6 Most Talked About Celebrity Cheating Scandals In the Last Decade
From Beyoncé and Jay-Z to the latest casualty of a publicly revealed cheating scandal, Jada Pinkett and Will Smith, read on how this list of celebrities dealt with the issue of infidelity in their relationships.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith
One of Hollywood’s favourite powerhouse couples, Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith shocked the world with an exclusive heart-to-heart session on the Facebook chat show, Red Table Talk to address her relationship with singer August Alsina. The actress revealed the relationship happened while the pair were separated. They decided to do the show to clear up speculation circulating in the media over an interview August gave to a radio morning show, The Breakfast Club. “We were over. From there, as time went on, I got into a different kind of entanglement with August,” Pinkett Smith said.
August said he had been in a relationship with Pinkett Smith and that Smith had given the affair his “blessing”, leading to speculation that the Hollywood power couple were in an open marriage. “The only person that can give permission in that particular circumstance is myself,” Pinkett Smith said. “I think he also wanted to make it clear that he’s also not a home-wrecker. Which he’s not.” She had not spoken to the rapper in years, she clarified.
Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson
Khloe Kardashian and basketball players just don’t seem to gel. In April 2018, photos of then-boyfriend Tristan Thompson appeared indicating his infidelity towards a nine-month pregnant Kardashian surfaced. TMZ then revealed video footage from October 2017 that showed Thompson supposedly kissing two other women at a club. Despite the cheating rumours, Thompson was with Kardashian for the birth of their child, True. The two remained a couple. But in February 2019, reports surfaced that Kardashian and Thompson had split because he had cheated on her again.
This time with a close friend of the family – Kylie Jenner’s best friend and roommate, Jordyn Woods. Needless to say, Woods and Jenner severed all ties, Kardashian and Woods got in a public spat on social media, and Woods broke her silence on Jada Pinkett-Smith’s talk show, Red Table Talk. While Kardashian and Thompson remain broken up, they regularly appear together to support their daughter.
Beyoncé & Jay-Z
When Beyoncé released Lemonade in 2016, she got everyone speculating on Jay-Z’s infidelity. The whole world wondered who “Becky with the good hair” was. The couple remained mum about the rumours until the following year when the rapper released his new album, 4:44, which was full of apologies to Beyoncé and their daughter Blue. He eventually came clean about cheating during an interview. During another tell-all interview with David Letterman, Jay-Z said he didn’t have the emotional tools required for a marriage, but therapy and Beyoncé’s support helped him work towards gaining them.
“I like to believe we’re in a better place today. I’m proud of the father and the husband that I am today. For a lot of us, especially where I grew up and men in general, we don’t have emotional cues from when we were young. Our emotional cue is ‘Be a man. Don’t cry,’ ” he said. “We did the hard work of going to therapy. We love each other, so we really put in the work for years,” he added.
Kevin Hart and Eniko Parrish
Kevin Hart’s cheating scandal was unveiled back in 2017. Reports of him cheating on Eniko Parrish while she was eight months pregnant with their first child, son Kenzo surfaced. He addressed the situation with an apology to his wife and kids for his “bad error and judgement”. The couple openly addressed overcoming the scandal in his Netflix docuseries, Don’t F**k This Up. “How I found out was a DM. I don’t know who it was,” Eniko said on the show. She revealed that she was sent an edited video of Hart and another woman. Kevin called cheating on Eniko the “lowest moment of my life”.
He also admitted that rebuilding his marriage “wasn’t a walk in the park” in an episode of The School of Greatness podcast. Kevin explained why Eniko decided to stay with him after the scandal. He said, “She came to an amazing conclusion of, ‘I like the fact that we have a family, that we have a household, and I like the fact that we now got a job to do to get better”.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver
Arnold Schwarzenegger had once confirmed that his ex-wife Maria Shriver knew about his affair “many years” before she actually confronted him. After 25 years of marriage, Shriver filed for divorce from Schwarzenegger in 2011. The news of their divorce came just two months after he admitted to having fathered a child with the couple’s long-time housekeeper, Mildred Baena. This cheating scandal was very unexpected and was the cause for one of Hollywood’s longest enduring marriages to end.
It took over a decade for Schwarzenegger to come clean about the affair, and now, he has formed a healthy relationship with his and Beana’s son Joseph, and Shriver was awarded a hefty US$250 million in the divorce settlement.
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale
One of rock ‘n’ roll’s most loved couples called it quits in 2015 after being married for 14 years. During the duration of their marriage, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale became parents to three children – Kingston James McGregor, 14, Zuma Nesta Rock, 12 and six-year-old Apollo Bowie Flynn. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Stefani said she will never forget 9 February 9, the day she learned that her husband, Rossdale, was cheating on her with the family’s nanny.
She added that she spent the next several months going through “hell” and “torture”, trying to unravel the secret that was right under her nose for quite some time. In an interview with The Guardian, Rossdale admitted he was deeply ashamed of the “gross and lopsided spectre of the crumbling of my marriage”. Since the divorce, Stefani has been involved in a happy relationship with country music star, Blake Shelton.
