The 5 Most Scandalous Hollywood Love Triangles Of All Time
Third wheels have been responsible for the wrecks of many celebrity relationships.
Jaguar PS, Twocoms / Shutterstock The love triangle: it's often used as a plot device in our favorite movies and TV shows because of the irresistible drama created by a character torn between two lovers. However, we're reminded that, in Hollywood, these sticky situations happen just as often off-screen as on. And in real life, love triangles aren't quite so much fun. The fallout can be devastating for everyone involved—both emotionally and career-wise.
While it only takes two to tango, it takes three to get on our list of Hollywood's most unforgettable and bizarre love triangles.
1. Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie
When Pitt and Jolie began a relationship on the set of 2005's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the public's collective heart broke for Aniston, everyone's favorite "friend."
It was the breakup heard 'round the world — the one that we just can't get over, and the one that the media can't seem to let Aniston forget.
2. Mary Louise Parker/Billy Crudup/Claire Danes
In 2003, Crudup alienated the majority of his female fans when he abruptly left Parker, his partner of eight years, for Danes … while Parker was seven months pregnant with his son!
But if the best revenge really is living well, then Crudup received his comeuppance when he remained one of those "almost famous" people just as Parker's star was on the rise.
Since the breakup, she's won several awards for her roles in the HBO mini-series, Angels in America, and the popular Showtime series, Weeds.
3. Dennis Quaid/Meg Ryan/Russell Crowe
Fans were shocked when the seemingly perfect coupling of Ryan and Quaid came to an end in 2000.
Although the breakup was widely believed to have been a result of Ryan's short-lived affair with Crowe, whom she met on the set of Proof of Life, Ryan revealed last year that Quaid had been unfaithful to her for much of their marriage. Regardless of what the couple's true problems were, most of us still blame the Aussie bad boy for America's Sweetheart's fall from grace.
4. Debbie Reynolds/Eddie Fisher/Elizabeth Taylor
This triangle is of the best-known scandals in Hollywood history. When Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd died in 1958, his best friend, Fisher, was there to comfort the grieving widow and eventually fell in love with her, much to the dismay of Fisher's wife, Reynolds.
Fisher divorced Reynolds and married Taylor the following year, and Taylor's reputation as a femme fatale was born. Four years later, while filming Cleopatra, Taylor found herself at the center of another triangle when she fell in love with her co-star, Richard Burton, for whom she left Fisher in 1964.
5. Mia Farrow/Woody Allen/Soon-Yi Previn
In one of the ickiest love scandals in recent memory, the 12-year relationship between Farrow and Allen ended in 1992 when Farrow found Allen with naked pictures of her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi.
Though most people felt that Allen and Soon-Yi's relationship was akin to incest, Soon-Yi has claimed that she never viewed Allen as a father.
The pair married in 1997 and has somehow managed to become one of the longest-lasting celeb couples in Hollywood.
Becky Broderick is a freelance writer whose childhood dream was to grow up to be Olivia Newton-John. In addition to her work for YourTango, Becky writes TV recaps and features for Starpulse.com and authors The Pop Eye, a blog which serves as a repository for much of her useless knowledge.