90s Celebrity Couples that Didn't Make It
Let's Face It....No One Was Surprised
There was no shortage of celebrity pairings in the 90s that everyone knew were doomed from the start. But lets start with the one that received the most attention.
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley
On May 26, 1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley tied the knot in the Dominican Republic. The strange and unexpected pairing of the King of Pop and the daughter of the King of Rock n’ Roll shocked and confused the public.
As soon as Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of Elvis, married Jackson speculation began that it was just a publicity stunt aimed at taking the heat away from Jackson who was facing child sex abuse charges. But the couple told Diane Sawyer in an interview on ABC that they did it for love.
But the love didn’t last for long. Presley filed for divorce from Jackson in January 1996 citing irreconcilable differences.
Julie Roberts and Lyle Lovett
In June 1993 America’s Sweetheart Julia Roberts married the curly haired country singer Lyle Lovett after just a few weeks of dating.
The ceremony in a small Indiana town was squeezed in between Lovett’s tour dates and Roberts’ shooting schedule on the movie The Pelican Brief.
Later that night, Lovett played a show for 10,000, bringing Roberts out on stage and telling the audience, “welcome to the happiest day of my life.”
Two years later in the spring of 1995 the couple announced their separation through a joint statement that read: “We remain close and in great support of one another.”
Emilio Estevez and Paula Abdul
In April 1992, Paula Abdul and Emilio Estevez were wed in a private ceremony at a Santa Monica courthouse. They had met the year before after Estevez called Abdbul to tell her he was a fan. Estevez was filming The Mighty Ducks at the time and Abdul was on a world tour for her second studio album Spellbound.
Estevez and Abdul, who were known for their red carpet fashion clashes, split two years later because Abdul wanted to have a baby but Estevez who already had two kids from an earlier marriage, did not.
Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra
The basketball bad boy and Playboy model met at an L.A. nightclub and were dating during the Chicago Bulls' triumphant 1997-98 championship season.
During their time together, Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra earned a reputation for their wild nights out. The couple famously tied the knot in November 1998 during an all-night bender in Las Vegas.
Only nine days later, Rodman filed for an annulment of the marriage on the grounds that he had not been of sound mind on the night when they got married.
They briefly reconciled and tried to work things out but in March 1999, six months after getting married, the couple filed for divorce.
Mariah Carey and Tommy Mottola
In 1993, at the age of 23, Mariah Carey married Sony Music executive Tommy Mottola who was 21 years her senior.
They divorced 5 years later but it wasn’t until 2020 that Carey opened up about the marriage in her biography.
She wrote that Mottola wanted to know her every move and controlled her public persona. He wanted her to be more “mainstream,” which she says meant more white.
According to Carey, when Mottola realized that the marriage was ending, he took a butter knife to Carey, running it down her cheek and across her throat in front of two of his friends.
In response to Carey’s allegations Mottola has said that he’s “truly sorry for any discomfort or pain that all of my good intentions inevitably caused her.”
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