Celebrity marriages are twice as likely to end in divorce: Half of famous couples who married between 2000 and 2010 had split up by 2014
- Celebrity marriages twice as likely to break down as those of everyone else
- 50% of star couples who married between 2000 and 2010 divorced by 2014
- By contrast, over same period, 26% of normal marriages ended in divorce
- Analysis by the Marriage Foundation studied total of 488 celebrity couples
Their lifestyles are the envy of millions and they often spend a fortune on their weddings.
But for those who have long suspected that it doesn’t guarantee celebrities a fairlytale marriage, here’s the proof.
Their marriages are twice as likely to break down as those of everybody else, research claims.
Scroll down for video
Celebrity marriages are twice as likely to break down as those of everybody else, research claims. Pictured: Katy Perry and Russell Brand were married for less than two years before they confirmed a divorce
Fifty per cent of all famous or showbiz couples who married in the first decade of the century were divorced by 2014, according to the study.
A slew of A-list names did not make it even to their first anniversary and one, Britney Spears, managed two marriages that lasted less than four years between them.
By contrast, over the same period, 26 per cent of marriages among the non-celebrity population failed to stay the course. The analysis by the Marriage Foundation think-tank examined the record of 488 celebrity couples who married between 2001 and 2010 and how they were faring by 2014.
The findings are published today on what divorce lawyers say is the annual ‘divorce day’ because of the claimed high numbers of couples who split up after Christmas, and consult lawyers on the first working Monday of January.
Share this article
Sir Paul Coleridge, a former High Court family judge and the think-tank’s founder, said: ‘Celebs become, no doubt involuntarily, high-profile role models.
‘But this research shows that in their domestic lives these people experience even more pain and suffering than us lesser mortals, and in this respect at least their lives are not to be copied or envied. They are false icons who are subject to even greater pressures to separate.’
He added that the famous ‘may dazzle us with their £100,000 fairy story weddings, 15-tier cakes and horse-drawn carriages, but all too often these weddings are followed, in quick succession by a bitter and tortuous fallout and divorce played out in the public eye in grisly detail’.
Couples who held out longest before divorce among the celebrity ranks include the ‘consciously uncoupled’ Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, whose marriage lasted nearly 11 years. They are pictured together in 2003
Those who did not make it to the one-year mark include Drew Barrymore and Tom Green, Eminem and Kim Mathers, and Britney Spears and Jason Alexander.
Miss Spears’s first marriage was annulled after only 55 hours. Her second – to Kevin Federline – lasted longer, but they were divorced after less than three years. Katy Perry and Russell Brand managed less than two years.
Couples who held out longest before divorce among the celebrity ranks include the ‘consciously uncoupled’ Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, whose marriage lasted nearly 11 years, and Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi, who managed ten years.
Celebrities are over six times more likely to divorce in their first year of marriage than others, the study found.
Drew Barrymore and Tom Green (together left) didn't make it to a year of marriage before they divorced, while singer Britney Spears and her second husband Kevin Federline (right) divorced after less than three years
Famous couples who avoided divorce over the period covered by the study and are still together include Aled Jones and Claire Fossett, Gabby and Kenny Logan (pictured), and Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith
Even after the initial period of adapting to married life, they appear more vulnerable to the stresses that can tear a couple apart. More than a quarter of celebrity couples were divorced after six years of marriage, compared with just over one in ten among others.
Current divorce rates suggest that an average couple have a 38 per cent chance of divorce within their lifetimes. Celebrities, however, have a 38 per cent chance of divorce within ten years.
Famous couples who avoided divorce over the period covered by the study and are still together include Aled Jones and Claire Fossett, Gabby and Kenny Logan, and Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith. All married in 2001.
Sir Paul added: ‘Behind too many of these high-profile family breakdowns sits a set of confused and distressed children who have felt the two tectonic plates of their lives pulled apart under the full scrutiny of the media.’
Most watched News videos
- New footage shows moment two brothers 'assaulted police officers'
- Woman assaults partner for 's****ing' best friend of 23 years
- Camp Mystic girls eerily sing songs driving through Texas floods
- Camp Mystic counselor recounts traumatic Texas flood experience
- Awkward moment Macron SNUBBED by wife
- Tragedy at Milan Airport as man gets sucked into plane engine
- Luggage flies out of Macron's delegation as it speeds away
- Timelapse video shows how Llano River flooded within minutes
- Mob show up to Chicago pool party before manager is pushed
- Sweet moments between Kate and Wills as they welcome Macrons
- Texas mayoral appointee gives 'tone deaf' take on Camp Mystic rescue
- Gruesome moment missing farmer is found dead in a 28ft python
