It’s hard to keep a romantic relationship going in Hollywood, and the same can be said for a friendship. One day, we’re watching two of our favorite celebs post happy selfies together on Instagram, and the next thing we know, they're acting like they've never met. So what happened? Sometimes, the dirt stays private, and sometimes, the feud plays out for the world to see. Honestly, it’s hard to tell which ending is worse. As much as we want friendships among our faves to last forever, that’s not always the case. People grow apart, things change, and fights happen. And for these former celebrity best friends, there’s no doubt their high-profile status made things even more complicated.
Read on to find out what happened between stars who used to be super close but aren’t friends anymore. The fallout from some of their feuds has been devastating, but at least we can look back on the good times they had. And for romantic splits that we're not over, check out 15 Celebrity Couple Breakups You're Probably Still Mourning.
1 | Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan
lev radin/Tinseltown/ShutterstockIn the early '00s, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan appeared inseparable and were often spotted out and about together. But the tide seemed to turn quickly. There’s been a lot of back and forth, but in 2018, Hilton finally revealed why they aren’t in each other’s lives anymore: It all comes down to trust.
“Back in the day we were friends. [Lindsay] is just, like, one of those people I just don’t really trust. And I only like to be around positive energy and good people—good vibes only,” Hilton said on Andy Cohen’s Radio Andy show, per Us Weekly.
Lohan clapped back in 2019, per People. When she was asked about Hilton during an interview with an Australian radio show, she responded, "Who's that?" before claiming, "I have no problems with anyone in my life."
And for more star chatter, A Restaurant Server Is Rating Celebrities Based on How Rude They Are.
2 | Rihanna and Katy Perry
DFree/ShutterstockRihanna and Katy Perry were once close… so close that Rihanna actually threw Perry a bachelorette party before she married Russell Brand. But just like that marriage, it seems that their friendship is also over. The reason behind the friend breakup remains a mystery, but when Rihanna was in charge of the guest list of the Met Gala after party in 2018, she left Perry off of it, which doesn’t mean anything good.
3 | Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna
DFree/Denis Makarenko/ShutterstockOnce upon a time Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna were BFFs… until they had a pretty big spat over the trainer they both used, Tracy Anderson. During a 2010 interview with Vogue UK, Paltrow mentioned a fight she was having with a friend, and many people speculated that it was the pop legend she was talking about.
"I'm having a situation right now with a friend where I'm feeling pretty angry. But revenge is corrosive and it doesn't make me feel good,” she said, while adding later in the interview (via Us Weekly), “Yeah, it's good that [Tracy] doesn't train Madonna any more. It was too much. She keeps people waiting—it takes up your whole day.”
For star relationships that flew under the radar, check out Celebrities You Totally Forgot Dated Each Other.
4 | Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel
Featureflash Photo Agency/s_bukley/ShutterstockPaul Simon and Art Garfunkel came to fame as a musical duo, but their partnership suffered when their friendship did. A piece their biographer Robert Hilburn wrote for the Daily Mail tracks the rivalry between the two collaborators dating back to their teen years, when they first started to perform together.
"They both envied the other’s place in the team," their manager Mort Lewis said of the period when Simon & Garfunkel were at their height—after The Graduate and its record-breaking soundtrack were released. "Paul often thought the audience saw Artie as the star because he was the featured singer, and some people probably thought Artie even wrote the songs."
They reunited a few times over the years, but it seems that old wounds could never be healed. The last straw came after their performance at the 2010 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, when Simon felt that Garfunkel hadn't been honest about issues he had been having with his voice. The tour that they had planned for after the festival had to be canceled.
“[Garfunkel] let us all down. I was tired of all the drama,” Simon said at the time. “‘I didn’t feel I could trust him any more.”
5 | Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez
Tinseltown/Featureflash Photo Agency/ShutterstockMost millennials—and anyone who raised a millennial—knows about the friendship between these former Disney Channel stars…and the way it all went down in flames. Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez’s went all the way back to their days starring on Barney & Friends as children, and they stayed pals well into their teen years as they continued acting and breaking into music.
After Gomez buddied up with Taylor Swift, though, Lovato made it clear to fans that she wasn’t happy about it, and that’s when things began to dissolve. They continued to be friends (and frenemies) on and off until Lovato officially confirmed they’re no longer close in a May 2020 interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
"When you grow up with somebody, you're always going to have love for them. But I'm not friends with her, so it felt…" Lovato said, when asked about Gomez's Grammys performance. "I will always have love for her, and I wish everybody nothing but the best."
To see what their Disney colleagues are up to, check out The Biggest Disney Channel Stars, Then and Now
6 | Dana Carvey and Mike Myers
s_bukley/ShutterstockIt’s hard to imagine the stars of Wayne’s World not being friends forever, but unfortunately, it just didn’t last for Dana Carvey and Mike Myers. As Carvey explained during a 2019 interview with Howard Stern, animosity grew between them when he felt that Myers stole his impression of Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels as the inspiration for the Austin Powers character Dr. Evil and didn’t give him any credit.
"I talked about it to the therapist," Carvey said. "There are a lot of moments in my life I wish I was more directly straightforward."
It seems that, though they're not close anymore, that at least the relationship has mellowed. As for any anger, Carvey told Stern he was “letting it go."
7 | Leah Remini and Kirstie Alley
DFree/ShutterstockScientology played a big part in the dissolution of Leah Remini and Kirstie Alley's friendship. Remini famously left the religion (and has been openly critical of it) while Alley has stayed active. Church policy dictates that parishioners have to "disconnect" from individuals who are "suppressive" about the belief system. Alley went even further, blocking the King of Queens star on Twitter and calling her a "bigot" publicly. But having been part of the religion herself, Remini told Howard Stern that she totally understood why Alley was behaving this way.
"That's, again, very understandable because that is the policy," she said at the time, adding that she wasn’t hurt. "You're supposed to disconnect from anybody who's antagonistic to what you're doing in your life."
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8 | Jennifer Aniston and Chelsea Handler
Tinseltown/DFree/ShutterstockLong before Jennifer Aniston was on Instagram, Chelsea Handler would frequently refer to her buddy, "Jen," on her own social media. But not so much anymore. So what happened? According to a report from Radar Online, Handler didn’t think Aniston’s marriage to Justin Theroux would work out, and while she was right, obviously, that’s not what the Friends actor wanted to hear.
Supposedly, they’re back on good terms now—and hopefully, forever.
9 | Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell
Featureflash Photo Agency/Kathy Hutchins/ShutterstockWhen Whoopi Goldberg and Rosie O’Donnell became co-hosts on The View in 2014, O’Donnell was excited to work with someone she looked up to so much—someone she told Andy Cohen she had known “for many, many years.” Unfortunately, though, Goldberg reportedly didn’t return the love, and things quickly got contentious on set.
“There was, like, a little brief period where she took a breath or something and I said, ‘Listen, we’ll get to that right after this Whoop, we’ll be right back’ and she was not having it,” O'Donnell told Cohen, adding, “It was really painful to me to feel how much she didn’t like me."
For Goldberg and other stars who aren't interested in tying the knot, check out 15 Celebrities Who Say They're Never Getting Married.
10 | Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag
Everett Collection/ShutterstockFans of the reality show The Hills know that Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag were super close in the beginning of the show, but it didn’t take long for drama to ruin their friendship forever. After Montag started dating Spencer Pratt, who made his distaste for Conrad more than obvious, their friendship started going downhill, and by the time Montag and Pratt were married, she and Conrad were dunzo forever. It made for great reality TV, but it was definitely heartbreaking to see the way it all went down.
11 | Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow
Kathy Hutchins/ShutterstockIt’s not just Madonna who Paltrow counts among her former friends—add Winona Ryder to the list, too. They were tight when their careers were just taking off in the ‘90s, but that all changed when things got competitive between them. Supposedly, as the Daily Mail has reported, Paltrow found a script for Shakespeare In Love in Ryder’s house and found out she was auditioning for the same role as her. That’s when she decided to cut things off. Of course, Paltrow not only got the role, but won an Oscar for it, too.
12 | Denise Richards and Heather Locklear
Kathy Hutchins/s_bukley/ShutterstockDenise Richards and Heather Locklear used to be friends, but it certainly didn’t help that Richards started dating Locklear’s ex-husband, Richie Sambora, not long after they split. But Richards told Redbook that the two women had actually cut ties long before that.
“If Heather and I had been friends at that time, I would never have crossed that line,” she said. “But we weren’t. The friendship was not salvageable, and in the beginning, Richie and I just talked as friends because we were dealing with similar situations. We never planned for anything to happen.”
13 | Jennie Garth and Tiffani Amber Thiessen
DFree/Quinn Jeffrey/ShutterstockThey were friends and costars on Beverly Hills, 90210, but Jennie Garth and Tiffani Thiessen aren't either of those things anymore. In a 2012 interview with Stern, Thiessen admitted that they were not on great terms, though she didn’t go into details about why. She did blame Garth, however.
“We had a falling out and we grew apart,” she said. “I was the one who was hurt, let’s just say that. I was the one who was hurt. It’s funny, our relationship started really rough and ended the way it started.”