The last time I visited on this topic was last April but with the rash of celebrity news over the last ten days, now is as good a time as any to take a look at the Hollywood power couples where it appears the marriages are failing or ending with the woman’s successful career continuing to skyrocket and the man’s appearing to be at best, underachieving compared to the wife’s.
In the last few weeks we’ve seen Britney Spears leaving Kevin Federline, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Philippe filing for divorce, Whitney Houston finally saying good-bye to Bobby Brown and before that, it was Hilary Swank filing for divorce from her husband Chad Lowe.
This is More Than Just a Trend
Traditionally, in most marriages, it is the woman who is financially dependent on her spouse. When she is not only financially independent, but leaps beyond her own spouse’s money drawing power, it can create problems in their marriage whether it’s a matter of balancing power, dependence or more. It seems to be a trend more and more that women are seeking to protect themselves by requiring prenuptial agreements of their own. Britney Spears had a prenuptial agreement. Reese Witherspoon does not. The financial fallout of that is that Witherspoon who will be receiving $29 million for her next film will have to split all income 50-50 with her soon to be ex-husband
Experts and lawyers cite celebrity marriages and celebrity divorces as educational experiences for the rest of us. We know that traditionally, women make less than men. Traditionally, the man brings home the bacon, even when the woman provides additional funds to the marriage – her husband traditionally brings home the larger amounts.
So when it comes to the financial success, fissures in a marriage can grow and deepen when the wife makes more money. Her husband can take body blows to his self-esteem and self-respect. So the question is, what happens next? How do people view Chad Lowe, Bobby Brown, Kevin Federline and Ryan Philippe? Each marriage is different and each couple equally different – but are these men victims? For Ryan and Reese, they were in the trenches together, but Reese has shot to superstardom and Ryan is more known for his independent films and art house features.
It’s easy to blame all of this on the money and the success of the women, but there are other factors that play into the destruction of a marriage including infidelity, substance abuse and mental, physical and emotional abuse.
We can point our fingers at Hollywood and blame their lifestyles for the reasons their marriages don’t succeed, but consider our own marriages and how well would they do under the microscope with the constant travel, the pressures of interviews, the hours and being apart regularly?
It’s easy to sit back and read about these marriages in our magazines, newspapers and blogs and shake our heads. But anyone who is married can tell you marriage is not easy and when it exists inside a fishbowl and there are people watching every step you make, every gentle touch, every harsh word and more – it’s surprising that any Hollywood marriage would last longer than five minutes and for most of these couples, I don’t think any of them rushed to the decisions they’ve made.
What have you learned from celebrity marriages?
Related Articles:
Celebrity Marriages – Lessons We Can Learn – Part III
Celebrity Marriages – Lessons We Can Learn – Part I