of 24 hours back in the 1980s. (To be fair, that marriage failed because Gabor turned out to still be married to her last husband—she had nine total.) But these are just two examples of celebrity marriages that didn't make it to the one-year mark. Read on for seven former couples who show how "till death do us part" can quickly become "till the ink dries."

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Jennifer Lopez may have turned her relationship with Ben Affleck into a 20-year fairytale of second-chance romance, but before that, she had her share of messy relationships. From her first husband, who she had to sue to stop from publishing a tell-all, to an affair with Puff Daddy that's best remembered for dual arrests, her choices didn't always work out for the best.

But her marriage to backup dancer Cris Judd is her shortest by far (assuming she and Affleck are in this for the long haul). A few months after she left Diddy, Lopez and Judd married in September 2001 and were together for all of 218 days. What happened to break them up? While she's claimed that nothing happened between them when she was still married to Judd, Lopez met Affleck in December 2001. In fact, in 2016, before the couple got back together and finally tied the knot in 2022, the "Jenny From the Block" singer told People that she remembered thinking, "Okay, this is it," when they first clicked.

Nicolas Cage is part of Hollywood's Coppola dynasty, so perhaps it's not surprising that the actor, known for his bombastic performances on-screen, also has an unusually complicated romantic past. Once upon a time, he would have made this list for his short-lived marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, a union that lasted 107 days back in 2002. But Cage has since outdone himself, marrying makeup artist Erika Koike in a whirlwind Vegas wedding on March 25, 2019. The two were spotted together on and off for a year before the wedding, but within a week after they said their vows, it was over. Cage filed for an annulment on March 29, claiming to have been intoxicated to the point of not understanding the consequences of his actions. He also said in court documents that Koike did not disclose "the nature and extent of her relationship with another person."

Not that the experience stopped Cage from heading back to the altar—the Renfield star married fifth wife Riko Shibata in February 2021, and they welcomed their first child in 2022.

Actor Colton Haynes, who became a teen idol through roles in Teen Wolf and Arrow, revealed later that he was told at the beginning of his career to stay closeted. However, after coming out publicly in 2016, he quickly found love with florist Jeff Leatham. The two married in October 2017, with Kris Jenner officiating. Unfortunately, it didn't last, as Haynes was dealing with addiction issues brought on by the passing of his mother and the stress of being in the public eye. The two filed for divorce in May 2018; Haynes has since opened up further about his mental health issues and battle with substance use disorder.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

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The '90s were full of iconic couples, from Kurt and Courtney to Reese and Ryan. But no celebrity romance quite summed up the decade like the one between Baywatch's Carmen Electra and NBA star Dennis Rodman. He was the "bad boy" of the Chicago Bulls; she was a Playboy model and red-suited beach babe.

Like some other couples on this list, they married in Las Vegas after a night of partying. (The party went on so long, in fact, that no less than Michael Jordan himself had to come and retrieve Rodman after he didn't show up to practice.) They became husband and wife on Nov. 14, 1998, but the marriage didn't even make it to Thanksgiving. Rodman filed for an annulment on Nov. 23, claiming through his lawyer that he was "so inebriated at the nuptials that he didn't know which end was up." However, this wasn't the end of the relationship entirely. The stars continued to see each other for another year but split for good in November 1999 after a domestic dispute in a hotel led to them both being arrested.

Not every celebrity relationship plays out in the open. For example, writer and actor Lena Waithe kept her long-term relationship with Vimeo executive Alana Mayo private for a couple of years. The two got together in 2015 but only went public in 2017, a few months before getting engaged that November. Their 2019 wedding was a private affair, but keeping it secret didn't prevent the relationship from falling apart. Two months after sharing the good news, the former couple announced their separation in January 2020. The split appeared to be amicable, with the two saying they had nothing but support for each other.

Eddie Murphy is known as much for extensive relationship history as he is for his comedy and legendary movie career. He has multiple children by multiple ex-partners, including Spice Girl Melanie B and actor Tamara Hood. The Nutty Professor star also had a marriage to film producer and ex-wife of Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Tracey Edmonds that was never even 100 percent official.

The two seemed to have gotten hitched on New Year's Day 2008, but the ceremony happened in Bora Bora, and they needed one on U.S. soil to make it legal. They never went through with it, however. Two weeks later, the pair put out a statement that the ceremony merely represented a "symbolic union" and that they had decided to "forgo having a legal ceremony" in favor of remaining friends.

No list of disastrous celebrity marriages would be complete without Elizabeth Taylor—marrying eight times will do that. While her most famous marriages were to Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton, the most brief was to her first husband, Conrad Hilton Jr., known as Nicky, the eldest son and heir to the Hilton Hotels fortune. (Had he lived to meet them, he would have been Paris and Nicky Hilton's great-uncle.) The marriage took place in May 1950 and was mostly arranged and paid for by MGM for the 18-year-old star of their movie, Father of the Bride. It became a major source of gossip, and, unfortunately, so did the dissolving of it. Hilton was an alcoholic who physically abused Taylor, causing her to miscarry their child. By January 1951, she was granted a divorce.