True love in Hollywood does exist. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the showbiz romances that prove not even fame and fortune is enough to prevent tragedy.
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00:00I just told her I loved her, said, sweetie, you're not coming back from this.
00:04Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the showbiz romances
00:08that prove not even fame and fortune is enough to prevent tragedy.
00:13I don't think that that's possible. He was my person.
00:2020. Steve Irwin and Terry Irwin
00:22Have a look at this, Sheila. She's just beautiful. Next thing,
00:26the crocodile's trying to kill me, so I better concentrate on what I'm doing.
00:29And I kept watching her, watching her. Sure enough, she stayed back.
00:33We started talking about some really hot wildlife issues.
00:36The Australian conservationist may have been an unlikely TV star,
00:40but his endearing personality and unwavering dedication to all things wildlife
00:45sawed him to international stardom in the 1990s via his show The Crocodile Hunter.
00:50Steve Irwin's passion for wildlife and its conservation was shared by his wife and co-star,
00:56Terry. Unfortunately, in 2006, at only 44 years old, a stingray injury resulted in his death.
01:02Though their story together ended, Steve's legacy lives on in their children,
01:07Bindi and Robert, who proudly took up their parents' line of work.
01:11Terry had said that she may never remarry,
01:13and that she's OK with having already had her happily ever after with Steve.
01:18Can you see another Steve Irwin? I just can't. I'd be like,
01:24I love that you're a librarian and the Dewey Decimal System is cool,
01:29but I gotta go jump a crocodile.
01:3219. Patton Oswalt and Michelle McNamara
01:36Comedian and character actor Patton Oswalt married true crime author Michelle McNamara in 2005.
01:42The two were heavyweights in their respective careers.
01:45Michelle would actually go to the crime scene and walk the case.
01:48Geographic connections, DNA profiles, genealogy websites.
01:52The first time she called me, I thought, hmm, she knows her stuff.
01:55McNamara's life work was a book about the Golden State Killer,
01:59a serial murderer who preyed on California in the 1970s and 80s.
02:03Sadly, McNamara passed away suddenly in 2016 before she could finish her manuscript.
02:09It's happening right as she's putting all this new stuff together, and then it's just
02:13cut off, and it's this, it lands like such a, you know, for me, obviously, because,
02:20but it lands like a body blow.
02:22Oswalt worked to ensure that McNamara's efforts were not in vain.
02:26He oversaw the completion and publication of her book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark,
02:30later expressing that finishing the book was as painful as it was rewarding.
02:34Michelle was so complex and surprising a person.
02:39It's impossible for me to ever just predict what she would have thought.
02:43It would be, she would have thought something that I could not have imagined or anticipated.
02:48That's what was so amazing about her.
02:5018. Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney
02:53Paul McCartney met Linda Eastman when he was still in The Beatles,
02:57and she was a photographer of famous musicians.
02:59Well, I was in England taking photographs for a book,
03:02and I thought I'd like to photograph The Beatles and Stevie Wynwood,
03:06who's a great favorite of mine.
03:08And we happened to meet down in a club.
03:10It's one of them.
03:11I pulled her down a club.
03:13The two married in 1969.
03:15Once The Beatles broke up, Paul and Linda fronted a pop band all their own.
03:19They released several incredible hit records under the name Paul McCartney and Wings.
03:23Only my love holds the other key.
03:29The couple created a beautiful family,
03:31and spent much of their lives together as champions of animal rights.
03:34But Linda and Paul's story came to an end in the late 1990s.
03:38She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995,
03:41and she passed away three years later at the age of 56.
03:44It's very easy to live in the shadow, isn't it?
03:47Did you feel a necessity to break out?
03:50No, I'm not really worried about that living in the shadow.
03:53You know, I love life, and I'll just have a good time.
03:56Shadow or no shadow.
03:57Number 17.
03:58Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco
04:01If any Hollywood actress was fit to be a princess, it was Grace Kelly.
04:06Her dignified and chic on-screen persona
04:08made her marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco seem all the more like a fairytale romance.
04:14Nobody talks of anything but the wedding.
04:16Far from the pumpkin coach of a Cinderella is the glamour of the great occasion.
04:21Yet all who love romance have made it their own treasured occasion.
04:24Their lavish wedding captured the world's attention.
04:27She never made a real return to movies after the marriage,
04:30instead prioritizing her duties as princess.
04:33I would like to be remembered as trying to do my job well, of being understanding and kind.
04:43In 1982, Kelly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage while driving,
04:47and she and her daughter Stephanie were injured in a car accident.
04:51Both were lucky enough to survive the crash,
04:53but while Kelly was expected to make a full recovery,
04:56she was struck with a second fatal hemorrhage at the hospital.
05:00Rainier never remarried, and when he died in 2005, he was buried beside his deceased wife.
05:06Pretty obvious that he was deeply affected and he wasn't quite the same man
05:15as he was before the accident.
05:1816. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
05:21With so many marriages comes a lot of heartbreak.
05:24After two divorces, Liz Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd, devastatingly died in a plane crash.
05:30Then there was her tempestuous marriage to Richard Burton
05:34that looms largest over her romantic history.
05:36I think having a fight, an out-and-out, outrageous, ridiculous fight,
05:42is one of the greatest exercises in marital togetherness.
05:48They were married in 1964, divorced in 1974,
05:52and then remarried a year later in 1975, only to re-divorce the next year.
05:57They were as electric off-screen as they were on,
06:00and the passion in their relationship inevitably destroyed it.
06:03We loved each other almost too much. It sounds silly.
06:07No, it doesn't.
06:08But it was so intense that it was almost abnormal.
06:16Taylor remarried twice more, but there was no getting over Burton, who died in 1984.
06:21Their former houses in Puerto Vallarta are still a tourist attraction for visiting lovers,
06:26with the bridge that connected them dubbed the Lover's Arch.
06:3015. Selena Quintanilla-Perez and Chris Perez
06:34The story of Selena's life is tragic enough.
06:36She was only 23 years old and on the cusp of worldwide superstardom
06:41when she was murdered by her friend and business colleague, Yolanda Saldívar.
06:45The performer left behind her husband, musician, and Selena y los Dinos guitarist, Chris Perez.
06:51Their love story was full of obstacles, including the disapproval of Selena's father.
06:56He said, he's like, whatever it is, it stops now. And being that I was taking it back,
07:03that could have been an opportunity to try to, you know, to say something and be open.
07:11But the only words that came out were like, OK.
07:14Selena and Perez eloped, estranging them from her family for a time.
07:18But tensions had eased by the time of her death,
07:21as Selena was about to release an English crossover album when she passed away.
07:25Their story has since been immortalized in films, print, and TV.
07:30I don't know why I love you so much.
07:32Oh yeah, why?
07:37Because I love you too.
07:3814. Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Syme
07:41Keanu Reeves' easy and warm demeanor can't have come easy
07:44if you know what he's been through.
07:46There's this sort of mythology that surrounds you, that you're sad.
07:50That, you know, there's this whole sad Keanu thing,
07:54you know, that you're someone who carries quite a lot of burdens around with you.
07:57He and his former partner Jennifer Syme were both waist-deep in the entertainment industry.
08:01Reeves was, and is, a movie star.
08:04And Syme was an assistant who had worked closely with director David Lynch for nearly a decade.
08:09Their two-year relationship was hit hard by their daughter's stillbirth.
08:12The grief was too much, and they ended their relationship.
08:15However, soon afterwards, they got back together.
08:18Unfortunately, their reconnection didn't get the time it deserved,
08:21because in 2001, Syme was killed in a car accident.
08:25Reeves marks the tragedy as a major turning point in his life.
08:29You'll go on and have a beautiful life, the one you deserve.
08:35I only want you.
08:38You have me forever.
08:4213. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn
08:45It was a known secret that the two frequent co-stars were lovers for over two decades.
08:50However, the circumstances that never allowed them to be open about their relationship
08:54were complicated.
08:55The Hollywood press, and at that time, the gossip columnists, they let you alone.
08:59They let us alone, because I think they thought that we made a great deal of effort,
09:05not to sort of parade ourselves around.
09:08Old Hollywood studios maintained tight control over bad publicity.
09:12Spencer Tracy, a lifelong Catholic, refused to divorce his estranged wife,
09:16who refused right back.
09:18Hepburn became Tracy's live-in nurse at the end of his life, caring for him in his final days.
09:23However, his legal marriage meant that once Tracy passed away in 1967, respect had to be upheld.
09:30Hepburn, who found his body, was left out of media reports of his death,
09:33and did not go to his funeral out of courtesy for his family.
09:38I was not his wife.
09:39Has there ever been a man since Spencer Tracy who really interested you?
09:43No, no, but I mean, then I was old, so it didn't matter.
09:4612. Brittany Murphy and Simon Monjack
09:49The deaths of Brittany Murphy and her husband, British screenwriter Simon Monjack,
09:53have captivated and disturbed fans for years.
09:56He was mysterious in the way of, like, who are you?
09:59But we didn't know what happened.
10:01All we knew is that this young 32-year-old Hollywood starlet had suddenly died.
10:07Rumors about Murphy's health and substance use disorder,
10:10as well as allegations about Monjack's past and his being a controlling husband, ran rampant.
10:17When Monjack died a few months later, however, it only reignited speculation,
10:21this time about everything from medical conditions to toxic mold in the couple's home.
10:26A 2021 documentary was released, but it didn't do much to illuminate the public,
10:31about one of Hollywood's biggest modern-day tragedies.
10:34I can't say why or what happened in that house.
10:38It became a really awful tragedy that should never have happened.
10:44But to the reason why it happened is very difficult to state.
10:4911. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh
10:52Two-time Oscar winner Vivien Leigh met Laurence Olivier on the set of Fire Over England.
10:57Their love affair was marked by career highs, lows, infidelity, and mental health crisis.
11:03While the two were purportedly irrevocably in love,
11:06Leigh's bipolar disorder and Olivier's affairs led to heavy emotional disturbances for them both.
11:12He couldn't go on, you know, it was exhausting him.
11:15Suddenly being awakened in the middle of the night by being hit in the face
11:19with a towel or something.
11:20They were divorced in 1960, although it was said their marriage was over long before then.
11:25Leigh died of tuberculosis in 1967. Despite being divorced and having found new life partners by
11:31then, Olivier rushed over to see her, even though she was already gone.
11:35Whatever you read, he spent a whole six hours, during which time he was quite hysterical.
11:40He was shattered. Jack rang him up, and Leigh went round,
11:43then saw the body, and he was absolutely shattered.
11:4710. Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio
11:50Blind dates can be disasters waiting to happen. But when the biggest movie star
11:54met the biggest sports star on one such date in the early 1950s, the world seemed to stop.
12:00He understood something about me, and I understood something about him, and we based our marriage
12:08on it. Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe's whirlwind romance was the stuff of Hollywood dreams.
12:14Their deep passion, however, belied a tense and sometimes violent marriage.
12:19DiMaggio was reportedly jealous of Monroe's status as a cinematic sex symbol.
12:23So you were around during that business that caused all the fuss with the skirt blowing up on
12:28the crew? I got very, very pissed off.
12:30Did he really, or was that just now? Really.
12:32Despite divorcing several years before, DiMaggio claimed the star's body after her death in 1962,
12:38and even helped with funeral arrangements. As the famous story goes, he would then send
12:43roses to her grave for two decades afterwards. A witness who was with him when he died,
12:48even said DiMaggio's last words were about Monroe.
12:51I call him in my book the demon lover, because once Marilyn dies,
12:57he remains utterly devoted and faithful to her.
13:009. Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams
13:03Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger met and began dating while playing a married
13:07couple in Brokeback Mountain. That was happy at work.
13:10For a reason we both understand. Yeah.
13:15You fell in love on that movie. I did. I did.
13:19The couple soon moved in together and welcomed their daughter to the world.
13:22In late 2007, however, they broke up, and not long after that,
13:26Ledger suddenly passed away mere months after completing his work on The Dark Knight.
13:32Though the two weren't together at the time of his death, his loss had a profound effect on Williams.
13:36I can find meanings in things and people and relationships that have
13:41sprung up and friendships that have strengthened. I can find a lot of meaning in that.
13:46But not in why.
13:47Both actors in this Hollywood power couple were famously hesitant
13:50about putting their personal lives on display for the public.
13:53But the ensuing media circus surrounding the end of his life,
13:57as well as rumors about what may have caused it,
13:59brought unwanted attention to the details of their relationship.
14:02I understand why people are so curious about your tragedy, the tragedy that happened to you.
14:11I understand. Sure. Yeah, I do. I relate to it.
14:198. Pierce Brosnan and Cassandra Harris
14:22Before he became the face of James Bond in the 1990s,
14:26Pierce Brosnan was actually married to a former Bond actress,
14:29Cassandra Harris, had appeared as a glamorous countess,
14:33romanced by Roger Moore, in 1981's For Your Eyes Only.
14:37What exactly did Columbo whisper to you?
14:40That you're a spy. To find out more about you.
14:45And have you?
14:48Have I ever.
14:49Harris passed away in 1991 from ovarian cancer at the age of 43. The actors had one son together,
14:54and after her death, Brosnan adopted Harris' two children from a previous marriage.
14:59Brosnan remarried in 2001, however, he is still a devoted advocate for ovarian cancer awareness.
15:05In 2013, Harris' daughter and Brosnan's stepdaughter Charlotte
15:09ended up passing away from the same disease.
15:12Watch someone you love have his or her life eaten away bit by bit by this insidious disease.
15:22That kind of sorrow becomes an indelible part of your psyche.
15:257. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard
15:29She was the blonde bombshell with a wicked sense of humour,
15:31and he was the virile leading man of swashbucklers and rom-coms alike.
15:36Together, they were a power couple. Though Gable had been romantically linked with many actresses,
15:41his relationship and three-year marriage to Lombard remains one for the books.
15:45They were two of the most beautiful people in Hollywood, and they were married, and
15:49they had this supposed idyllic life, so I think that they
15:53epitomise the glamour of a lost time, like a pre-World War II innocence.
15:59Things were sadly cut short in 1942. Lombard was on a tour selling war bonds when she,
16:05her mother, and Gable's press agent died in a violent airplane crash.
16:09His wife's untimely death spurred him to join the war effort,
16:12and he became a pilot in the Army Air Forces before making a return to films.
16:17Longtime friends would say he was never the same after losing Lombard.
16:21Carole Lombard was the love of Gable's life, and so she was the woman that he could never have
16:25again. He was the woman he could look for and try to replace and try to possess,
16:30but he could never replace her because there was only one Carole Lombard.
16:336. Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi
16:36He was easily one of the most charming leading men of the 80s and 90s.
16:41Patrick Swayze was a heartthrob for millions, but only Lisa Niemi got to call him hers.
16:46The two were aspiring dancers when they married in 1975,
16:50and were together until his heartbreaking death from pancreatic cancer in 2009.
16:55This journey, so far, has been a journey, and she's helped me get through it,
17:00whether it takes getting me angry, you know, whether it's calming me down,
17:04whether it's firing me up, whether it's inspiring me."
17:06Until the end, the two were devoted to each other. Niemi took charge of Swayze's care.
17:11She kept track of his medical records and medications, and made specifically
17:15prepared meals to keep his weight up. As a licensed pilot, she even flew Swayze to his
17:19cancer treatments. Though she has since remarried, Niemi maintains that Swayze's
17:24death wasn't the end of their love story.
17:26"...just because somebody's gone doesn't mean you fall out of love,
17:30and my wise friend said that's because love comes from the same well."
17:355. Lea Michele and Cory Monteith
17:38Glee was a cultural phenomenon with a dedicated fandom. So, when it was announced that co-stars
17:42and on-screen lovers, Lea Michele and Cory Monteith, were dating in real life,
17:47fans were immediately invested. For them, it felt like they had followed the relationship
17:51through the characters they played.
17:53"...I'm forever yours, faithfully."
18:03Losing Monteith so suddenly in 2013 was a crushing blow to Gleeks everywhere,
18:08and we can't even imagine the pain Michele went through. Monteith was only 31, but had
18:13struggled with substance use disorder for most of his adult life. In the series' fifth season,
18:17the show aired an entire episode dedicated to the death of his character, Finn Hudson,
18:22which served as a stand-in for a public memorial for the actor who played him.
18:27"...go to the ends of the earth for you, to make you feel my love."
18:384. Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner
18:40The former SNL cast member and Willy Wonka star were both high-profile celebrities when they met
18:46on the set of Hanky Panky in 1981. Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder married in 1984,
18:52and were by all accounts crazy about each other.
18:55"...to me, it's irresistible. A funny man is irresistible, more than any looks, more than any..."
19:01"...she was always a sucker for a big laugh."
19:03"...a sucker for a laugh."
19:04After the couple's several unsuccessful attempts to have children, Radner experienced pain and
19:09fatigue that went misdiagnosed. It took almost a year for Radner to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer
19:15that would later kill her. Wilder dedicated himself to advocacy about the disease,
19:19opening up foundations in her name. While they were only together for about eight years,
19:23these two comedic geniuses lived and loved enough for a lifetime.
19:28"...I don't know if you are going to make a masterpiece
19:32on the movie, but you are going to have a masterpiece in real life."
19:373. Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson
19:40Like many of the couples on this list, these two esteemed actors met when they became co-stars.
19:45Liam Neeson, the stage actor-turned-action hero, met Natasha Richardson, the product of one of
19:50England's foremost acting dynasties, while working on Broadway in the early 1990s.
19:56"...She and I were like a Stair and Rogers. We had just this wonderful kind of
20:03dance, free dance, on stage every night."
20:06They married and had two sons. In 2009, Richardson injured her head during a skiing lesson.
20:12Although she walked away from the incident seemingly unscathed,
20:15she subsequently passed away due to internal bleeding in the head.
20:18Neeson, at least, derives comfort in the fact that her organs were donated
20:22to keep three other people alive.
20:25"...Her heart, her kidneys, and her liver."
20:28"...That must give you a good feeling."
20:29"...It's terrific, yeah. It's terrific.
20:33And I think she would be very thrilled and pleased with that, too, actually."
20:362. Meryl Streep and John Cazale
20:39John Cazale, who gave stunning and subtle performances in some of the greatest movies
20:43of the decade, was an acting powerhouse. In 1976, he began seeing his very talented
20:48co-star and up-and-coming actress named Meryl Streep.
20:52"...Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above."
21:02Just as she was making her big break in movies like Julia and The Deer Hunter,
21:06Streep was going through an impossibly painful situation. Cazale was dying of lung cancer.
21:12Streep took all the time off that they could afford given the mounting medical bills and
21:16her budding fame to care for him. When Cazale passed on in 1978,
21:20it profoundly changed her as a person and artist.
21:24"...He was lucky enough to have as the last vision of his life, Meryl's lovely face."
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21:451. Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve
21:48In 1995, the Superman actor's life changed forever when he was thrown from a horse.
21:53Christopher Reeve stopped breathing for several minutes before being revived,
21:57and when he awoke in hospital, he was paralyzed from the neck down.
22:00"...The bottom, very bottom of my left foot, I can feel when somebody touches it lightly.
22:05When somebody touches it lightly, and I have feeling in my shoulders.
22:11And of course, my head and neck and all of that, my head is very sensitive."
22:14Initially, he expressed to his wife, Dana Morosini, that he didn't want his condition
22:18to become a burden on her. But she supported him through rehabilitation,
22:22and his grief over his disability soon transformed into a renewed sense of purpose.
22:27"...I think this is a real test of the wedding vows. He's my partner. He's my other half,
22:34literally. I couldn't, I don't, it's not within the realm of my imagination to do anything
22:42less than what I'm doing."
22:43They turned to humanitarianism, which they continued until Christopher's death in 2004,
22:48and Dana's own death from lung cancer only two years later.
22:52Which of these celebrity love stories had you heard before? Tell us in the comments.
22:56The notion that your life can change in an instant.
22:59I know I got kind of obsessed with that for a while, before and after. I mean, a lot of things died.