Strange Marriages of Billionaires and Celebrities: Real-Life Fairy Tales That Money Couldn’t Save
Many people believe that having money can solve all problems in a marriage. However, this is not always true for billionaire and celebrity couples, as their marriages are often not built on love.
When Bill and Melinda Gates announced their divorce in 2021, many Americans were shocked and wondered how a powerful billionaire couple could easily end their 27-year marriage, with three children, and a shared business and philanthropic ventures.
Sharing with Insider, lawyer Marilyn Chinitz was also surprised by this decision. “It’s hard to believe that this couple chose divorce as a solution,” the lawyer added.
According to a study by the law firm Wilkinson and Finkbeiner, earning $50,000 a year can reduce the risk of divorce by 30% compared to those with annual incomes below $25,000. Couples with assets of less than $10,000 are also less likely to divorce in the first three years.
However, these numbers do not paint a complete picture of divorce rates for the 1% wealthy. For billionaires and celebrities, it seems to be a different story. Real-life romance may not always prevail, and money cannot always save the day.
Indeed, it seems that wealth and luxury cannot shield individuals from relationship breakdowns. The marriage of billionaire Jeff Bezos and his wife was once a beautiful story that the world admired. They stood by each other from the early days of Amazon’s development until reaching the pinnacle of the e-commerce industry. However, in the summer of 2019, the world’s richest man unexpectedly announced his divorce and appeared alongside a new partner.
Dubbed the “bond king,” Bill Gross is a co-founder of the investment management company PIMCO and holds assets worth $1.66 trillion, according to Forbes’ 2017 estimate. He married his second wife, Sue Gross, in 1985, and they have three children together. They lived a lavish life in Laguna Beach, California. In 2016, Sue filed for divorce from Bill due to irreconcilable differences.
n the entertainment industry, marriages of singers, actors, and models are even more fleeting. Actor Nicolas Cage filed for annulment from his wife, Erika Koike, just four days after they got married. On January 3, 2004, Britney Spears got married to her first husband, Jason Alexander, in Las Vegas. The wedding took place in a small, warm, and happy chapel. However, just 55 hours later, the “pop princess” filed for annulment.
Explaining her sudden decision, the “Baby One More Time” singer said she lacked understanding of her actions and made a hasty decision. She added that she wanted to experience what it would be like to marry a childhood friend.
Fans of Kim Kardashian may still remember her tumultuous marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries. The couple had a wedding on August 2, 2011, but only 72 days later, Kim filed for divorce.
The shortest-lived marriage was between Eddie Murphy and Tracey Edmonds, who lived together as legally married for only 14 days. They got married in 2008 but soon went their separate ways due to many differences in life.
Most recently, there was a shocking divorce case in the United States between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard – a romantic relationship once admired in Hollywood. They met on the set of “The Rum Diary” in 2009, but their relationship only became public in 2014.
The romance between Depp and Heard developed rapidly. They exchanged vows in February 2015 on an island owned by the actor in the Bahamas. However, their happiness was short-lived. The marriage between Depp and
Heard went through six weeks of trial with 24 hearings and judgments. According to CNN, during the six weeks of the trial, the jury listened to over 100 hours of testimony from witnesses of the couple.
The trial between the two famous stars attracted a record-breaking number of viewers, reaching 546 million. On TikTok, videos with the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp received nearly 10 billion views. In contrast to Depp, Amber Heard faced an unprecedented boycott campaign in her life.
After a long period of intense work with a large volume of documents and evidence, the seven members of the jury delivered the final verdict on June 1 (local time). The victory belonged to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star, who received $15 million from Heard.
However, a top entertainment expert in Hollywood told CNN that the image of Depp and Heard through the trial was negatively affected.
“Both were emotionally disturbed. Money is toxic, and greed kills everything. Neither of them won in this trial,” the expert commented.
