Whether it be Nicole and Keith, Brad and Angelina, or Hugh and Deborra-lee, there’s no split like a celebrity split.
There’s just something about being invested in seemingly perfect celebrity lives and seeing their demise that instills panic in the public.
“Often people see them as embodying a sort of perfect romance, they’re the perfect couple … the epitome of love and glamour and success,” Australian Psychological Society President Dr Catriona Davis-McCabe told 9honey.
”When something that seems so perfect falls apart, it just shatters people’s idealised image, I suppose, and it makes that breakup just even more shocking.”
No matter how many times we experience it, it seems just as fresh every time.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and recall a few of the most shocking celebrity splits in recent memory.
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher seemed to be a match made in heaven – at least, he thought so.
They first met at a “pretentious” Sydney party in 2002, with the Borat star later telling the New York Times he knew immediately that he’d met his match in the Home & Away alum.
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“We were at a very pretentious party, and me and her bonded over taking the mick out of the other people in the party,” he said.
“I knew instantly. I don’t know if she did. It’s taken her about 20 years to know.”
Baron Cohen, now 53, and Fisher, now 49, dated for two years before getting engaged in 2004. The Confessions of a Shopaholic star converted to Judaism before their 2010 wedding in Paris.
Since then, they welcomed three kids together – daughters Olive, 18, and Elula 15, as well as son Montgomery, 10.
All seemed well until an image of the two of them, both dressed in tennis whites, popped up on their Instagram Stories simultaneously in 2024.
The statement they shared began with the couple’s signature humour.
”After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down,” they wrote.
The couple explained they had “jointly filed to end our marriage” in 2023 but have kept the news quiet until now.
“We have always prioritised our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change,” they added on a more serious note.
“We forever share in our devotion and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”
It was a year before Fisher commented on the split, with the divorce being finalised in June 2025.
She told the Sunday Times that the divorce was “the most difficult thing that I’ve ever been through”, adding that she’s “learnt so much about myself in the process.
“I never imagined my family being separated but we are committed and loving parents,” the Australian actress elaborated.
She described their current arrangement at “very harmonious” saying she doesn’t “ever remember them fighting about anything” as they are “very inclusive of each other”.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were a ’90s power couple – but their love wasn’t meant to be.
The pair were first introduced by their managers in 1994, but secretly began dating in 1998.
They made their red-carpet debut in September 1999 at the Emmy Awards, and just two months later the couple got pulled onto the stage at a Sting concert, with Aniston showing off her engagement ring, announcing their intent to wed in style.
After less than two years of dating, the couple married in a lavish ceremony in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean in 2000. They exchanged vows in front of 200 guests, a gospel choir and a Greek bouzouki band – and the night was capped off with a stunning firework display.
The wedding cost a reported $US1 million (approx. $1.3 million), with the day immortalised on the cover of People magazine.
The sitcom star and Hollywood leading man even filmed their respective projects in the same studio lot, but this was also the place their marriage would see its undoing.
In 2004, Aniston was filming the last season of Friends, ready to take a break and focus on starting a family. Meanwhile, Pitt was nearby sparking a romance with his Mr and Mrs Smith co-star, Angelina Jolie.
Though both of them denied anything happening at the time, Jolie later admitted she fell in love on set.
“Because of the film we ended up being brought together to do all these crazy things, and I think we found this strange friendship and partnership that kind of just suddenly happened,” she told Vogue.
“I think a few months in I realised, ‘God, I can’t wait to get to work’ … anything we had to do with each other, we just found a lot of joy in it together and a lot of real teamwork.
“We just became kind of a pair. And it took until, really, the end of the shoot for us, I think, to realise that it might mean something more than we’d earlier allowed ourselves to believe.”
In January 2005, Aniston and Pitt were spotted embracing on holiday in Mexico, trying to bring a spark to the last embers of their marriage.
They were unsuccessful, days later announcing their split after five years of marriage and seven years together. In a joint statement, they stressed that a third party had nothing to do with their breakup.
“We would like to announce that after seven years together we have decided to formally separate,” read the statement.
“For those who follow these sorts of things, we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media.
“This decision is the result of much thoughtful consideration. We happily remain committed and caring friends with great love and admiration for one another.”
Eight months later, Aniston addressed the breakdown of her marriage in an interview with Vanity Fair.
“Am I lonely? Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Am I confused? Yes. Do I have my days when I’ve thrown a little pity party for myself? Absolutely. But I’m also doing really well,” she said.
“Relationships are two people; everyone is accountable. A lot goes into a relationship coming together, and a lot goes into a relationship falling apart.
“She’d say, ‘Even if it’s 98 per cent the other person’s fault, it’s two per cent yours, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.’ You can only clean up your side of the street.”
Brangelina
The end of Brad and Jen brought about the beginning of what we know as Brangelina. Their relationship began with controversy, which never let up throughout its entire course.
Months after Pitt’s divorce from Aniston, he and Jolie holidayed in Kenya along with her son, Maddox. Soon after that, she adopted daughter Zahara, with Pitt accompanying her on the trip.
Eyebrows were raised when, fresh from Pitt’s divorce from Aniston, he and Jolie decided to play house in a 60-page photospread for W Magazine titled ‘Domestic Bliss’, featuring the blooming and breakdown of a marriage.
Perhaps due to peering eyes, the pair were pretty low-key over the course of their relationship.
In January 2006, the couple shared that they were pregnant with their first biological child together.
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In May, they welcomed Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, with a bidding war ensuing among magazines to get the first picture of her. People ultimately won, with the couple donating the $US4.1 million (approx. $6.2 million) they got from the pictures to charities supporting children in Africa.
They also soon changed the surnames of Jolie’s adopted children to Jolie-Pitt, as Pitt legally adopted them too.
Over the years they adopted son Pax in 2007, and welcomed twins Knox Leon and Vivian Marcheline in 2008.
As the family of six settled down, Jolie was spotted with an engagement ring on her finger in April 2012, with the pair officially tying the knot in a ceremony in 2014, attended only by their six children.
Pitt supported Jolie through her preventative double mastectomy in 2013 and the removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes in 2015 to prevent cancer developing in them.
During her first procedure, she wrote, “I am fortunate to have a partner, Brad Pitt, who is so loving and supportive…Brad was at the Pink Lotus Breast Center, where I was treated, for every minute of the surgeries.
“We managed to find moments to laugh together. We knew this was the right thing to do for our family and that it would bring us closer. And it has.”
But in August 2016, Jolie filed for divorce, shocking the world. She requested primary custody of their six children, with their lawyer sharing, “This decision was made for the health of the family. She will not be commenting, and asks that the family be given its privacy at this time.”
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Thus began bitter divorce proceedings that lasted almost a decade, which included a fight over their Chateau Miraval winery and estate and even abuse allegations against Pitt regarding an incident on a flight in 2016.
One by one, all three of their daughters dropped “Pitt” from their surnames.
The divorce was finalised in December 2024. Jolie’s lawyer James Simon told People at the time, “More than eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt. She and the children left all of the properties they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and since that time she has focused on finding peace and healing for their family.
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“This is just one part of a long ongoing process that started eight years ago. Frankly, Angelina is exhausted, but she is relieved this one part is over.”
Pitt has since been in a relationship with Ines De Ramon, a jewellery designer, the pair dating privately since 2022. Jolie has recently made a return to the film industry.
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness
One of Australia’s golden couples shocked the world when they announced their split after 27 years together.
Not only had they faced all the odds in the early days of their relationship, they stood by each other throughout Hollywood fame.
The pair met on the set of Corelli, in which Jackman played a prisoner marked by trauma and Furness played a prison psychologist trying to help recover his true memory.
Sparks flew between them, despite Furness being a huge star while Jackman was fresh on the scene.
The actress, then 40, had vowed not to date any actors that year, and certainly not any under 30. Meanwhile Jackman, then 27, was finding it hard to hide his massive crush on his first-ever leading lady.
It all came to a point when Jackman threw a dinner party at his house, inviting his co-star.
“[Deborra] came over and I said, ‘Deb, give me a hand with the dessert,'” he recalled in a People TV interview.
As soon as they were alone in the kitchen, Furness wanted to know what was up.
“I said, ‘I’ve got a crush on you. I’ll get over it, I’m sorry,'” Jackman admitted.
“She goes, ‘Oh? Because I’ve got a crush on you too.’ I never in a million years thought she reciprocated.”
Eleven months later, they were married on April 11, 1996.
During the course of their 27 years together, they adopted children Oscar, now 24, and Ava, 20. They also experienced Hollywood fame, with Jackman’s breakout role as Wolverine propelling him to A-lister status.
Jackman would often share loving tributes to his wife, even waxing lyrical on their 26th wedding anniversary in 2023.
“Today I celebrate 26 years of marriage to my extraordinary wife,” he wrote, sharing a sweet photo of the pair of them, loved up on a beach stroll.
“Every single day is filled with so much laughter, joy and backgammon!!!! Deb you light up my life. I love you with all my heart!”
Five months later, the couple announced their split in a statement to People.
“We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,” they said.
“Our journey now is shifting and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.”
The Australian powerhouses maintained that their family will remain their “highest priority”.
“We undertake this next chapter with gratitude, love, and kindness,” the statement continued.
They remained separated for two years until Furness filed for divorce in May 2025, with it being granted one month later in June.
Upon the decision being finalised, the actress told Nine in a statement, “My heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal.
“It’s a profound wound that cuts deep, however I believe in a higher power and that God/the universe, whatever you relate to as your guidance, is always working FOR us.
“This belief has helped me navigate the breakdown of an almost three-decade marriage.
“I have gained much knowledge and wisdom through this experience. Even when we are presented with apparent adversity, it is leading us to our greatest good, our true purpose.”
Since his split from his wife, Jackman has been rumoured to be dating his The Music Man co-star Sutton Foster.
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