12 celebrity marriages that lasted less than a year — and what went wrong

Some say love is a river. Sometimes, though, it’s more like a puddle.

Fame doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to lasting marriages, so much so that when a celebrity couple is married for more than a decade, it feels like a true anomaly (and is all the more painful when one of those marriages ends). But there are some famous pairings that defy the already low expectations the public has for celebrity marriages. From Britney Spears and Jason Alexander’s infamous 55 hours of marital bliss, to Nicolas Cage and Erika Koike calling it quits after only four days, it’s just another reason to believe that love can’t be real in show business.

Keep reading as Entertainment Weekly‘s looks back on 12 celebrity marriages that ended before they reached their first anniversary — and what the stars themselves said led to their dissolution.

01 of 12

Renée Zellweger and Kenny Chesney

Bridget Jones’ Diary star Renée Zellweger was married to country singer Kenny Chesney for only four months when the couple decided to call it quits. When Zellweger cited “fraud” as the reason for seeking an annulment, tabloids began to speculate. Because of this, Zellweger released a statement insisting that she “would personally be very grateful for your support in refraining from drawing derogatory, hurtful, sensationalized or untrue conclusions and greatly appreciate your understanding that we hope to experience this transition as privately as possible.”

Two years later, Chesney spoke to Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, where he clarified what the word “fraud” meant on their separation documents. “The only fraud that was committed was me thinking that I knew what it was like… that I really understood what it was like to be married, and I really didn’t,” Chesney explained Cooper. “We thought the least harmful [stated reason] was fraud because it [is] kind of broad… doesn’t specify. And boy… we were wrong.”

The filing fueled rumors that Chesney was gay, which he unequivocally denied. “It’s not true. Period. Maybe I should have come out and said no, I’m not [gay], but I didn’t want to draw any more attention to it,” he said. “I didn’t have to prove to anybody that I wasn’t [gay].”

02 of 12

Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock

In July 2006, Pamela Anderson and “Bawitdaba” singer Kid Rock were married… then, four months later, in November, they filed for divorce. What went wrong? “Getting married is a ball,” Rock told Blender (via PEOPLE) the same month, adding, “Getting married is the most fun you can have in life. Being married sucks.”

Kid Rock later alleged in an interview with Rolling Stone that Anderson had lied to him about having a miscarriage. When the publication asked Anderson for a response, she simply said, “I hope his album does well. I hope he’s happy in life. We were married for four months. If he has nothing nice to say about me, then please tell him to stop talking about me.”

03 of 12

Mario Lopez and Ali Landry

After only two weeks of marriage in 2004, Access Hollywood and Extra host Mario Lopez and wife Ali Landry went their separate ways, with sources close to the couple claiming that Landry had discovered Lopez was cheating.

Nearly seven years after the couple annulled their marriage, Lopez publicly admitted that infidelity had indeed contributed to their falling-out. Lopez had “messed around” with another woman during his bachelor party, while he’d been “bouncing around” Mexico with his cousins. “I had no business of being in that position,” he said on The Howard Stern Show.

“It was spring break…. everybody was hanging out. That was a situation where I was not mature and man enough,” he continued.

04 of 12

Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush

One Tree Hill costars Chad Michael Murray and Sophia Bush got together while starring on the hit CW show and married during its second season. However, things fizzled out after only five months of marriage, and the couple separated. Bush later filed for an annulment, citing “fraud,” though her request was denied and their divorce was finalized in December 2006. The two have rarely spoken about their marriage and split since.

However, Murray briefly looked back on their whirlwind romance in 2024, describing himself as young and unsure of what he was doing at the time. “I was a baby. I didn’t know up, down, left, right,” he told The Cut. “You move out there and you go, ‘Well, what am I supposed to do now? Get married? That’s exciting!'”

05 of 12

Drew Barrymore and Jeremy Thomas

After dating for just six weeks, 19-year-old Drew Barrymore married 31-year-old Jeremy Thomas in 1994. They split a mere 19 days later and the divorce was finalized in 1995. The same year their divorce was made official, Barrymore giddily referred to her ex-husband as “the devil” in an interview with Rolling Stone.

In 2024, Barrymore reflected on her three divorces during an episode of her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, and the shame she used to feel about them. “I had so much shame around divorce and, for some reason, something happened, and I said, ‘I’m no longer willing to feel this way.’ And it just lifted from me,” she explained.

“And when you’re truly in a situation that isn’t functioning the way that, optimally, it hopes and wishes to be, we accept that, and we improve our quality of life by moving forward. Divorce now, to me, I don’t have shame around it. I’m like totally liberated,” she continued.

06 of 12

Britney Spears and Jason Alexander

In 2004, Britney Spears infamously married her childhood friend Jason Alexander on a whim, only to have the marriage annulled a little over two days later. According to court papers, Spears “lacked the understanding of her actions.” However, Alexander claimed to Inside Edition that both of them were sober when they were wed.

Spears came home to Kentwood, La., for Christmas Eve and invited Alexander to Las Vegas. After partying for several days around New Year’s, “we were just chilling in the room, about 3:30, and we had so much fun, just looking out at the city and the lights, and we were, ‘We’re in Las Vegas, let’s do something. Let’s go get married,'” Alexander recalled.

The morning after the deed was done, however, Alexander said they both began to realize they’d made a mistake. “We shouldn’t have went about it the way we had.”

07 of 12

Nicolas Cage and Erika Koike

The Longlegs star had already been married three times by the time he said “I do” to his girlfriend of nearly one year, Erika Koike, in 2019, but that didn’t make Nicolas Cage any less upset when he filed for an annulment only four days later. (In 2021, Cage married Riko Shibata, his fifth wife).

“There was a recent breakup,” Cage said in an August 2019 interview with The New York Times Magazine. “I don’t really want to talk about it. I was pretty upset about that and the way things happened.”

Koike and Cage were married in Las Vegas in March 2019, and Cage filed for an annulment only four days later. In court documents obtained by The Blast (via PEOPLE), Cage claimed that they were both intoxicated when they eloped and that he “lacked understanding of his actions in marrying [Koike] to the extent that he was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.”

08 of 12

Shannen Doherty and Ashley Hamilton

The late 90210 star married fellow actor Ashley Hamilton in 1993 after only a few weeks of dating. Their troubled marriage, including Hamilton’s struggles with addiction at the time, later contributed to problems Doherty was having at work and, ultimately, her departure from the hit show.

In a 2024 episode of Doherty’s Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty podcast, the actress discussed her time with the Beethoven’s 2nd actor and his “all-consuming” drug problem. “Towards my last season, I was in a really horrible marriage, and there were things that were transpiring in that marriage that made it really hard for me to consistently be on time for work,” Doherty explained to her former 90210 costar Jason Priestley.

“I didn’t even want to leave the house because I was scared that [Hamilton] would go and get drugs,” she said, adding that it was “the most bizarre” experience.

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When Doherty died from breast cancer later that same year, Hamilton paid tribute to his ex-wife. “We were kids when we married in her backyard on a whim in 1993 – Shannen was at the height of her career, and I was at the height of my addiction. She was a pillar of strength to me during my darkest times,” he told ET.

09 of 12

Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman

Carmen Electra married NBA star and actor Dennis Rodman in Vegas in 1998, and only nine days later, Rodman requested an annulment. They briefly got back together before ending the relationship months later under “amicable circumstances.”

The Baywatch actress opened up on the Legally Goff podcast in May 2026 about what exactly went wrong with Rodman. “It was just too hard to continue to keep up with him and his friends,” she explained. “It was constant drinking.” She added that Rodman is “so loving, and then he’s wild, and he’s drinking.”

Although Electra was only 26 at the time, the lifestyle was too much for her. “Looking at myself in the mirror, I was at home, and I didn’t recognize myself,” she said of the final days of her marriage. “I had bags under my eyes. My face was puffy. I’m in my 20s! I thought, ‘It’s got to stop. It has to stop.'”

10 of 12

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries

Though Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from NBA star Kris Humphries after only 72 days of marriage, the divorce was not finalized until more than a year later. Kardashian cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the separation. The two had been dating for less than a year before they married.

“I hope everyone understands this was not an easy decision,” Kardashian said in a statement to E!. “I had hoped this marriage was forever, but sometimes things don’t work out as planned. We remain friends and wish each other the best.”

Later, Kim admitted during the 2021 Keeping Up with the Kardashians reunion that she had cold feet at the wedding. She didn’t want to bail, however, what with it being televised. “I thought, ‘OK, we’re filming this for a TV show. If I leave, I’m going to be known as the runaway bride forever and it’s gonna be a huge joke, and I think I just have cold feet.'”

She continued, “We get to Italy for our honeymoon, and I was like, ‘F–, I think I made the wrong decision.'” After returning to New York, she realized she was “miserable.”

11 of 12

Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus

After breaking up and getting back together, Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus finally seemed to be in it for the long haul by getting married in 2018. But before the one-year mark, Hemsworth filed for divorce.

“Hi all Just a quick note to say that Miley and I have recently separated and I wish her nothing but health and happiness going forward,” Hemsworth posted on Instagram at the time. “This is a private matter and I have not made, nor will I be making, any comments to any journalists or media outlets. Any reported quotes attributed to me are false. Peace and Love.”

While appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2020, Cyrus opened up about the conclusion of a relationship that had spanned a decade. “What really sucked about it wasn’t the fact that me and someone that I loved realized that we don’t love each other the way that we used to anymore,” she explained.

12 of 12

Elisabeth Moss and Fred Armisen

Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss and SNL alum Fred Armisen split for good following eight months of marriage, with Moss citing “irreconcilable differences” in her divorce papers. After the divorce was finalized in 2011, Moss had some choice words to say about her ex.

“One of the greatest things I heard someone say about him is, ‘He’s so great at doing impersonations. But the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person.’ To me, that sums it up,” the actress told Page Six (via PEOPLE).

In 2014, Moss had more to say about her brief marriage to the Portlandia actor. “Looking back, I feel like I was really young, and at the time I didn’t think that I was that young,” Moss told New York Magazine. “It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible. At the same time, it turned out for the best.”

Even Armisen has admitted his shortcomings as a partner. “I think I was a terrible husband. I think I’m a terrible boyfriend,” he told Howard Stern in January 2013, adding, “I feel bad for everyone I’ve gone out with.”

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