We’re not sure why celebrities, who are under the microscope in the best of times, ever think they can do something like cheat on their significant others and not get caught, but yet they continue to do it. The celebrity cheating scandals never seem to slow down — and while some of them are seriously surprising, others we definitely saw coming long before the rumors were made official. Still, it’s kind of sad every time, even when we’re expecting it, especially when it gets ugly in the media, which is most of the time.
Some celebrities get caught cheating in the absolute worst ways, though, and we can’t help but shake our heads. Even worse are the stars who get caught multiple times and don’t seem to learn their lesson. We’ve all heard some of the celebrity cheating stories, but there are so many more that we either forgot about or didn’t realize even happened. Interestingly, the list includes both men and women.
Here, we take a look back at some of the most jaw-dropping celebrity cheating scandals that have come out over the years as a reminder of, well, what not to do when you’re in the middle of a highly publicized, supposedly committed relationship. From Tristan Thompson to Ben Affleck, these are the celebrity cheating scandals that totally rocked the entertainment world.
Alex Rodriguez
Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez has been accused of cheating multiple times involving multiple different partners, but everyone was still shocked when allegations came out that he cheated on Jennifer Lopez with reality TV star Madison LeCroy. Alex and Madison both said that their relationship never got physical, though.
Tony Parker
In 2010, former NBA player Tony Parker destroyed his marriage with actress, producer, and director Eva Longoria when it came out that not only was he having an affair, but with a friend. Eva reportedly found text messages between Tony and his former teammate’s wife, Erin Barry. Eva filed for divorce shortly after.
Josh Duhamel
Although we’re sure he would love for everyone to forget how he started his marriage to singer Fergie, actor Josh Duhamel was caught hooking up with a stripper in Atlanta, less than a year after he and Fergie wed in 2009. They actually stayed together for quite a while afterward but ultimately got divorced in 2017.
Ashton Kutcher
Actor and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher succumbed to infidelity when he was in deep with 1990s A-lister Demi Moore. He cheated on Demi, who is 15 years older than him, at least twice while they were married — once with a 21-year-old they met together at a bowling alley and another time with a 22-year-old allegedly during his and Demi’s anniversary weekend. Demi wrote about both incidents in her memoir, Inside Out.
Tiger Woods
Golf legend Tiger Woods’ life imploded in 2009 when it became known the world over that he was a serial cheater while married to his now ex-wife, Elin Nordegren. When she found out, she chased him out of the house, and he ended up crashing his car. Initially, reports were about one affair he had with a New York City nightclub host, but in the following weeks and years, a long list of women from all over the world came out with their stories of hooking up with Tiger while he was married.
Kevin Hart
Actor and comedian Kevin Hart screwed up big time — and he knew it right away. In 2017, someone sent his wife, Eniko Parrish, a video of him with another woman while Eniko was pregnant with their child. The video eventually surfaced publicly, and Kevin tried to make a joke out of it, but eventually admitted that the stripper he cheated with was extorting him for money. He publicly apologized to his wife via an Instagram video, but he didn’t actually admit to cheating until a few months later. He and Eniko stuck it out, though, and they’ve appeared happily married ever since.
Kris Jenner
The most successful momager of all time, Kris Jenner, was famously married to lawyer Robert Kardashian, who served as O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney during his 1995 murder trial. Kris herself has admitted to the fact that her marriage to Robert ended because she was unfaithful. Though there’s some suspicion that she cheated more than once, her most significant affair was with a soccer player named Todd Waterman. When Robert became suspicious, he reportedly hired a private investigator who had plenty of evidence to prove Kris was unfaithful.
Jay-Z
Beyoncé famously outed her husband Jay-Z’s infidelity when she sang about “Becky with the good hair” on her 2016 visual album Lemonade. Although the couple has kept the specific details private, Jay-Z also alluded to it in his 2017 album 4:44, and that same year he talked about it with the New York Times Style Magazine. The couple stayed together, and Jay said that he’s been to solo therapy and that he and Beyoncé’s music was almost like couples therapy for them.
Kristen Stewart
Actress Kristen Stewart was the cheater in this case. Back when she was dating her Twilight costar Robert Pattinson, she got caught red-handed when paparazzi snapped pics of her making out with film director Rupert Sanders, who was married at the time. Kristen had no choice but to fess up and issue a publicly apology, but of course her relationship with Robert was doomed from that point on.
Tristan Thompson
Basketball player Tristan Thompson’s cheating ways will go down in the books, for sure. He was caught stepping out on Khloé Kardashian multiple times over the course of their relationship, which first began in 2016. Not only that, but he allegedly cheated on pregnant girlfriend Jordan Craig when he first started talking to Khloé. Then, when Khloé was pregnant with her and Tristan’s daughter, True, a video of him with two other women surfaced online. They stayed together. Then, at the end of Khloé’s pregnancy, video footage and photos of him kissing yet another woman were released. They stayed together.
Then there was the Jordyn Woods incident. Multiple sources went to the media with reports that Tristan and Jordyn (Khloé’s sister Kylie’s then-best friend) made out with each other at a party. They finally broke up, but then months later Khloé took Tristan back only to have Instagram model Sydney Chase reveal on a podcast that Tristan had cheated on Khloé with her after they got back together. He denies it, but the couple reportedly broke up again a couple of months later, though neither has publicly confirmed or denied that.
It seems the final straw came for Khloé in 2021 when news broke that Tristan was expecting a child with personal trainer Maralee Nichols. The baby was allegedly conceived on Tristan’s 30th birthday in March that year, when he and Khloé were still together. And we’d later come to find out that, at the time, a surrogate was pregnant with Khloé and Tristan’s son. Talk about messy!
Katharine McPhee
Actress and singer Katharine McPhee cheated on her first husband, Nick Cokas, although no one found out until they were already separated. Turns out she had an affair with the director of her show Smash, Michael Morris, who was also married at the time. She and Nick divorced a couple of years later.
Liam Hemsworth
Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth’s long-term relationship was rife with cheating rumors. Liam was accused of straying multiple times while they were engaged, including with actress January Jones. The two ended up calling off the relationship, but got back together a couple of years later, and did end up getting married, but it lasted less than a year. Some accused Miley of cheating at that point, but she denies it.
Jada Pinkett Smith
Actress and TV personality Jada Pinkett Smith was embroiled in a really strange cheating scandal in 2020. Rumors surfaced that she had cheated on her husband, Will Smith, with up-and-coming singer August Alsina. But the couple took to Jada’s Facebook Live show, Red Table Talk, to clear things up, explaining that what Jada referred to as her “entanglement” with August had actually occurred during a time when she and Will had agreed to a brief temporary separation.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The actor and former California governor cheated on his now ex-wife Maria Shriver in 1996 with a housekeeper who had worked for the family for two decades. The housekeeper ended up getting pregnant with Arnold’s child, and Maria became suspicious when she realized the boy looked like her husband. She ended up bringing it up in therapy with Arnold, which he details in his book Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. He also admitted that he had been secretly financially supporting his illegitimate child. He and Maria split in 2011.
Scott Disick
Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian’s on-again, off-again relationship is a thing of pop culture legend. They finally called it quits — for what seems likely to be forever — in 2015, but not before rumors of Scott cheating on multiple occasions surfaced. Kim and Khloé Kardashian once found texts to another woman on his phone and after that, pictures of him partying on a boat with his ex hit the internet, prompting their last breakup. He once even called himself a sex addict, but later said he was just joking.
Jude Law
When Jude Law was caught being unfaithful to Sienna Miller with the nanny of his three children, it was one of the biggest celebrity cheating scandals to ever make headlines. Tabloids broke the news of the affair he had while he was away in New Orleans filming, and then positively hounded the couple in the aftermath of Jude’s confession and public apology.
Morena Baccarin
This one came as quite a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn’t have given Morena Baccarin’s on-screen chemistry with Gotham costar Ben McKenzie. Not long after she began working on the show, her husband of three years, Austin Chick, filed for divorce claiming she cheated on him with Ben, and boy, did that turn out to be true. A fan sent Austin a photo of the actress and her costar together in Vancouver while she was filming Deadpool, then he found out that she was already pregnant with Ben’s baby before they had officially decided to get divorced. Such a blow! Morena and Ben ended up getting married in 2017, and have been together since then.
Nick Young
Although both of their names are sort of distant memories, basketball player Nick Young and Australian rapper Iggy Azalea were once a hot couple. But when Iggy caught him cheating — get this: on home security footage — she called off their engagement. And according to Iggy, it wasn’t even just one woman.
Gavin Rossdale
There might be a lesson here: Never get a nanny, especially if you travel a lot. Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale is another celebrity dad who got caught getting busy with his kids’ sitter. The affair went on for years during his 13-year marriage to singer Gwen Stefani. Gwen devastatingly found x-rated messages between the two on the family iPad.
Ben Affleck
As adorable as they looked together, we don’t think Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner were ever meant to be. He obviously benefited from her as a grounding force in his life, and they have three awesome kids together, but he clearly wasn’t ever really settled in the relationship. He reportedly cheated with the nanny. Jen said she didn’t find out about it until after they had already decided to divorce, though the alleged affair did occur before they made the decision.
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were a Hollywood dream couple, but their fairy tale romance came to a screeching halt when they decided to divorce after seven years together. It came out after the fact that he and Angelina Jolie fell in love while Brad was still married to Jennifer. Of course, Brangelina ended up being quite ill-fated as well.
G-Eazy
Rapper G-Eazy and singer Halsey were a couple for less than a year, but that was apparently long enough for him to feel the need to cheat on her. Though Halsey has never actually publicly said how she found out, she did send out tons of cryptic messages on social media and in her performances confirming that he was unfaithful.
Offset
Migos rapper Offset has cheated on his wife, Cardi B, more times than we can count, and he gets caught every single time but keeps doing it anyway. And did we mention she keeps taking him back? She’s actually admitted to cheating once herself, too. Their relationship has been so tumultuous that Cardi filed for divorce in September 2020, but she didn’t go through with it. The two got back together and by the spring of 2021, she was pregnant with their second child.
Adam Levine
Shortly after Adam Levine and wife Behati Prinsloo announced that they were expecting their third child, Adam was exposed for inappropriately DMing other women by model Sumner Stroh. After she shared her story, more women came forward. Though Adam did eventually take responsibility for having flirty conversations he shouldn’t have been having as a married man, he maintained that he never physically cheated on Behati.
T.J. Holmes & Amy Robach
Former Good Morning America cohosts T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach stirred up quite a scandal in November 2022 when photos of them looking coupled up surfaced online via the Daily Mail, and things quickly spiraled out of control. At the time, they were both married (though now they’re both separated from their former spouses), and when the news broke, they were quickly relieved of their cohosting duties by ABC. What started as an affair now seems to be a full-fledged relationship.
Patrick Carney
In August 2022, singer Michelle Branch filed for divorce from Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney after she tweeted that she found out he was cheating with his manager six months after she gave birth to their daughter. Michelle was arrested after confessing to slapping Patrick “one to two times,” but it seems like they’ve ultimately decided to work things out since then. They even attended the Grammys together in February 2023 — go figure.
Matthew Lawrence
August 2022 brought another celebrity cheating scandal when Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke posted a video on TikTok that seemed to hint that ex Matthew Lawrence had cheated. Today, Matthew is reportedly dating TLC singer Rozonda “Chili” Thomas.
