Nerds Do It Better

Anyone who’s been through a break-up or a divorce knows that things can get ugly fast. It takes a lot of hard work to stay friends after a separation or even just to be civil to one another during unavoidable encounters. For celebrities, though, everything seems to be blown up on a bigger scale, and ugly break-ups are no exception. From surprise break-ups on national TV to cheating lovers, these are the top 10 ugly, and sometimes hilarious, celebrity break-ups of all time.

1. Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin: Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin had been married for seven years and had a five year-old daughter, Ireland, when Basinger filed for divorce in 2001. Since then, the pair has been in the spotlight for starting rumors about each other, name-calling, and of course putting Ireland in the middle of the fight. In 2006, Baldwin called Basinger’s lawyer a "300-pound homunculus whose face looks like a cross between a bulldog and a clenched fist." A year later, the media pounced on Baldwin again for a violent phone message he left with daughter Ireland, calling her a "thoughtless little pig."
2. Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards: Three years after actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards were married, Richards filed for divorce. Richards was then pregnant with the couple’s second child, Lola, and a few months after she was born, the two tried to give the marriage another try by going to counseling. Sheen and Richards did end up getting divorced in November 2006, but they are still entangled in a bitter custody battle that includes a restraining order against Sheen because of prostitute and pornography habits. Though Sheen was granted partial custody of his daughters, the war waged on, as Sheen called Richards "a sad, jobless pig," "evil," and "a bad mom." He even e-mailed her, saying that she should "go cry to your bald mom, you loser," making a reference to Richards’ mother who has cancer.
3. Halle Berry and David Justice: Former Miss America and Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry is quite a catch, but baseball player David Justice didn’t seem to think so. After reports of physical abuse, Berry filed for divorce in 1996, after a three-year marriage which Berry proposed. Breaking up because of domestic abuse is horrible enough, but the troubles continued after the divorce. Justice tried to get alimony payments from his ex-wife, stating, "since she wants to take all of my money, I should turn around and do the same to her." In 2007, Berry revealed that after the divorce, she tried to commit suicide but decided against it when she considered the feelings of her mother.
4. Matt Damon and Minnie Driver: Back when Matt Damon was the new break-out star with fellow Oscar-winning pal Ben Affleck, it seems he was trying to evolve his love life as well. While Damon did the talk show circuit in 1998 for Good Will Hunting and his Academy Award, he appeared on Oprah Winfrey, who asked him about his relationship with Driver, who co-starred in the film. Damon famously told Oprah that he and Minnie Driver were no longer together, but Driver later claimed that she had no idea they had broken up. The blog Twoop further tracks the episode to 1998, when both Matt Damon and Minnie Driver received the ShoWest Awards for Best Male Star and Best Female Star of Tomorrow and had to stand next to each other on stage. Today, the incident seems more like a rumor, but it still makes our list for a hilarious break-up story
5. Jude Law and Sienna Miller: It didn’t seem fair that two such good looking people could be so blissfully happy as Jude Law and Sienna Miller. The two British actors had been dating since 2004, when they met on the set of their movie Alfie. Miller quickly became known as a budding actress and style icon as she attended parties and events with Jude Law, and the couple was engaged at Christmas of the same year. In 2005, "the nanny" story broke, and Law admitted to cheating on his fiancee with his children’s nanny — who was hired by Law’s ex-wife Sadie Frost — several times. Miller, 23, broke off the engagement and surrounded herself with protective family members and friends. The media and the public quickly sided with Miller, who was often seen in tears running to and from her London stage production of As You Like It. Rumors about the couple making up circulated for a while, but eventually fizzled out.
6. Kate Moss and Pete Doherty: Supermodel and fashion icon Kate Moss and bad boy rocker Pete Doherty stuck together through countless stays in rehab, a cocaine scandal, street fights and even a refusal to meet the Queen. The British couple were on again-off again for several years, and became engaged in 2007 after Doherty pledged to stay clean. Moss had already been working hard on cleaning up her image, but the love sick Doherty wasn’t doing as well. Rumors swirled about Moss’ annoyance with Doherty, and when she ended the relationship for good, Doherty called her "a nasty old rag," before saying that "I love her with all my heart. I like the way she walks and talks. I love her bones. I love her brain."
7. Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora: Heather Locklear has been a Hollywood bombshell for many years, and has been married to two legendary rock stars: Tommy Lee and Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora. Locklear and Sambora were married in 1994 and were together for 11 years before Locklear allegedly surprised her husband with divorce papers. After the divorce, Sambora hooked up with Heather’s friend Denise Richards. The story got even more complicated with the reports that Richards actually encouraged Locklear to get a divorce in the first place, leading some to believe that Richards and Sambora had some sort of relationship while he was married to Locklear. The Richards-Sambora relationship eventually ended, sending Sambora back to his ex-wife, begging for a reconciliation. Good luck, buddy.
8. Tom Brady and Bridget Moynahan: What would you do if your football star boyfriend left you for the hottest supermodel in the world…while you were carrying his baby? Actress Bridget Moynahan and Patriots quaterback Tom Brady dated for three years. Brady realized Moynahan was pregnant about the same time that the couple broke up, leading both camps to point accusatory fingers at who was trying to sabotage who. The celebrity blog Gawker reports that Brady’s friends believe Moynahan tried to get pregnant on purpose, while Moynahan’s supporters call Brady "the gross one" for "immediately" starting to date Gisele Bundchen after the news.
9. Carmen Electra and Dennis Rodman: Who could forget Carmen Electra’s and Dennis Rodman’s surprise Las Vegas wedding in 1998? At first, Rodman’s camp reported that Rodman had been tricked into marrying Electra when he was drunk, but he later clarified that he loved Electra and wanted to marry her despite what anyone else said. The two had been dating for less than a year and filed for an annulment just ten days after the Vegas ceremony. Unfortunately for all of us, the publicity surrounding the relationship didn’t end there. In 2005, Rodman published his autobiography I Should Be Dead By Now, in which he wrote that Electra like to use the "N" word during sex. Electra of course denied the allegations, but it was still way too much information for anyone to know.
10. Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey: How cute/nauseating were Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey when they first got married in 2002? While you may not be able to remember any of their songs, most of us can remember Newlyweds, the MTV reality show that chronicled Jessica’s burps and ditzy comments and Nick’s admirable patience. Unfortunately, cuteness does not a marriage make, and the couple split after three years. Rumors had been circulating about Nick’s behavior at a bachelor party and Jessica’s close relationship with her Dukes of Hazzard co-star Johnny Knoxville. While on paper the couple said their break-up was amicable, an intense media frenzy surrounding the divorce recorded several awkward moments as the two ran into each other at public events and began dating other people.

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