10 Celebrity Careers RUINED by Spouses

Top-10-Celebrity-Careers-Ruined-by-Spouses

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at stars whose professional reputations were severely damaged by controversial or disruptive marriages and divorces.

#10: Katie Holmes

Tom Cruise
TomKat was one of the most high-profile marriages in Hollywood in the 2000s. However, the spotlight wasn’t always positive, and it tended to disregard Katie Holmes as an individual. The actress initially stepped away from working on big projects, including dropping her role in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, after having baby Suri. Tabloid fixation on her family and Tom Cruise’s controversial Scientologist faith didn’t make it any easier to secure major work. In 2012, Holmes and Cruise divorced, with many believing that the latter’s religion was a key factor. While Cruise remained as towering a movie star as ever, Holmes’s stardom was crushed under the weight of gossip. She remains a working actor, but on a smaller scale.

#9: Jon Gosselin

Kate Gosselin
Jon and Kate Gosselin were your average couple — who just happened to have twins and then sextuplets. This premise for "Jon & Kate Plus 8" made them one of the most popular families on reality TV. The production was naturally imperiled when the parents separated in 2009, until focus shifted toward Kate's perspective. Jon became the alleged bad guy in a dramatic divorce that was turned into a pop culture event in the tabloids. While his ex-wife rode "Kate Plus 8" into a viable career as a reality personality, Jon was driven back into a private life. He has hoped to rebrand himself with a music career and reportedly attempted to reconnect with his children outside of the spotlight.

#8: Kris Humphries

Kim Kardashian
NBA player Kris Humphries was already recognizable to sports fans when he met reality TV titan Kim Kardashian. However, his profile soared with their televised wedding in 2011. Everything came crashing down when the newlyweds separated after only 72 days. Humphries’s romantic airball became a huge joke in pop culture and at games. Forbes named him the NBA’s most disliked player that year. By the time the divorce was finalized in 2013, Humphries’s public image was in the basket in the worst way. It seems unfair that his reputation should suffer over his marriage simply not working out. Kardashian herself has expressed regret for putting him through such high-profile embarrassment. Still, the athlete’s career ended in 2017 with a whimper.

#7: Madonna

Guy Ritchie
Make no mistake, Madonna's music career is basically invincible. Her acting career, however, was significantly derailed during her marriage to writer-director Guy Ritchie. He had scored two acclaimed crime comedies before his and his wife's ambitious collaboration. Unfortunately, the 2002 remake of the Italian adventure romance "Swept Away" was not only a box office disaster. It was universally panned, earning Madonna two Golden Raspberry Awards. Ritchie’s reputation as one of the most influential British filmmakers in a generation suffered. But the pop icon felt she essentially had to resign from acting altogether. She has explored filmmaking since her and Ritchie's split in 2008. Still, her promising brand in front of the camera was swept away by the film’s flop.

#6: Denise Richards

Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen’s shocking antics have pulled many women into scandal, but Denise Richards may have gotten the worst of it professionally. The movie stars got married in 2002. Less than 3 years later, Richards filed for divorce while pregnant with her and Sheen’s second child. Hopes for reconciliation were effectively dashed by Richards seeking a restraining order over Sheen’s reported threats. The whole thing was a tabloid phenomenon. After a long road, the exes wound up in a good place. Richards’s on-screen brand, however, steeply declined. She allegedly admitted that her messy divorce was a major factor in this. Despite remaining a likable public figure, the actress’s reputation has fallen under a heavy domestic shadow.

#5: Robin Givens

Mike Tyson
In the 1980s, actor Robin Givens landed her big break as Darlene on the sitcom “Head of the Class.” Unfortunately, her legacy has been more tied to heavyweight boxing legend Mike Tyson. Their 1988 marriage lasted exactly one year and one week, with Givens citing spousal abuse in the divorce proceedings. Tyson admitted to being violent with her, but much of the public bought his claim that Givens exploited him and his fortune. Some of the backlash against her can be considered a classic episode of tabloid misogyny. Givens's acting career has since stayed rather low-profile, but she is a prominent activist against domestic abuse. For all of Tyson's open remorse for his past, he does not appear to have publicly apologized to Givens for what he put her through.

#4: Anna Faris

Chris Pratt
Even as a prominent comedic actor, Anna Faris claims that professional insecurities have been a burden on her relationships. That includes her glamorized marriage to Chris Pratt. Issues with self-esteem and transparency ultimately led to their amicable split in 2018. It was around that time when Pratt started enjoying movie star status, while Faris soon stepped away from the CBS sitcom “Mom” to pursue other endeavors. However, other opportunities were hard to come by. Her anxieties about public image and professional disparities in a relationship turned out to be well-founded. Faris considers her reluctant sabbatical to be a welcome break from the workload, marrying cinematographer Michael Barrett in 2021.

#3: Meg Ryan

Dennis Quaid
Throughout the nineties, Meg Ryan was practically the face of the Hollywood rom-com. That brand was effectively unraveled by a less-than-Hollywood ending to her real-life love story. She and Dennis Quaid ended ten years of a tumultuous marriage in 2001, amid rumors that Ryan had an affair with her “Proof of Life” co-star Russell Crowe. She later confirmed the romance, but revealed that Quaid had several affairs himself. The scandal upended Ryan’s career while leaving her ex-husband’s barely fazed. Certainly, a string of commercial and critical flops dealt some destructive blows to Ryan’s career. But considering what she built that career on, many believe that her bitter marriage and divorce played no small part in her reluctant rebrand.

#2: Johnny Depp & Amber Heard

Each Other
It could be the celebrity breakup of a generation. After a little over a year of marriage, Amber Heard filed for divorce and a restraining order against Johnny Depp in 2016. The proceedings were relatively quick, but Depp’s reputation was blackened by allegations of domestic abuse. His defamation suit over Heard’s scandalous op-ed piece became a heavily-publicized legal battle. The public was captivated as two Hollywood stars exchanged accounts of physical and psychological trauma. It sparked a heated debate about gender violence, while costing both parties major roles and their good names. Depp may have won the case, but he and Heard were both faced with long roads to recovery in their careers.

#1: Yoko Ono

John Lennon
Experimental artist Yoko Ono held independent esteem before she met John Lennon. However, her style wasn’t exactly suited to sudden mainstream exposure. Ono’s image was ultimately devastated by rumors that her meddling destroyed The Beatles. This cruel myth has persisted against overwhelming evidence that the revolutionary band naturally drifted apart. In actuality, Ono was Lennon’s treasured muse and partner, and they collaborated in the Plastic Ono Band. Alas, as manager of Lennon’s estate following his death, she drifted from her work before publicly retiring by 2021. With popular reappraisal, however, Ono is deserving of a legacy as an innovative artist and part of one of music’s great love stories.


What careers do you think were most affected by a celebrity relationship? Speak now in the comments or forever hold your peace.