12 long-term celebrity couples whose relationships started with scandals

TJ Holmes and Amy Robach

Newly engaged couple Amy Robach and TJ Holmes are gearing up to become co-anchors for life.

The two, who worked together on the anchor desk of “GMA3: What You Need to Know,” began dating privately, but in November 2022, photos surfaced of them holding hands in a car and relaxing at a bar during a vacation in upstate New York.

The news was scandalous because both were married at the time (although they later said they were waiting to break up with their spouses before dating). The two “quit” their jobs at ABC News and moved in together.

On October 14, they announced their engagement on an episode of the Amy & TJ Podcast.

“We’re sharing with you that we’re engaged, and we’ve only been engaged for about a month,” Robach told listeners.

Holmes added: “We wanted to let you guys know before everyone else. I think we probably learned that lesson in our relationship in the past.”

Kelsey Grammer and Kate Walsh

Kelsey Grammer and Kate Walsh have been married for 14 years, but the beginning was a little rocky.

They first met in 2009, when she met him for coffee a few days later while she was working as a flight attendant on a flight to London. However, Grammer was still married to his wife of 13 years, Camille.

“He was married and I’m not proud of the way we started. I’m sorry. There are a lot of emotions,” Walsh said in a sit-down interview with Oprah in 2012. “But you know, I fell in love. I don’t know how to express it, I don’t know how to put it into words.”

Camille filed for divorce in 2010 and married Walsh in February 2011. The two have three children together, with another on the way. Grammer has four older children from a previous relationship.

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian fell in love while working on Northern Lights in 2008. Although he initially denied rumors of an affair, he was married to Brandi Glanville and she was married to Dean Sheremet — and they eventually moved on as a couple after their respective divorces in 2009.

“I did the most selfish thing I could do, which was to hurt another person,” Rhimes told PEOPLE. “I take responsibility for everything I did. I’m sorry that people were hurt, but I don’t regret the outcome.”

The two became engaged in 2010 and married on April 22, 2011. Although she doesn’t have any children yet, Cibrian has two children with her ex-husband.

angelina jolie and brad pitt

Brad Pitt was already in a highly publicized marriage to Jennifer Aniston, so when rumors surfaced in 2003 that he and fellow A-list actress Angelina Jolie had struck up a romance on the set of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, what followed was nothing short of a circus.

However, the two survived the media frenzy. Pitt separated from Aniston in 2005 and was together with Jolie for about nine years, raising six children before marrying in 2014.

Two years later, Jolie filed for divorce from the Troy actor, and the pair embarked on a contentious eight-year legal battle. The divorce was finalized in December 2024.

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott

During season 2 of her reality show “True Tori.” Tori Spelling admitted that she slept with Dean McDermott the first night they met while working on the 2005 Lifetime movie Mind Over Murder.

At the time, both actors were married: McDermott and Mary Jo Eustace, Spelling and Charlie Shanian. By May of the following year, they officially divorced their spouses, married privately in Fiji, and began an eventful 17-year journey.

The couple had five children together (McDermott is also the father of son Jack, whom he welcomed with Eustace) before Spelling filed for divorce in 2024.

elizabeth taylor and eddie fisher

Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher weaved a very complicated web in their affair. Taylor had just lost her third husband, Mike Todd, in a plane crash in 1958, and sought solace from Eddie Fisher, a friend of her late husband’s.

The two had an affair, which resulted in Fisher’s divorce from Debbie Reynolds, who was also Taylor’s best friend. Fisher and Taylor married in 1959, just hours after Fisher’s divorce was finalized.

The two were married for five years, and then, while still married to Sybil Williams, the actress began another affair with Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton. They end up getting married – twice! — before going their separate ways in 1976.

marilyn monroe and arthur miller

Arthur Miller and his second wife Marilyn Monroe first met in the early 1950s. By 1955, the two had entered into a full-fledged affair, as he married Mary Slattery and she married baseball player Joe DiMaggio.

After their respective divorces, the couple married in a four-minute civil ceremony in New York on June 29, 1956, according to the BBC. The marriage was turbulent, and the pair divorced in 1961 after five years together.

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart met on the set of To Have and To Have Not in 1944. Not only was Bogart 45 and Bacall 19 when their chemistry began to raise eyebrows, but the actor was married to Mayo Meto when the affair began.

The incident ultimately led to the dissolution of Bogart’s marriage, and he and Bacall were married on May 21, 1945, 11 days after their divorce. The couple lived together until his death 12 years later.

king charles and queen camilla

Although Charles and Camilla first met, they both married other people, leading to one of the most scandalous affairs of the 90s.

Charles famously married Princess Diana in a lavish ceremony in 1981, but Camilla married Andrew Parker Bowles eight years earlier. Their affair began before Prince Charles married Princess Diana in 1981, and began in earnest again in 1986, eventually leading to their divorce.

Prince Charles and Camilla married on April 9, 2005 and have been together ever since.

Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas

After sparks flew on the set of 1995’s Too Much, Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas tried to take out their feelings for each other, but to no avail. She married Don Johnson and he married Ana Reza.

But still, they fell in love with each other.

“It was very fast, very obsessive. But at the same time, it was a tie at the time,” Banderas told ABC News.

“We tried as hard as we could to be respectful. We just thought this might be one of those crazy moments you experience when you shoot a movie because we ended up playing as a couple together. So let’s just go home.”

By 1996, the two had separated from their spouses, and a month after their divorce, they married in a quiet ceremony in London. The two were married for 18 years until Griffith filed for divorce in 2014.

paul newman and joanne woodward

One of Hollywood’s most revered couples, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married for an astonishing 50 years, until their death in 2008.

However, the long-running union did not get off to a smooth start. The two first met in 1953, but their romance didn’t blossom until they co-starred in The Long, Hot Summer in 1958. Newman divorced his wife Jackie Witte, with whom he had three children, and married Woodward in 1958.

Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash

Another popular Hollywood couple, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, first met in 1956 when they were both married to other people. Johnny married Vivian Liberto and June married Rip Nicks.

Suspecting the two were having an affair, Liberto filed for divorce in 1966. The two married in 1968 and remained together until her death in May 2003, with Liberto passing away four months later.