It's not unusual for film and TV stars to meet on set and begin dating. After all, they're spending quite a lot of time together, so it's only natural that romances and connections would bloom in that kind of a situation. But sometimes love blossoms between two actors who were already dating or married to other people. Many A-list celebs have cheated on their partners with their costars over the years in Old Hollywood and new.
These days, with constant paparazzi and fan attention, stars who cheat are much more likely to get caught. Photos often leak of steamy encounters, and they can blow up marriages. Even a rumor of a celebrity affair can forever affect a celebrity marriage — or any marriage, for that matter.
Some couples who met on movie sets and cheated on their spouses with a costar ended up making the new relationship work. But more often than not, the affair faded as soon as it started, leaving a path of wreckage behind. And unsurprisingly, these kinds of relationships immediately became prime tabloid fodder.
Basically, there is precedent for spouses to worry when their wife or husband goes to film a movie with a hot costar. Most of the time, things turn out fine. But in these instances, things went downhill pretty quickly for everyone involved.
Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake and Alisha Wainwright were filming the movie Palmer together in New Orleans in 2019 when photos and videos leaked of the two getting extremely cozy. In one of the videos, they're holding hands and Alisha puts her hand on Justin's leg. Anonymous sources soon reached out to the press to claim that it was nothing, and so far, Justin and wife Jessica Biel have been able to move past it.
Tori Spelling & Dean McDermott
When Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott met on the set of the Lifetime movie Mind Over Murder, they were both already married to other people. It wasn't long before the new costars struck up a relationship. In fact, Tori later admitted on her show True Tori that she and Dean had sex the first night that they'd met.
LeAnn Rimes & Eddie Cibrian
Lifetime movie sets are apparently the place to go for celebs who want a new partner. Like Tori and Dean, Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes also met while costarring in the Lifetime film Northern Lights. The two struck up an affair that would eventually end both of their respective marriages.
Eddie was with Real Housewives star Brandi Glanville at the time, and she later told Howard Stern that she didn't think LeAnn stole her husband as much as Eddie chose to leave. "No, you can't steal a man," Brandi said. "He has to go."
Carrie Fisher & Harrison Ford
For years, Star Wars costars Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford kept the secret that they'd once had a three-month affair way back when. But Carrie eventually revealed the story to the press. It happened when she was 19 and Harrison was 33, married, and the father of two children.
Fans of the two characters' love story in the movie were thrilled to hear that the chemistry continued off-screen, but Carrie reportedly regretted sharing the news of the affair. According to her brother, Carrie later told her mother, "You're right. I shouldn't have told that story."
Billy Crudup
Billy Crudup was married to actress Mary Louise Parker — who was seven months pregnant — when he left her to pursue a romance with his Stage Beauty costar Claire Danes. Howard Stern later asked Claire how she felt about the situation. "I was just in love with him," she reflected of the relationship. "And needed to explore that and I was 24. I didn't quite know what those consequences would be."
Billy and Claire later split, and Claire is now married to actor Hugh Dancy.
Billy Bob Thornton
Before there was Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, there was Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie. The two met on the set of their movie Pushing Tin, and they got married soon after. The only problem? Billy Bob was already in a relationship with Laura Dern. She later claimed that Billy Bob never even told her that they were breaking up. "[I] left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I've never heard from him again," Laura said.
Brad Pitt
Angelina Jolie has a bit of a habit of meeting her partners on film sets. Infamously, she and Brad Pitt struck up a romance after meeting on Mr. & Mrs. Smith — while Brad was still with Jennifer Aniston. And so launched a tabloid story for the ages.
Brad and Angelina have since split.
Kenneth Branagh
Back in the '90s, Helena Bonham Carter and Kenneth Branagh met on the set of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and fell for one another. Kenneth was married to actress Emma Thompson at the time, but that didn't stop him from getting into a relationship with Helena. Emma doesn't hold any bad blood over things, though, saying later, "You can't hold on to anything like that. It's pointless. I haven't got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago."
Kenneth and Helena split in 1999.
Marilyn Manson
Evan Rachel Wood was in Marilyn Manson's music video for "Heart-Shaped Glasses" the same year that Marilyn would go on to end his marriage to Dita Von Teese … because he was seeing Evan. Evan later told Rolling Stone why she got into the relationship.
"I met somebody who promised freedom and expression and no judgments," she said. "And I was craving danger and excitement. I looked at my mother one day and said, 'Mom, I'm gonna get on this tour bus for eight months and see the world and have a crazy journey and find myself, and if people aren't OK with that, I'm sorry, but I can't live my life for other people.'"
Ewan McGregor
Eve Mavrakis filed for divorce after her husband, Ewan McGregor, began seeing his Fargo costar Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Ewan's daughter, Clara, had some strong feelings on the new relationship at the time. She took to Instagram to comment on a Mary Elizabeth fan page: "Most beautiful and talented woman on Earth? Oh man y'all are delusional. The girl is a piece of trash."
Ewan and Mary Elizabeth married in 2022 and have a daughter together.
John Malkovich
John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer had so much sexual chemistry as costars in Dangerous Liaisons — perhaps because they also had it in real life. The two reportedly had an affair after meeting on the film set that ended his marriage to Glenne Headly.
Years later, John mentioned the relationship in vague terms in an Esquire interview. "It's hard to believe Michelle Pfeiffer — not that she's not memorable, God knows," he said. "But I sort of blacked it out. What I'm trying to say is, when I think of the other person, I don't think of me as involved with them. They're uncorrupted by me. As if they were never troubled by my existence."
Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan was married to Dennis Quaid when she met Russell Crowe on the set of Proof of Life. When the two began dating, it changed the public's perception of Meg as the quirky rom-com lead. She later remarked to The New York Times that the situation taught her to let go of other people's judgments of her.
"It's a real gift when you know you can't ever really manage an image or a story and you stop caring," she said. "I felt the effect, like I was the bad guy or whatever the story was. But I remember letting go of needing to correct anybody."
Morena Baccarin
Morena Baccarin was in the middle of divorcing her husband when it came out that she was three months pregnant with Gotham costar Ben McKenzie's baby. Morena later gave birth to a baby girl in 2016. Ben and Morena married in 2017.
Chad Michael Murray & Paris Hilton
Although Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton have never confirmed the claims that they had an affair after meeting on House of Wax, their exes have both hinted at it. Paris had been dating Nick Carter at the time, and he later said that he "hooked up" with Ashlee Simpson to get revenge on Paris for her own alleged actions. Meanwhile, Sophia Bush, who was married to Chad at the time, later just said, "My mother once said to me that if you don't have anything nice to say, not to say anything at all."
Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton
This is one of the oldest stories of finding love on set while married to other people. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton started seeing each other on the Cleopatra set, despite both being married to other people. Their love affair turned into a years-long romance where they married, divorced, married again, and divorced again soon after.
Ted Danson
Ted Danson was married when he went to work to film Made in America. But once he met Whoopi Goldberg on set, that didn't matter. He was enamored with her, once saying on The Arsenio Hall Show, "Here comes a very sexy, very funny lady." Ted's wife, Casey Coates, eventually let him leave the marriage, knowing there was no saving it. "For the first month, I did nothing but cry," Casey told People. "I gave Ted permission to leave me. I thought I was going to be a wipeout the rest of my life."
Ted and Whoopi's relationship wasn't meant to be, either. Ted later married Mary Steenburgen, whom he met on the set of their 1994 movie Pontiac Moon. They've been together ever since.
Lily James & Dominic West
While filming The Pursuit of Love together in 2020, Lily James and Dominic West were spotted kissing — which was a major problem, considering he was married to Catherine Fitzgerald (and a father to four kids!). But to make matters even more complicated (and a lot more … strange?), Dominic and Catherine made a big show of kissing in front of reporters and paparazzi, sharing a note that said, "Our marriage is strong and we're very much still together."
They must have been telling the truth, because they're still together today.
