Behind their fame, creative brilliance and mass amounts of power lay crumbling marriages that destroyed them completely.
Alma Mahler
Composer Alma Mahler married Gustav Mahler in 1902. But soon after their marriage she realized her husband wanted her to abandon her music career.
Gustav insisted there could only be one composer in the family. He wanted Alma to build her life around his career. Her serious work as a composer came to an end, and she would later speak of how deeply it hurt.
Their relationship wasn’t exactly one of abuse or misery. They cared about and loved each other, and had two daughters together. But Alma did grow to regret giving up her career.
Hedy Lamarr
When she was nineteen years old, Hedy Lamarr married wealthy Austrian arms manufacturer Fritz Mandl. She soon found the marriage controlling.
Mandl didn’t like her acting career and was particularly disturbed when she agreed to make Ecstasy. He also expected her to attend his weapons and ammunition business meetings.
Lamarr would later say it was the unhappiest time of her life. She divorced Mandl in 1937 and eventually immigrated to the United States where she became a well-known Hollywood actress.
Barbara Kuklinski
In 1961, Barbara Pedrici married Richard Kuklinski. To his wife, children, and neighbors, he seemed like a businessman who had it all together. What they didn’t know was that he was secretly a killer.
Kuklinski would later be caught and convicted of murder. He became known as the “Iceman.” Barbara claimed that she suspected some of his money was earned illegally. However, she said she had no idea that he was killing people.
She married a man she took for a businessman, not realizing he was secretly killing people.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots married Lord Darnley in 1565. The marriage turned sour within months.
Darnley was envious of Mary’s advisor David Rizzio and agreed to join a plot to murder him. In March 1566, Rizzio was killed in front of Mary. He was dragged from Mary’s chambers and stabbed 56 times while Mary, who was pregnant with Darnley’s child, looked on.
Darnley met a gruesome end as well. In February of 1567, the house where he was staying exploded and he was found dead outside of the wreckage. Instead of being killed by the blast, it appeared he had been strangled first.
Suspicion fell on many, including Mary’s eventual husband, Lord Earl of Bothwell. By choosing to marry Bothwell a few months later, Mary lost much of what remained of her political support.
Catherine Howard
Catherine Howard married Henry VIII in 1540. She was young, immature and her marriage to the King quickly became risky.
Catherine had engaged in se**al relationships before her marriage, but she ran into far more trouble after tying the knot.
While being queen, she became the secret lover of Thomas Culpeper, a man who worked for Henry. And Catherine’s love letter to Culpeper was later found, which in turn prompted an investigation.
Both Culpeper and his ally Francis Dereham were put to death. Catherine was stripped of her queenly title and imprisoned in the Tower of London. And on February 13, 1542, she was beheaded.
And by marrying Henry VIII, Catherine had put herself into a position where one mistake could mean losing everything, including her head.
Caroline of Brunswick
George IV’s marriage to Caroline of Brunswick was one of the worst among British royals.
The two married in 1795, but George allegedly despised his new bride almost instantly. They soon separated, but their mutual hatred would explode into very public warfare. When George ascended to the throne in 1820, he made an attempt to prove Caroline had committed adultery so that she would be barred from recognition as queen.
It backfired spectacularly. Her return to Britain was met with an enormous outpouring of public support, and the government’s attempt to prove adultery turned into a national political crisis.
The state of their relationship was a national talking point, a true mess for all to see. George gave up on the parliamentary route to divorce, and the bitter rivalry between him and Caroline lasted until her end.
Adele Morales
Norman Mailer’s marriage to Adele Morales would end with Mailer committing a grotesque act of domestic violence.
In November 1960, Mailer threw an all-night party at his New York City apartment. Early the next morning, he awakened his wife and stabbed her in the gut with a penknife. Morales suffered serious injuries, and required surgery.
Mailer was arrested, and spent 17 days in psychiatric care at Bellevue. Morales decided not to pursue criminal charges against her husband. Mailer was sentenced to a suspended sentence and probation.
Ronnie Spector
Ronnie Spector married legendary music producer Phil Spector in 1968. She has since described her marriage to him as a “nightmare of manipulation and emotional abuse.”
Ronnie recalled to Interview Magazine in 1991 that Spector kept her prisoner in his mansion in Beverly Hills. She recounted how there were gates, barbed wire and guard dogs surrounding the property. He would also tell her that he would have her killed if she tried to leave.
Ronnie would eventually escape the marriage and piece her life back together.
Phil Spector is now known for other reasons. In 2009, he was found guilty of the second degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson. He passed away in prison in 2021.
Tina Turner
Tina married Ike Turner in 1962, yet the very person who propelled her career forward also inflicted years of abuse during their marriage.
In 1976, Tina made a desperate escape from their hotel room following yet another brutal fight. She left in bloodstained clothing with only 36 cents and a credit card.
She had nothing left when she escaped. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.
Tina had lost much of the fortune she had accumulated with Ike, but she retained her name. And her name would become worth more than any money Ike ever stole from her. Just six years after that, Private Dancer catapulted her to even greater solo stardom.
Nicole Brown Simpson
Like many victims of domestic violence, Nicole Brown Simpson’s relationship with her husband O.J. Simpson became abusive over time.
Simpson admitted to spousal battery in 1989, an incident that was just one of many documented instances of domestic abuse during their marriage.
Their divorce did not resolve the ongoing conflict within their marriage. More recently, Nicole’s relatives have shared that she kept journals chronicling years of abuse.
In June 1994, Nicole was killed outside her Los Angeles home along with her friend Ronald Goldman.
Two years after his criminal trial where he was acquitted of both murders, Simpson faced a civil jury that deemed him responsible for the deaths and ordered him to pay damages to the families of Nicole and Goldman.
Primrose Shipman
Primrose Oxtoby first met Harold Shipman when he was studying to become a doctor. They married in 1966 when she was 17. There was nothing to indicate that her young husband would grow up to be Britain’s most infamous serial killer.
Shipman was eventually found guilty of killing 15 patients. However a later inquiry determined that he was probably responsible for the death of at least 215 people.
Even once he was convicted, Primrose continued to declare his innocence.
Maria Shriver
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver had it all together. The power couple met in politics and Hollywood. They tied the knot in 1986 and had four children.
Then Shriver found out about a long-standing secret.
Between 1984 and 1994, Schwarzenegger allegedly fathered a child with one of the family’s household workers. In 2011, he publicly announced the news. Schwarzenegger told Shriver about their son in a counseling session and the couple separated soon after.
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo wed fellow artist Diego Rivera in 1929. While their marriage was passionate, both Kahlo and Rivera were unfaithful and hurt each other throughout their marriage.
Rivera cheated multiple times, and one of his affairs was with Kahlo’s younger sister Cristina. Kahlo also had affairs outside of marriage, so there was betrayal on both sides that would eventually destroy their relationship.
After divorcing in 1939, they remarried just twelve months later. Their marriage, which was anything but a fairytale, swung wildly between intense passion, infidelity, divorce, and remarriage.
Sylvia Plath
Plath married poet Ted Hughes in 1956. The two had two kids together and seemed to be a shining example of literary brilliance.
After Hughes had an affair with Assia Wevill, their marriage fell apart. They separated in 1962 and Plath moved back to London with the kids. Plath spent her last few months writing many of the poems that would later be published in Ariel.
On February 11th, 1963, Plath committed suicide.
Mata Hari
Before she was a world famous accused spy, Mata Hari was born Margaretha Zelle and was a Dutch national. She married a military man named Rudolf MacLeod in 1895.
Reports indicate MacLeod was abusive and unfaithful in his marriage. With time, Margaretha and Rudolf separated. Mata Hari and MacLeod had two children, but their son died at a young age. Their daughter stayed with her father when the two separated.
Once divorced, Margaretha moved to Paris where she became the famous exotic dancer Mata Hari. And decades later she was accused of spying for Germany during World War I. She was executed by firing squad in 1917.
Her marriage didn’t lead her to become a spy. But her husbands actions and their broken family led Margaretha down the path to become Mata Hari.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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