Every day the news media informs the eager public of yet another celebrity divorce. Sometimes it seems like the young stars of our favorite TV shows and movies are playing a giant game of Musical Marriage Beds. Fans wonder, a bit enviously perhaps, where they find the energy for all that marrying and divorcing.
But a youthful judgment deficit and an excess of hormones doesn't explain it all. It doesn't explain the recent announcement that Kelsey Grammer in his fifth decade and his wife of thirteen years are heading for divorce court. George Lopez at almost fifty and his wife Ann can hardly attribute their failing marriage to youth and inexperience. The same can be said for Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson after nearly a quarter of a century.
The reasons the marriages of famous people break up aren't that different from the reasons ordinary marriages break up. You would think people with the huge incomes many celebrities make would never have to fight about not having enough money. But many celebrities discover there is never enough no matter how much they have.
In an ordinary family people disappoint and fail and betray each other on a pretty regular basis. Things that could lead to divorce often don't because the partners decide to work it out. But an incident that can be managed privately becomes uncontrollable when exposed to the magnifying glass of public scrutiny.
People new to fame are often shocked at the toll it takes on their marriages. One of the thirty-three miners recently rescued from a mine cave-in is already getting a bitter taste of the downside of celebrity. How he and the others will cope in the days ahead remains to be seen.
However one of the thirty-three found his marriage threatened even before he reached the surface. It could not have been a good feeling when his wife discovered that her husband had a mistress. How many times worse must it have felt when she made the discovery in front of the entire world on live television.
Public humiliation is probably the hardest thing in the world to forgive. It compounds any other hurt or slight or betrayal. As long as the rest of the world is reminding you that you have been hurt how can you forgive and forget?
Many people attribute the divorce rate among Hollywood stars to recent declines in morality or religion or increases in tolerance. But the Hollywood marriage-go-round is nothing new. One has only to look at the personal lives of Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Liz Taylor to see serial marriages. Even silent stars like Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin put in time in the divorce courts.
A lot of ingredients can go into a marriage on the rocks. Celebrities have access to unlimited supplies of all the ingredients. They get more and better temptations to to be unfaithful than most people do. They have jobs that can be very stressful for long hours. They have access to whatever they think they need to help them unwind. They might be required to spend long periods of time away from their families. Problems can brew beneath the surface for months or even years until someone runs a car into a lamp post. When that happens it isn't a simple DUI. It's a trial in the court of public opinion on the way to a celebrity divorce.
But a youthful judgment deficit and an excess of hormones doesn't explain it all. It doesn't explain the recent announcement that Kelsey Grammer in his fifth decade and his wife of thirteen years are heading for divorce court. George Lopez at almost fifty and his wife Ann can hardly attribute their failing marriage to youth and inexperience. The same can be said for Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson after nearly a quarter of a century.
The reasons the marriages of famous people break up aren't that different from the reasons ordinary marriages break up. You would think people with the huge incomes many celebrities make would never have to fight about not having enough money. But many celebrities discover there is never enough no matter how much they have.
In an ordinary family people disappoint and fail and betray each other on a pretty regular basis. Things that could lead to divorce often don't because the partners decide to work it out. But an incident that can be managed privately becomes uncontrollable when exposed to the magnifying glass of public scrutiny.
People new to fame are often shocked at the toll it takes on their marriages. One of the thirty-three miners recently rescued from a mine cave-in is already getting a bitter taste of the downside of celebrity. How he and the others will cope in the days ahead remains to be seen.
However one of the thirty-three found his marriage threatened even before he reached the surface. It could not have been a good feeling when his wife discovered that her husband had a mistress. How many times worse must it have felt when she made the discovery in front of the entire world on live television.
Public humiliation is probably the hardest thing in the world to forgive. It compounds any other hurt or slight or betrayal. As long as the rest of the world is reminding you that you have been hurt how can you forgive and forget?
Many people attribute the divorce rate among Hollywood stars to recent declines in morality or religion or increases in tolerance. But the Hollywood marriage-go-round is nothing new. One has only to look at the personal lives of Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Liz Taylor to see serial marriages. Even silent stars like Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin put in time in the divorce courts.
A lot of ingredients can go into a marriage on the rocks. Celebrities have access to unlimited supplies of all the ingredients. They get more and better temptations to to be unfaithful than most people do. They have jobs that can be very stressful for long hours. They have access to whatever they think they need to help them unwind. They might be required to spend long periods of time away from their families. Problems can brew beneath the surface for months or even years until someone runs a car into a lamp post. When that happens it isn't a simple DUI. It's a trial in the court of public opinion on the way to a celebrity divorce.
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