Celebrity Divorces
Celebrity divorces are big business. Tabloids voraciously cover them. Fans hungrily follow them. Lawyers and business managers protectively orchestrate them. And they certainly are common. Last year alone saw the breakups of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, and Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe.
Many
Who did what to whom is far less important in a celebrity divorce than who gives what to whom. Generally, the bigger the star, the greater the payout. For the showbiz legends who landed on our list of the 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces, the spectacular settlements with their exes made
The 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces
Divorce has its price — and no celebrity, it appears, knows that better than Michael Jordan.
The basketball superstar's split December 2007 from his wife of 17 years, Juanita, is No. 1 on Forbes.com's list of "The 10 Most Expensive Celebrity Divorces."
Juanita Jordan could possibly "get more than $150 million in a settlement, making the
Neil Diamond, whose 1995 divorce from Marcia Murphey cost him an estimated $150 million, holds second place.
Steven Spielberg comes in third for paying his ex-wife
Also making the list are estimated settlements between Harrison Ford and Melissa Mathison ($85 million);
Kevin Costner and Cindy Silva ($80 million);
Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, whose divorce could cost him more than $60 million;
James Cameron and
Michael and Diandra Douglas ($45 million and two homes);
Lionel and Diane Richie ($20 million); and
Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall ($15 to $25 million).
Forbes said they researched divorces of the last 25 years in compiling the list, which was posted Thursday on its Web site.
Big Weddings, Big Divorces...
Jennifer Aniston & Brad Pitt
Television’s favorite friend wedded film’s hottest bachelor in July of 2000 on the
Tori Spelling & Charlie Shanian
The couple wed in July 2004 at the Spelling family’s 56,000-square-foot
Liza Minnelli & David Gest
The couple wed in 2002 at
Eddie Murphy & Nicole Mitchell
The comic all-star married the longtime model in 1993 at
Marc Anthony & Dayanara Torres
The couple, originally married in May of 2000, renewed their vows in 2002 at a lavish affair in
The Young
They call it the starter marriage. And in
The members of The Young Hollywood Divorcée Club have one thing in common: The bride was in her teens or--at most--early 20s at the time of the wedding. The groom, though, is almost always older, and in several cases, by more than a decade. Not surprisingly, these junior brides ended up young divorcées.
Consider 19-year-old Drew Barrymore's blink-and-you'll-miss-it marriage to Welsh bar owner Jeremy Thomas, which lasted 19 days. He was 12 years older than the future Charlie's Angels star. That failed marriage didn't stop Barrymore from racing down the aisle again in 2001 with comic Tom Green. That marriage lasted a bit longer--roughly a year.
Sopranos star Jamie-Lynn Sigler wed her agent, A.J. DiScala; he was then 32, and she was just 22. Their marriage sputtered along for two years.
The 13-year age gap between rocker Chris Robinson, 34, and his young actress wife (and daughter of Goldie Hawn) Kate Hudson, 21, managed to produce one of the longer marriages in the club: They lasted six years and have one son together, Ryder. The couple called it quits last year.
Another similarity among club members: In many cases, the marriages ended after the bride's career eclipsed that of the groom.
Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were only 23 and 24, respectively, when they tied the knot in June 1999. Still, the marriage looked solid. They had two children and publicly extolled the virtues of couples therapy. But as Reese's career skyrocketed--she won a Best Actress Oscar in 2006 and earns $15 million paychecks for her film roles--the marriage hit the skids. "The husband can start to resent feeling emasculated," says Liberman.
That may have partly contributed to the demise of Britney Spears' ill-fated union with backup dancer Kevin Federline. (She was 22 and he was 26 when they wed.) Spears tried to bolster Federline's nascent music career when she helped finance and even appeared on her husband's doomed debut album, Playing With Fire, released last year to dismal reviews. Federline became a joke in the industry. Entertainment Weekly accused Federline of "squandering" his wife's fortune. The couple famously split before the new year.
A young Angelina Jolie, primarily known as Oscar winner Jon Voight's pillow-lipped daughter, married actor Johnny Lee Miller in 1996 when she was 20 and he was 23. But her fame quickly began to outpace his when she scored an Emmy for her role in Gia.
That same scenario plagued Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, both B-listers when they wed in 2002. But when their MTV show Newlyweds became a hit, Jessica--not Nick--got the ensuing movie roles and licensing deals. Divorce followed soon after.
Macaulay Culkin was married to actress Rachel Miner from June 1998 to August 2000. Both were 17 at the time of their marriage.
Information & Photos Courtesy of http://www.forbes.com
Inspite of all the celebrated misunderstandings, what does the Bible have to say about Marriage/ Divorce?
"Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
THOUGHTS for those CONSIDERING SEPARATION/DIVORCE
Clicking this link will take you to a webpage containing different thoughts gathered from various resources on the subject of divorce that we hope you will prayerfully consider during this critical time in your life.
Links to Christian sites with helpful information on Marriage/ Divorce issues:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary
http://marriagemissions.com/index.php
