The days of intrigue are replaced by oversharing, PDA-packed snaps, and, in some cases, even post-coital selfies. In many ways, this openness has helped fans feel closer to their favorite celebs. But in some instances, the oversharing gets so extreme that the public has to practically beg the Insta snap-happy stars to just ... stop. Please?
When it comes to actor couples, there's a particular sort of messiness involved. To begin with, acting often attracts larger-than-life individuals, so pairing two actors together gives a double whammy of disarray, not to mention a clash of egos. It's perhaps for this reason that many stars opt to date folks outside of their profession. But for those who do date other actors, it's often a recipe for disaster. For every wholesome couple who have been hopelessly devoted to each for decades, there are the ones who have faced endless cheating scandals, public screaming matches, and the spilling of deets. If being a hot mess is lit, then these folks are on fire. Can you handle the heat? These are the hottest-mess actor couples ever.
Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde's worrisome fling
The "Don't Worry Darling" drama will no doubt go down in pop culture history as the mess to end all mess. Production for Olivia Wilde's sophomore directorial offering began in 2020. It initially starred the controversial Shia LaBeouf, who was soon replaced by Harry Styles in September. The "Watermelon Sugar" singer's casting appeared to coincide with Wilde's split from her partner of almost a decade, Jason Sudeikis. By January, Wilde and Styles were dating, making this timeline appear rather iffy. "Everyone saw it coming. During breaks, he hasn't been able to stay away and visited her trailer," a source told People. The Harry stans did not want their beloved One-Directioner-turned-actor dating Wilde, resulting in her receiving a barrage of hate online.
The real drama began when Wilde was served with custody papers from Sudeikis when she was promoting her flick at CinemaCon. "We have never in the history of the convention had an incident where a delegate has approached the stage who was not authorized to be there," said CinemaCon, per Deadline.
Matters were further complicated by an alleged feud between Florence Pugh and Wilde. The director's fury was rumored to have been prompted by Styles having previously kissed his leading lady off-screen, per The Sun. Wilde told Variety that the feud rumors were pure fabrication. But, the damage was seemingly done and Wilde and Styles ended their romance in November 2022. Truly, this was one Wilde ride!
TomKat was a hot mess from the start
Almost twenty years later and we are still pondering the all-important question: Why did Tom Cruise jump up and down on Oprah's couch? Back in 2005, Cruise appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to promote his new film "War of the Worlds," but the interview quickly turned into a debacle that would be forever etched into the legend of memedom. The audience was whipped up into a Beatlemania-esque frenzy as a grinning Cruise waltzed on stage. Later, he inexplicably began jumping on Winfrey's furniture to profess his love for girlfriend Katie Holmes.
But Cruise and Katie's relationship was anything but a fairytale. A Vanity Fair profile revealed that her father, Martin Holmes, didn't want his daughter to marry Cruise and allegedly concocted a plan to have her labeled a suppressive person by the Church of Scientology. But by this point, Holmes was already pregnant with the couple's daughter, Suri, and the wedding went ahead. Scientology whistle-blower Leah Remini alleged that Cruise forbade his bride from nursing their baby on the big day, instead leaving Suri to cry on the floor, per Daily News. There were also rumors that Cruise was keeping his wife hidden from the public.
In 2012, the "Top Gun" star was said to be blindsided when Katie filed for divorce. She was apparently well prepared. Her father, a divorce lawyer, was alleged to have negotiated a strategic prenuptial agreement for her. Three years later, the exes were rumored to no longer speak to each other.
We learned about Kristen and Dax against our will
Pretty much from the outset of their relationship, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have proven themselves the reigning champs of oversharing. For instance, when Bell gave birth to the couple's first child, Shepard tweeted (via Today), "Lincoln Bell Shepard is here. She has mom's beauty and dad's obsession with breasts. Hooray!"
Nothing is sacred with these two. We even learned (against our will) that the couple schedules sex sessions. "You're like, 'I know you're tired, but it's been two weeks, so we really got to get to it,'" Bell told Self in 2021. Then came the infamous moment when they decided to disclose that they rarely bathe their children. "I wait for the stink. That tells you when they need to bathe," Bell half-jokingly told "Daily Blast LIVE." Meanwhile, Shepard also admitted that he doesn't necessarily bathe until he gets really smelly. Ick.
Appearing on her husband's "Armchair Expert" podcast in 2022, Bell confessed that the couple's two children, then aged 7 and 8, still sometimes sleep in the same bedroom as them — but only on the floor. "A few nights ago I began to smell a really raunchy smell. And I'm like, 'Who's farting?'" she recalled. It turned out that Shepard and the kids were all releasing gas. She also told Today that she lies to her children about when their birthdays are, something that she perhaps picked up from the Homer Simpson school of parenting.
Steve Coogan was one of Courtney Love's greatest shames
Though principally known as a musician, Courtney Love has won acclaim for acting in several high-profile films, including "The People vs. Larry Flynt" and "Man On the Moon." A headstrong and outspoken rock icon, Love seems quite the unlikely match for Steve Coogan, the man who gave us the cult comedy character Alan Partridge. Yet, the pair dated in 2005, to the surprise of absolutely everyone.
At the time, the News of the World (via The Guardian) claimed that Love was pregnant with Coogan's child following a two-week fling. She was apparently embarrassed by her rendezvous with the TV funnyman, which coincided with her decision to seek help for substance misuse. "What does it make me look like that I have slept with Alan Partridge?" the tabloid quoted her as telling a friend. "Given the A-grade stars I've dated it's embarrassing. I mean ... Alan Partridge!" These pregnancy rumors turned out to be untrue.
By Love's own admission, the fleeting romance was nothing short of a hot mess — and far from romantic. "All it was, was a couple of shags at the Sunset Marquis and I did not know he was Alan Partridge," she told Love Magazine (via Evening Standard) in 2013. Charming. In a since-deleted Instagram post, she later branded the affair one of the greatest shames of her life, along with taking crack. Such sentiments couldn't have delighted Coogan. In the words of his comic alter ego, "That's saaaad!"
Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards' disastrous marriage
Charlie Sheen's love life has unfortunately been nothing short of disastrous. From allegedly shooting his ex to his various domestic violence arrests and being accused of exposing partners to HIV, Sheen clearly has a long checkered history with women. So, his marriage to Denise Richards was, admittedly, never going to be smooth sailing. When the Bond girl wed the Hollywood bad boy in 2002, it appeared as though Sheen had finally settled down, and he commemorated the occasion by tattooing his new bride's name on his wrist. But the honeymoon period would soon be over.
While pregnant with the couple's second child in 2006, Richards filed for divorce. In court documents obtained by TMZ, she accused Sheen of domestic violence and alleged that she caught him watching pornography starring what appeared to be minors. Sheen denied the claims, arguing that his wife was instigating a smear campaign against him.
A decade later, the bad blood continued between the exes. In 2015, Sheen went on a bizarre Twitter rant (via Us Magazine) against Richards on Father's Day in which he attacked her parenting skills and unleashed a slew of obscure slurs against her. During an appearance on the "Divorced Not Dead" podcast, Richards opened up about the pair's toxic marriage. "The behind-the-scenes stuff was way worse than what was out there," she conceded. Later, she added, "It was really bad ... I said to myself, 'Would I want my daughters to be married to this man?'"