Celebrities who have strayed
Kristen Stewart & Rupert Sanders
Twilight fans who were wondering what it would take for Kristen Stewart to officially acknowledge her four-year romance with costar Robert Pattinson finally got their answer : infidelity. US Weekly published paparazzi photos of Stewart canoodling with her very married Snow White & the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders in Los Angeles on July 17, the actress did something no one saw coming: She admitted it and, in a gut-wrenching public apology, declared her love for Pattinson and begged his forgiveness. "This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry," Stewart said in a statement. Sanders, meanwhile, sought the forgiveness of his wife, British model Liberty Ross, with whom he has two young children. "I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family," Sanders said in his own statement. "My beautiful wife and heavenly children are all I have in this world. I love them with all my heart. I am praying that we can get through this together."
Ashton Kutcher
For eight years, Ashton Kutcher's affectionate relationship with Demi Moore made the younger man/older woman dynamic seem downright ideal. But sadly it did not last. In September 2010, Star magazine published incriminating text messages from 21-year-old Brittney Jones, who claimed to have slept with Kutcher. The couple denied the story and photographed themselves snuggling in bed three weeks later. "I think Star magazine calling me a 'cheater' qualifies as defamation of character. I hope my lawyer agrees," Kutcher tweeted. But when 22-year-old Sara Leal claimed that she and Kutcher had a one-night stand on his sixth wedding anniversary in October 2011, that was the final straw for the couple. Demi filed for divorce in November.
LeAnn Rimes & Eddie Cibrian
Country star LeAnn Rimes and actor Eddie Cibrian fell in love while costarring in a romantic made-for-TV Lifetime movie called Northern Lights. It was a perfect Hollywood love story -- except that Rimes was married to dancer Dean Sheremet, and Cibrian was married to model and now Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville. (Also: Glanville was pregnant with their second child.) The pair left their respective spouses in 2009, and married one another this year, but they're still getting flack for cheating -- especially Rimes, who ignited a firestorm of criticism after unapologetically boasting about her love life in Shape. "I did one of the most selfish things that I could possibly do, in hurting someone else," Rimes told People of the affair. "I take responsibility for everything I've done. I hate that people got hurt. But I don't regret the outcome."
Jesse James
Jesse James not only cheated on wife Sandra Bullock with a tattoo model: He ruined what would have been her best year ever. Bullock had just won an Oscar for her role in The Blind Side when Michelle "Bombshell" McGee opened up to the press about her affair with the Monster Garage host. (Unbeknownst to the public, Bullock had also just adopted son Louis). With at least four other women claiming they had slept with her husband, Bullock filed for divorce in April 2010. Bullock went on to win Spike TV's entertainer of the year award, and joked at the ceremony, "Did I win this because of the spectacular IED explosion that became my personal life?" James, meanwhile, told Nightline that his cheating "was me trying to self-sabotage my life." Not one to learn from his mistakes, James went on to sabotage his next relationship, with LA Ink star Kat Von D, in similar fashion. Kat dumped Jesse in late 2011 after she discovered that he'd cheated on her -- with 19 different women!
David Boreanaz
He plays an FBI agent on Bones -- but when it came to cheating on his wife, David Boreanaz was the one caught red-handed. In May 2010, the actor came clean to his wife of nine years, Playboy model Jaime Bergman, after a mistress who had been blackmailing him demanded more money. Boreanaz made a public confession, saying that his marriage had been "tainted with my infidelities" -- one of whom was later revealed to be Rachel Uchitel, who also had an affair with Tiger Woods. In October 2011, Boreanaz told TV Week that the scandal had been "a bonding experience, in the long run" for him and his wife.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
In the movies, he was The Terminator; in real life, Arnold Schwarzenegger terminated his own marriage. After 25 years, Maria Shriver learned that her husband was the father of their housekeeper Mildred Baena's 10-year-old son Joseph. To add insult to infidelity, Baena was pregnant with Arnold's love child at the same time that Shriver was pregnant with their son Christopher. The couple announced their separation in May 2011, days before the scandal went public. "I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family," Schwarzenegger told the press. "There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused."
Tiger Woods
He was the golden boy of professional sports, until a cheating scandal robbed Tiger Woods of his halo. It all began when the National Enquirer revealed that the golf star was cheating on his wife, Swedish model wife Elin Nordegren, with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel. In the months after the story broke, more than a dozen women -- including waitresses, porn stars and a college student -- came forward to claim that they, too, had slept with Tiger. Woods called a press conference in February 2010 to address his infidelities. "I was unfaithful, I had affairs, I cheated," said Woods. "What I did is not acceptable and I am the only person to blame... I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself normal rules didn't apply." Nordegren filed for divorce, which was finalized with a rumored settlement of $100 million. She now lives in Florida with the ex-couple's two kids, daughter Sam, 5, and son Charlie, 3.
Tori Spelling & Dean McDermott
Is it any wonder that Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott's marriage became a reality show? The 90210 star admits that she fell into bed with McDermott after meeting him while costarring on a made-for-TV movie -- even though she'd just celebrated one year of marriage to playwright Charlie Shanian. "After it had happened I didn't feel any regrets and I thought, 'I'm madly in love with this man that I've just met... and this is forcing me to really look at my marriage,'" Spelling told SF Gate. At the time, McDermott was also married with a 6-year-old son and an infant adopted daughter. His ex-wife Mary Jo Eustace says McDermott broke off their marriage by telling her that Tori was his "soul mate." The couple married one month after Spelling's divorce was finalized in 2006 -- and six years, several reality shows and three children (son Liam, 5, and daughters Stella, 4, and Hattie, 1) later, they're still together. And they're expecting their fourth child together this September!
Bill Clinton
When Bill Clinton cheated on wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, it threw his entire presidency into jeopardy. All it took was one White House intern, 24-year-old Monica Lewinsky, spilling details of their 1995 affair to the wrong person. Coworker Linda Tripp taped their conversations and passed them on to Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr. Clinton, who had been dogged by rumors of infidelity for years, denied the affair under oath, and was then impeached for perjury. His presidency (and his marriage) weathered the scandal, though six other women claimed they had sexual encounters with the former governer of Arkansas. In his memoir My Life, Clinton wrote that the Lewinsky affair revealed "the darkest part of my inner life." And about his transgressions, he said in a 2004 60 Minutes interview: "I think I did something for the worst possible reason -- just because I could. I think that's the most, just about the most morally indefensible reason that anybody could have for doing anything."
Ryan Phillippe
In 2006, after being married for seven years, Reese Witherspoon split with husband Ryan Phillippe, the father of her children Ava, now 12, and Deacon, 8, amid reports that he had been unfaithful. One of Phillippe's rumored affairs was with his Stop-Loss costar Abbie Cornish -- whom he started publicly dating soon after his divorce was finalized in 2007. When Cornish and Phillippe broke up four years later, he faced similar accusations of cheating. But the actor, who has never commented explicitly on the reasons for his breakups, says he's tired of being painted as the bad guy. "I've been dumped on in the press for relationship stuff since Reese and I divorced," Philllippe told Howard Stern in 2010. "I don't feel like I deserve it. Things happen!" And when you're famous, things happen all over the covers of tabloids.
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant had been dating model Elizabeth Hurley for eight years when their relationship was threatened by "Divine" intervention. Grant solicited prostitute Divine Brown while driving through the streets of L.A. in 1995, and was caught in the act by police. The British actor pleaded no contest to charges of lewd conduct in a public place, and even kept his commitment to appear on The Tonight Show later that week. "I think you know in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing," Grant bluntly told Jay Leno, adding that Hurley was "very supportive" and they would "try to work it out." And so they did; he and Hurley parted amicably five years later.
Meg Ryan
Once known as America's Sweetheart, Meg Ryan's reputation took another turn when she had an affair in 2000 with Proof of Life costar Russell Crowe behind husband Dennis Quaid's back. The actress later said that letting go of her girl-next-door image was a relief. "My time as a scarlet woman was really interesting," Ryan told InStyle. "As painful as it was, it was also incredibly liberating. Now I was utterly free. I didn’t have to care about what people thought." Nor did she care what people thought in 2010, when she started appearing out and about with rocker John Mellencamp -- around the same time that he and Elaine, his wife of 18 years, announced their separation.
David Letterman
David Letterman dated Regina Lasko for more than 20 years before marrying her in 2009. The timing wasn't great: Just months later, CBS producer Joe Halderman learned that Letterman had been carrying on an affair with Stephanie Birkitt, who was Halderman's girlfriend and the Late Show host's assistant, and attempted to blackmail him for $2 million. Faced with an impossible choice -- submit to extortion, or reveal his infidelities to the world -- Letterman confessed his "creepy" indiscretions, and apologized to his wife, on national television. "My wife, Regina... has been horribly hurt by my behavior, and when something happens like that, if you hurt a person and it's your responsibility, you try to fix it," he told his audience. As the scandal unfolded, a second woman came forward to claim that she'd carried on an affair with Letterman. In 2010, Halderman was sentenced to six months in jail. Letterman and Lasko, who have an 8-year-old son named Harry, stayed together.
