Celebrities Who Feud With Their Exes

Justin Timberlake & Britney Spears

Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears only dated from 1999 until 2002 but the effects of their breakup are long lasting. Timberlake threw the first stone when he wrote “Cry Me A River” as an homage to their failed relationship alongside a music video that alluded to cheating.

Later, in 2021, revelations in the Framing Britney documentary suggested that Timberlake fanning the media’s flames after their breakup may have contributed to Spears’ mental health breakdown. about how Timberlake treated his relationship with Spears definitely resurfaced a lot of pain.

In 2021, Timberlake even tried to apologize for how he treated his former girlfriend but Spears proved she wasn’t accepting it upon the release of her 2023 memoir in which she revealed that she had an abortion during her relationship with Timberlake and accused him of cheating on her. Timberlake has not addressed her claims. 

Travis Barker & Shanna Moakler

Travis Barker and Shanna Moakler were married from 2004 until their divorce in 2008 but their ups and downs continued for years. 

In December 2014, Moakler called the police on Barker, accusing him of threatening her with a gun though no charges were filed. Their feud picked up again in 2021 when Barker moved on with former family friend Kourney Kardashian, much to Moakler’s dissatisfaction. 

Moakler was quick to label Barker and Kardashian’s PDA-filled relationship “weird” and told Us Weekly that she thinks the Kardashians are trying to “put a wedge” between her and her kids. 

Kardashian and Barker married in 2022 and welcomed their baby in 2023. Moakler continued her tirade in 2024 when she told Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast that she thought the Kardashians are “disgusting.” 

“I removed myself so that they couldn’t bond over my children hating me” and alleged that when Barker started dating Kardashian, there was some “parental alienation going on there.”

Brian Austin Green & Vanessa Marcil

Another on-set romance gone awry, Brian Austin Green and Vanessa Marcil first met on Beverly Hills, 90210 in the ’90s, getting engaged in 2001 and welcoming their son Kassius in 2002 — then splitting come 2003 for undisclosed reasons.

In 2018, Marcil claimed she had raised her son alone after a years-long legal battle with Green and his then-wife Megan Fox. 

“12 years ago I was served legal papers and then spent 8 years+ defending myself and my son in custody court in response to his father & his stepmother trying to get full custody,” Marcil wrote on Instagram. “They lost that case & a civil case asking me for 200,000.”

In 2022, Green claimed that Marcil was the one who had sued him and posted photos of court documents that listed Marcil as “petitioner” and him as “respondant.” The following year, he took to social media again to hit back at Marcil’s digs.

“I can’t tell you all how frustrating it is to read continued lies from a 50+-year-old woman on social media like she is still in high school,” he wrote. “Megan and I bust our assess to give Kass a well-rounded childhood since his mom was rarely there.” 

In May 2024, Marcil again pointed fingers at Green via Instagram, according to Us Weekly, this time while defending Fox.

“She has apologized to both me and our child,” Marcil said. “However, it wasn’t her job to keep a grown man/biological parent in his son’s life.”

Halle Berry & Eric Benét

Halle Berry and Eric Benét first met in 1997, and while their slow burn of a connection didn’t take off right away, they were happily married by 2001. Sadly, their honeymoon period didn’t last long before tabloid rumors of Benét’s infidelity started coming out — which Berry was eager not to believe, until Benét confessed. 

Benét went to rehab for sex addiction (a condition he’s since said Berry’s mother insisted on) and tried to work on their marriage, but Berry filed for divorce in 2003 with the following statement.

“Eric and I have had marital problems for some time now and have tried to work things out together. However, at this point, I feel we need time apart to reevaluate our union. We ask that you respect our privacy as we are going through this emotional time.”

In 2004, Berry said she’d learned this in her relationship: “I’ve learned that when I see a flag in a relationship next time, recognize it as a flag. Don’t think ‘Oh, that’s just a shadow. That’s a flag.’ And when I look back at our relationship, I saw the flags. I didn’t see flags of sexual addiction, but I did see flags of something not right.”

In 2010, asked whether he had any regrets about how he’d handled their split, Benét told HipHollywood “I have no regrets.” 

Katy Perry & Russell Brand

Katy Perry and Russell Brand were married for two years in the early 2010s. The couple’s whirlwind romance and marriage was highly publicized, but in the years since their divorce, the two haven’t exactly remained close. 

Perry reflected on their marriage in 2020, referring to the union as a “tornado.” Immediately following their divorce, though, Perry was a little more candid about their split. “Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011,” the singer told Vogue in 2013.

Sofía Vergara & Nick Loeb

Modern Family star Sofia Vergara got engaged to businessman Nick Loeb in 2012; in 2014, they split up, but not before they’d frozen two embryos in 2013 in the hopes of having a child together.

Following their split, Loeb pursued legal action against Vergara for custody of the embryos, declaring his intention to bring them to term via a surrogate and raise the children himself. 

Vergara has since indicated her intention to have them destroyed, while Loeb has filed an additional “right to live” lawsuit on behalf of the embryos themselves, with court documents revealing additional damning aspects of their relationship over the years. In 2017, a letter emerged in which Loeb criticized Vergara for speaking her native language Spanish at home, calling it “rude and disrespectful” and “classless.”

In 2021, Vergara won their years-long legal battle after a court ruled that Loeb could not use the embryos without her permission.

Sandra Bullock & Jesse James

Sandra Bullock and Jesse James met in 2003 and married in 2005, spending five happy years together leading up to Bullock accepting a Best Actress Oscar in 2010 and thanking her husband for his support.

But right around the time she was winning that award, multiple women started coming forward alleging they’d had affairs with James over the course of his marriage.

“This has caused my wife and kids pain and embarrassment beyond comprehension and I am extremely saddened to have brought this on them,” James said in a statement at the time. “I am truly very sorry for the grief I have caused them. I hope one day they can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

Bullock filed for divorce later that year, and James has since somewhat walked back his statements of remorse, telling Daily Mail in 2017 that “cheating is a part of life” and that the pressures of Los Angeles got to him. 

Amber Rose & Kanye West

Amber Rose and Kanye West’s relationship was hot and heavy for about two years between 2008 and 2010 — then West moved on with Kim Kardashian and Rose moved on with Reggie Bush and that should have been that.

Just a few years later, though, Rose told Star magazine that Kim was “one of the main reasons why me and Kanye are not together,” adding: “she’s a homewrecker!”

West later added fuel to the fire with a 2015 interview in which he said, “If Kim had dated me when I first wanted to be with her, there wouldn’t be an Amber Rose. It’s very hard for a woman to wanna be with someone that’s with Amber Rose. I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim.”

We’re guessing these two won’t be reconciling any time soon!

Sophia Bush & Chad Michael Murray

Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray fell in love on the set of One Tree Hill, the television series that kicked off both their careers — and wound up lasting longer than their marriage did. The duo wed in 2005 and swiftly separated five months later.

In 2018, Bush got into hot water with her ex when she insinuated that she was pressured to marry him. “It was not a thing I actually really wanted to do,” she told Andy Cohen. “Because how do you let everybody down,” she added, “When you have bosses telling you that you’re the only person who gets a person to work on time.”

At the time, Murray’s reps hit back, calling Bush’s claims “ludicrous” and adding that the actor “would never marry for any reason but love.” 

In May 2024, Murray reflected on the marriage saying, “I was a baby” and admitted he’d happily moved on. 

John Mayer & Taylor Swift

John Mayer and Taylor Swift’s 2009 romance was brief, but the repercussions wound up lasting far longer. Swift’s hit song “Dear John” was widely understood to be about her relationship with Mayer and alluded to, among other things, their age difference (Mayer was 31 to her 19).

Mayer told Rolling Stone in 2012 that the song “humiliated” him: “I never got an e-mail. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off-guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I’d already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest you’ve ever been, someone kicked you even lower?”

“I didn’t deserve it,” he added. “I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.” 

Later, Swift claimed it was “presumptuous” for Mayer to think the song was about him but that didn’t stop her fans from frequently berating him online for years to come. In 2021, Mayer even responded to one critic after Swift’s re-recording of her album Red was released.

“I’ve been getting so many messages like these the past couple days,” he responded to a fan’s Instagram DM. “Do you really hope that I die?” Swift has not directly spoken about Mayer in recent years but some fans believe her 2023 song “Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve” was inspired by their relationship. 

Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert

It was a match made in country music heaven when Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert fell in love in 2005 before tying the knot five years later. But rumors of trouble in their marriage and accusations of infidelity riddled these two’s ill-fated union. 

While the two haven’t said much about each other since their 2015 divorce, 2024 reports claimed they refuse to attend the same events even all these years later.

Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey

In 2015, nine years after finalizing her divorce from Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson famously called her marriage to the 98 Degrees band member her “biggest money mistake.” 

She opened up further about their marriage in her 2020 memoir calling him her “first love” and blaming the media for their downfall. Though she kept it respectful, Lachey showed no interest in her olive branch, revealing in an interview with Andy Cohen that he will “never read” the book. 

Lachey also appeared to shade his ex-wife in a 2022 episode of Love Is Blind, joking: “Marriage is always better the second time.”

Future & Ciara

Future and Ciara dated from 2012 until 2014 before calling off their engagement months after son Future Zahir was born. 

In January 2016, Ciara sued her ex for defamation after he claimed, in a series of tweets, that she was keeping his son from him. The lawsuit was dropped the following year but that didn’t stop problems from continuing between the exes. 

In 2023, Future dissed Ciara’s husband, Russell Wilson, in his song “Turn Yo Clic Up,” rapping: “F— Russell.” 

That September, Ciara made her feelings about Future very clear when she responded to a question about what it was like to co-parent with him by laughing for 30 seconds straight.

Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s 11 year love story came to a crashing halt in 2016 when Jolie filed for divorce after an incident on the family’s private jet involving their children. 

Though child abuse charges against Pitt were dropped, Jolie has long maintained that the Oscar winner physically assaulted her and at least one of their kids. 

Pitt seemed to retaliate against his ex in a separate legal battle over their French winery after Jolie allegedly sold her share without his consent. 

Though their romantic relationship ended years ago, their legal battles continue to this day. 

Channing Tatum & Jenna Dewan

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan first met on the set of the iconic dance movie Step Up in 2006. They wed in 2009 and went on to welcome a daughter, Everly, in 2013 but sadly split in 2018. 

Though they attempted to keep things amicable, their ongoing legal battle over their assets, including the rights to Tatum’s Magic Mike movie franchise, has created animosity. 

Dewan has been battling to secure her share of the profits earned from the lucrative franchise during their marriage, much to Tatum’s reported frustration.

Elisabeth Moss & Fred Armisen

Elisabeth Moss and Fred Armisen had a whirlwind romance after meeting on the set of Saturday Night Live in 2008, marrying within the year.

However, just as fast, their love grinded to a halt and they divorced less than a year into their marriage. 

Moss went on to make it very clear that Armisen was the problem in the relationship.

“One of the greatest things I heard someone say about him is, ‘He’s so great at doing impersonations. But the greatest impersonation he does is that of a normal person,’” the Mad Men actress told to Page Six, via HuffPost, in 2012. “To me, that sums it up.”

She reflected again on the relationship in 2014, saying, “It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible. At the same time, it turned out for the best.”