16 Celebrities Who Wrote About Their Exes In Their Memoirs — And Some Were Not So Nice About It
Britney Spears wrote about learning she was pregnant with Justin Timberlake's baby. At the time, he didn't want to be a father and urged her to get an abortion.
1.In his book, If You Would Have Told Me, John Stamos called out his ex Teri Copley for allegedly cheating on him with Tony Danza. He called the realization his "worst nightmare" and also said, "The blinds are closed, but the door is slightly open. I take a peek inside and see four feet protruding from the shabby-chic, floral-print duvet that once kept me warm. My Tiny Dancer is in bed with Mr. Porsche Speedster. They are sleeping. I can't tell who he is, but I recognize Teri's ass barely covered by the sheets. It looks like her new poster."
2.In her memoir, Down the Drain, Julia Fox describes her whirlwind relationship with Kanye West, whom she refers to as "the artist." After they first met, she wrote that he sent over a selection of clothes for her to wear — all were variations of the same skintight black jumpsuit. She added that later on in their relationship, when she was trying on outfits for Kanye, he told her, "I could get you a boob job if you want," but she refused. "His words stick to me like a piece of lint on my clothes. I can't shake off the uncomfortable feeling," she wrote.
3.In her memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney Spears recounted the painful experience of having an abortion after becoming pregnant with her then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake's baby. At the time, he didn't want to be a father. “But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy. He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young," she wrote. On the day of the abortion, Britney recalled having "excruciating cramps" and she "went into the bathroom and stayed there for hours, lying on the floor, sobbing and screaming." She continued, "Justin came into the bathroom and lay on the floor with me. At some point he thought maybe music would help, so he got his guitar and he lay there with me strumming it."
4.In her book, Inside Out, Demi Moore shared about the day she found out that Ashton Kutcher had cheated on her, a revelation that, ultimately, ended their marriage. She wrote, “Ashton had slept with a 21-year-old, in our home, while I was out of town. I remember the night they met. We were at a bowling alley with Rumer [Willis], and when he went to switch out our shoes, she gave him her number on a napkin. Or that’s what he told me at the time. When we got home that night and he showed it to me, I said, ‘That is just gross. We were there with our kid, and she was there with her mother and her sister!’ I had a visceral response — it was revulsion. So the fact that he then pursued her felt like a real ‘fuck you.’”
5.In her first memoir, We're Going to Need More Wine, Gabrielle Union wrote about how her first husband, NFL player Chris Howard, proposed to her with a "bucket of KFC on the floor." "I spent the whole day at the spa, and when I got back to his house, there was a rose petal path from the front door to the bedroom," she wrote. "At the end was Chris, down on one knee. He had a bucket of KFC on the floor, and he was eating KFC potato wedges with one hand while holding a ring in the other."
6.In her memoir, Unqualified, Anna Faris recalled falling for Chris Pratt before she ended her marriage with her first husband Ben Indra. She wrote, "Sure, I get to proclaim I didn't fuck Chris before I left Ben, but what is there to celebrate in that? It didn't make me a hero. After all, I wanted to, desperately. And I had feelings for him, obviously, even if I wasn't honest with myself about what those were. So while I didn't cheat, I'm not completely innocent, either."
7.In her memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey, Mariah Carey wrote that her marriage with Tommy Mottola was like walking on "a bed of nails." “In the beginning…I was walking on eggshells. Then it became a bed of nails, and then a minefield. I never knew when or what would make him blow, and the anxiety was relentless," she wrote. “It felt like he was cutting off my circulation, keeping me from my friends and what little 'family' I had. I couldn't talk to anyone that wasn't under Tommy's control. I couldn't go out or do anything with anybody. I couldn't move freely in my own house.”
8.In her memoir, Tell Me Everything, Minka Kelly recalled the toxic relationship she had with her high school boyfriend, Rudy. At one point, he wanted to film a sex tape, and she agreed, though when watching it back days later, she "hardly even remembered making the tape" in the first place. When Minka began to gain fame for her role on Friday Night Lights, Rudy allegedly tried to sell the video to the tabloids. She had to pay $50,000 to buy it back.
9.In his memoir, Pageboy, Elliot Page wrote about his secret relationship with Kate Mara, which happened at the same time she was dating actor Max Minghella. He wrote, "The first person I fell for after my heart was broken was Kate Mara." But while he was falling, he knew he was setting himself up for heartbreak because Kate was still with Max. "Everything with Kate was becoming more complicated, more loaded. I was feeling let down. Perhaps the excitement no longer outweighed the challenges," he added. "I was chasing something that could not be, letting lust overwhelm me."
10.Elliot also revealed that his Juno costar, Olivia Thirlby, was the "first woman I had a suitably consensual sexual relationship with." "We started having sex all the time: her hotel room, in our trailers at work, once in a tiny, private room in a restaurant. What were we thinking? We thought we were subtle," he wrote. "Being intimate with Olivia helped my shame dissipate. I didn't see a glint of it in her eyes, and I wanted that — done feeling wretched about who I am."
11.In her memoir, Open Book, Jessica Simpson wrote about John Mayer being obsessed with her during their on and off relationship between 2006–2007. "He'd dump me, then come back saying he had discovered he loved me after all. I always saw it as him mercilessly taking me in from the cold. Every time John returned, I thought it was a continuation of a love story, while my friends saw a guy coming back for sex with some foolish girl," she wrote. "I felt the full intensity of his obsession with me. And it was a drug to me. He studied every inch of my body, every detail of my face. He photographed me constantly, to the point that I worried he was keeping souvenirs before dumping me again."
12.Also in her book, Jessica revealed she had an "emotional affair" with Johnny Knoxville that started on the set of Dukes of Hazzard. At the time, Jessica was married to Nick Lachey and Johnny was married to Melanie Lynn Clapp. She explained that Johnny was one of the people she could be her "deepest authentic" self with and that he laughed with her, instead of at her. She even admitted to writing him love letters while her husband Nick was passed out in bed next to her.
13.In her memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, Busy Philipps revealed that she cowrote the movie Blades of Glory with her then-boyfriend movie producer Craig Cox and his brother Jeff — she even wrote a role for herself to play. But when it came time to pitch the movie to producers, Craig and Jeff took Busy's name off the movie and sold it themselves.
14.In his book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry wrote about falling in love with Julia Roberts, but ultimately, breaking up with her because he couldn't handle the pressure. "Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me. Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable," he wrote. "So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts."
15.In her memoir, The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher revealed that she had an affair with Harrison Ford while filming their first Star Wars movie in the '70s. At the time, she was 19, and he was 33, married with two kids. She said, "Harrison made me feel nervous. I got tongue-tied in his company, and clumsy. I was with him when we worked together and tried to avoid him otherwise, so as not to annoy him. It was more comfortable to hang out with the cast and crew, who were more fun and less immune to my charms. But when I look back with squinting eyes, I figure Harrison was scoping out the set in those early days. Not to have an affair, necessarily, but not not to, either. We were on location, after all, and a quiet jaunt on the side was almost expected."
16.Finally, in her other memoir, Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher wrote about her relationship with Paul Simon. They first got married in 1983 and then divorced a year later. “Then we dated again,” she wrote. “We were together for more than 12 years (off and on) and we traveled a lot. The last place we went to was the Amazon, which I recommend if you like mosquitoes. ... I was good for material, but when it came to day-to-day living, I was more than he could take,” she added. “We once had a fight (on our honeymoon) where I said: 'Not only do I not like you, I don't like you personally!' We tried to keep the argument going after that, but we were laughing too hard.”
