Whenever high-profile couples get married, it's all the media ever talks about for weeks. Sometimes the wedding is so huge, it gets dubbed the celebrity wedding of the year. This isn't a new trend though and the same can definitely be said about the celebrities of yesteryear. We're here to remind you about some of the most memorable — and some forgotten! — nuptials in the last half-century. Remember which marriage ended because of the wife's affair... with another woman?!
1953: Jackie O + JFK
The wedding of Jacqueline Bouvier and John F. Kennedy was perhaps the first highly-publicized celebrity wedding of the 20th century. Bouvier and Kennedy frequented the socialite pages in those days, becoming superstars by the time JFK popped the question. More than eight hundred esteemed politicians and socialites attended the nuptials in Newport, Rhode Island on September 12, 1953. The high-profile wedding was such an event that people in attendance compared it to a coronation, according to LIFE. Almost 2,000 fans even lined up outside St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church to celebrate the new Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy.
1960: Marlon Brando + Movita Castaneda
In 1960, Marlon Brando's sudden marriage to Movita Castaneda was the talk of Hollywood. In fact, people weren't even aware that Brando had married his second wife until he was asked about it in court according to the Times. Castaneda was a Mexican actress who starred in Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 opposite Clark Gable. Coincidentally, Brando would end up starring in the 1962 remake, but unfortunately, this is when his marriage with Castaneda came to a close. Over their two years together, they had a son, Miko, and a daughter, Rebecca.
1961: Martha + Andrew Stewart
Martha Kostyra was modeling to pay her way through Barnard College when she married Yale Law student Andrew Stewart in 1961, giving her the legendary name she is known by today. In true Martha fashion, she wore a wedding dress that she designed with her mother. The couple had one daughter, Alexis, born four years later, but unfortunately, the marriage didn't last. They separated in the late '80s and were officially divorced by 1990. According to Stewart's own daughter and other sources, the homemaking expert is actually a difficult person to work and live with.
1962: John Lennon + Cynthia Powell
When art student Cynthia Powell discovered she was pregnant with then-boyfriend John Lennon's baby, he said, "There's only one thing for it Cyn, we'll have to get married." With very few people in attendance, the wedding is said to have been a farce, as a jackhammer was going off at the time the nuptials were said, among other mishaps. Manager Brian Epstein insisted that they keep the marriage and pregnancy a secret so as not to harm the band's budding popularity. After the birth of their son Julian, Lennon wouldn't prove to be a great family man, eventually leaving mother and son by 1968.
1963: Barbra Streisand + Elliott Gould
Barbra Streisand was an up-and-coming actress auditioning for I Can Get It for You Wholesale, a musical in which esteemed actor Elliott Gould was the lead. Although they tried to hide their relationship at first, the rest of the company was on to them and soon, they were living together in a small Manhattan apartment above a seafood restaurant. They got married in Carson City, Nevada in 1963 and by then, Streisand's career was on the rise. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Gould, who Streisand reportedly viewed as a "stabilizing influence." The couple had one son, Jason, before their split in 1971.
1965: Larry King + Billie Jean
Female tennis superstar Billie Jean met Larry King in college, where he encouraged her to pursue tennis as a career. King himself had thought up the idea of a professional women's tennis tour and would eventually go on to be one of the founders of World Team Tennis. Billie Jean fell in love with King and the two went on to marry on September 5, 1965. However, well into her tennis career, Billie Jean realized her attraction to women and pursued an extramarital affair with her female secretary, Marilyn Barnett, who would later sue in a palimony lawsuit. King stayed with his first wife through this, but they eventually split but remained close.
1966: Mia Farrow + Frank Sinatra
Mia Farrow was only 19 when she met actor and singer extraordinaire, Frank Sinatra, who was 48. Sinatra was taken by Farrow and the feeling was mutual. Despite public criticism, the pair wed at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas on July 19, 1966. The ceremony was only 15 minutes and Farrow sported a simple white dress and a newly shorn pixie cut (which was allegedly only done to spite Sinatra). When Sinatra ordered Farrow to quit acting, she refused and went on to star in Rosemary's Baby despite her husband's protest. It was on the set of that movie that he sent her divorce papers after only a year of marriage.
1967: Elvis + Priscilla Presley
In 1967, Elvis Presley married Priscilla in a small private ceremony in a suite at the Aladdin in Las Vegas. Arranged by Elvis's manager Colonel Tom Parker, everything was shrouded in secrecy to keep the event as intimate as possible. In the middle of the night, Elvis and his party snuck out of his backyard and took a private jet loaned by Frank Sinatra to get to Vegas. Regarding her wedding day, Priscilla has said, "My wedding was very unusual. It was the people closest to us, and private, and that's how we wanted it. We didn't want a fan club. We didn't want a circus."
1973: Farrah Fawcett + Lee Majors
Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett were at the height of fame when they tied the knot in 1973. The year of their marriage, Majors was cast as Colonel Steve Austin in Six Million Dollar Man and Fawcett would go on to play Jill Munroe in Charlie's Angels in 1976. Their high-profile marriage would end by 1979, however, and their divorce would be finalized by 1982. The couple had no children together and it is suspected that the marriage ended when Fawcett became involved with actor Ryan O'Neal after Majors asked him to look after Fawcett when he went to Canada to shoot a movie.
1975: Hillary + Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton met Hillary Rodham at the library after she so boldly introduced herself to him when he wouldn't stop looking at her. According to The Knot, Bill proposed to Hillary on numerous occasions, but she kept saying no due to the uncertainty of her future following college. After seeing a house for sale and hearing Hillary mention that she liked it, Bill bought the house and told her, "Do you remember that house you liked? Well, I bought it, so now you'd better marry me because I can't live in it by myself." Bill and Hillary married in the living room of their new home on October 11, 1975.
1977: Donald + Ivana Trump
In 1977, "The Donald" got married for the first time to Ivana Zelníčková, a Czech model and supposed skiing alternate for the 1972 Czechoslovakia Olympic ski team. Trump's first wedding was a lavish affair at the Marble Collegiate Church and was officiated by famed minister Norman Vincent Peale. The Trumps went on to become prominent social figures in the '80s and Ivana even reportedly said, "in 50 years Donald and I will be considered old money like the Vanderbilts." Well, their marriage didn't exactly pan out how Ivana might have hoped and ended after Donald's scandalous affair with model Marla Maples.
1979: Eric Clapton + Pattie Boyd
Eric Clapton became friends with The Beatles member George Harrison in the late '60s, which is when Clapton met and became infatuated with model Pattie Boyd. She at first denied his advances and went on to marry Harrison, which sent Clapton into a downward spiral of alcohol and substance abuse. Just as he was recovering, Boyd and Harrison were breaking up and with Harrison's blessing, Boyd and Clapton tied the knot in 1979. Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr were all in attendance at the intimate nuptials in Clapton's garden. Unfortunately, Clapton's alcoholism and infidelity led to their eventual divorce in the '80s.
1983: Carrie Fisher + Paul Simon
Actress Carrie Fisher met musician Paul Simon on the set of Star Wars and "[once] they saw each other, no one else mattered to either of them," writes Peter Carlin, author of Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon. The two went on to date through the late '70s and early '80s before marrying in 1983 in Simon's apartment. The marriage lasted just under a year before they divorced, although Fisher and Simon would pick right back up after they started dating again. They are said to have shared a relationship that was, at times, tumultuous between Fisher's substance addiction and the couple's respective mood disorders.
1984: Janet Jackson + James DeBarge
Janet Jackson's 1994 marriage to R&B singer James DeBarge would only last 121 days. Jackson and DeBarge were childhood friends and they actually eloped after Jackson's proposal. They got married on September 7, 1984, but the marriage was annulled by 1985. "I was a young boy who loved a girl tremendously and things happened how they did. Janet and I were real close, but I guess not as close as I thought," DeBarge said. In 2012, he made headlines with the shocking claims that he and Jackson had a baby and that he believes she is still out there.
1987: Lenny Kravitz + Lisa Bonet
Musician Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet met in 1985 at a New Edition concert and became close friends. After moving in together in 1987, the couple eloped in Las Vegas on Bonet's 20th birthday on November 16th of that year. The following year, their daughter Zoë was born, but the marriage would only last until 1993. After an amicable divorce, the two remained close and Kravitz has even said on Oprah's Master Class in 2013, "We were very young... I see now what it was all about: It was really all about bringing this beautiful child to the planet. Zoë's mom and I now are best friends."
1992: David Bowie + Iman
Rock legend David Bowie married supermodel Iman on April 24, 1992 in a civil ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland. Only two witnesses and an interpreter were present during the nuptials. Their connection was instantaneous and undeniable, despite the fact that Iman didn't even think about marrying him at first. "I was not ready for a relationship. Definitely, I didn't want to get into a relationship with somebody like him." Still, after tying the knot in 1992, they would remain married for over twenty years until Bowie's death in 2016. The two had a daughter together in 2000 named Alexandria.
1994: Michael Jackson + Lisa Marie Presley
In 1994, the legendary Michael Jackson and daughter of the late Elvis, Lisa Marie Presley, married in a secret wedding in the Dominican Republic. While on vacation there, the couple drove to the house of a local judge and paid a small fee to be married in holy matrimony on May 26, 1994. When the judge asked if he would take Presley to be his wife, Jackson reportedly said, "Why not?" Although they tried to be so secretive that they didn't even tell their parents, a Dominican newspaper leaked the story and the marriage became a national scandal, especially since Presley had divorced her first husband just 20 days prior!
1996: Angelina Jolie + Johnny Lee Miller
Actors Johnny Lee Miller and Angelina Jolie met on the set of the 1995 film Hackers and by March of 1996, the couple tied the knot. Jolie, known to be quite a wild card in her early career, showed up to her wedding in black rubber pants and a T-shirt that had Miller's full name written on it with Jolie's own blood. The New York Times reported Jolie as saying, "It's your husband. You're about to marry him. You can sacrifice a little to make it really special." The young couple, of course, separated the following year and were officially divorced by 1999.
2000: Jennifer Aniston + Brad Pitt
After going on a blind date set up by their agents in 1998, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt became Hollywood's golden couple, dating for just over two years before getting engaged. On July 29, 2000, Brad and Jen tied the knot in a $1 million wedding at a Malibu mansion. America's favorite couple basked in the glow of Hollywood success for about four years before things started going south. By 2005, Aniston publicly announced their separation and they were officially divorced a couple months later. Many speculate Pitt began an affair with Angelina Jolie, his co-star in Mr. and Mrs. Smith towards the end of the marriage.
2014: George + Amal Clooney
George and Amal Clooney's high-profile wedding is one of the most memorable of the current times. The Italian nuptials were a truly star-studded affair with guests ranging from Anna Wintour and Cindy Crawford to Bono and Bill Murray. Amal donned an Oscar de la Renta-designed wedding dress at the ceremony in the Aman Canal Grande Hotel in Venice. The party didn't end there as the Clooney's then headed off for a civil marriage service to seal the deal. The party reportedly went on until five in the morning, before they headed to their honeymoon in London, where the bride's family threw another party.
