Trashy Divorces

Shakira isn't just a global pop phenomenon - she's also the rare Trashy Divorces subject who has never actually been married. But two very long relationships, scandalous breakups, and a shadowy hacker group's revelations about tax avoidance make this story a perfect fit anyway. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at...

We've got a special double-feature for you today with two listener favorite episodes - Stacie's telling of Fleetwood Mac around the time Rumours was made, and Alicia's story of the strange, sad, and short marriage of Stevie Nicks. Please wish us good car buying luck, and we'll be back this weekend with a brand new Trashy Divorces story! Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus d...

While we both hope that our ties to Alabama put us on track to be considered luminaries of the state, we'll never be in the same league as actress Tallulah Bankhead. Born into a powerful political dynasty in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1902, she won a trip to New York City at the age of just 15. She took it from there, landing movie roles and a reputation for her stage work that would take her to Lond...

In the mid-80s, New Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen was on top of the world. His album Born in the U.S.A. became the kind of chart topping achievement that even very successful artists are unlikely to ever experience. He was newly married to model and actress Julianne Phillips, and by all rights he should have been a person experiencing pure bliss, but instead, he found himself at war - with himse...

By the time of his death at just 33, singer Sam Cooke had become a bona fide superstar, as well as being an effective activist in the movement for Black equality in America. He had also been married twice, and it's in the story of his second wife, Barbara Campbell Cooke, where things get very complicated, very fast. Because Barbara did not attend Sam Cooke's funeral alone. She was escorted by his...

This week, we're taking the opportunity to catch up on some recent splits that may not have generated enough coverage to produce a full episode on their own. Alicia walks us through the recent divorce of country music stars Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd, Stacie explains how piano man Ben Folds has fulfilled the prophecy, and Alicia closes us out with the six year marriage of Pose actor Billy Porter a...

Today, Alicia takes us back to the Real Housewives universe with the story of a two-season cast member from the Miami edition, Joanna Krupa. And seriously, you're not ready for all the very many places this story goes. There's an oft-postponed wedding, TMI comments to tabloids, and a defamation lawsuit featuring none other than TD alum Brandi Glanville. Buckle up, Trash Pandas. This one is a lot....

Alex Kingston's career really took off in the mid-1990s, first portraying Dr. Elizabeth Corday on NBC's ER, and then in the late 2000s, as River Song, the mysterious friend who knew Doctor Who's future on the hit BBC series. Spoilers! All of it followed a devastating split from her partner of 12 years, and husband of two years, Ralph Fiennes. While playing Hamlet, Fiennes fell in love with the act...

Media mogul William Randolph Hearst can be cast as a hero or a villain of the 20th century, and plenty of writers have taken a stab at pinning down his legacy definitively. But one of the lesser remembered aspects of Hearst's life was his abandonment, in 1917, of his wife, Millicent, and their five sons, to spend the rest of his life with actress Marion Davies. One quirk of this arrangement is tha...

Baseball legend Babe Ruth, nicknamed "The Sultan of Swat" during his 22-season career, is a treasured piece of Yankees history, but not exactly a family guy! Turns out, he might even have gone to great lengths to limit the financial damage a divorce from his first wife could have inflicted. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and mor...

It's a big week for Tortured Poets, so we decided to take a long look at history's most famous one: William Shakespeare himself. Alicia explores the mystery around the true identity of the author of some of the world's most famous pieces of literature. Was it really the actor from Stratford-upon-Avon penning Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and all the sonnets, or was that a co...

Beverly Hills 90210 alum Brian Austin Green has grown up in the public eye. His first serious relationship was with Tiffani Amber Thiessen, who eventually became his co-star on the hit series, and then became his ex-girlfriend. Then, he moved on with another castmate, Vanessa Marcil, and while they got engaged and had a baby, they never married. It was with the 13-year-younger Megan Fox that Brian...

We think of him as Hollywood royalty, a star born of a star, but the truth is that Michael Douglas's father, Kirk Douglas, wasn't famous when Michael was young, and by the time Kirk was a box office winner, he was actively panning his son's college theater efforts to try to dissuade him from the biz. Obviously, Michael didn't heed that advice, and along the way, has managed to enjoy (or not) a ver...

And we're back, with a brand new episode of Sassy Divorces! Americans are almost certainly familiar with Judge Judy, the no-nonsense jurist who's hosted history's most successful reality TV courtroom since way back in the 1990s. And if you think the TV version of Judy Sheindlin is tough, wait 'till you hear about her in real life. When her first husband didn't take her career seriously, she chose...

Mary J. Blige has been on top for so long that it's entirely proper to refer to her as the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, but for all of her astonishing professional success in music and beyond, her personal life has featured more than her fair share of obstacles. After a mixed bag of relationships in her 20s, she thought she had finally found the one when she married her manager in 2003 - only to find he...

Friends, we were delighted to discover that one of our favorite podcasts had returned to production last year, and couldn't wait to have Allie and Sam from I'm Horrified! join us to talk about some of the relationship red flags that horrify them. It's quite a list, from two of our favorite people in podcasting. Be sure to check out I'm Horrified! wherever you listen to podcasts! Want early, ad-fre...

When actors Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek, Fringe) and Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim, Anne Boleyn) got together in 2018, it seemed like a match made in Hollywood heaven. But this is Trashy Divorces, so you can guess that the wedded bliss didn't last. After a sudden split in 2023, Jodie has been dropping epic, if somewhat cryptic, shade, and Joshua has recently been spotted vacationing with Lup...

When the beloved TV series Full House ended in 1995, actress Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner, had spent more of her life on the show than off. At just 13, she experienced a personal and professional shift that took her years to recover from. In the process, she experienced significant substance misuse and three marriages that were doomed to fail for various reasons - but today, she is h...

It's been another big week for a bunch of TD Alums, so we're bringing the Dumpster Dive back to the main feed! In the Dumpster today: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is engaged. Again. VanderPump Rules's Tom Sandoval is savoring his turn as the Most Hated Man in America. Miley's mom Tish Cyrus allegedly stole her daughter's boyfriend - then married him. Justin and Hailey Bieber may or may not be having...

ReesaMTeesa's epic "Who TF Did I Marry?" spans approximately eight hours on TikTok, with a whopping 50 video installments. Alicia watched them all, and in this Part Two episode, breaks down the last twenty or so videos that complete the disturbing story of her courtship, marriage to, and divorce from "Legion." Want early, ad-free episodes, Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hango...

If you're on TikTok, you may have already come across the massively viral "Who TF Did I Marry" series over there. TikTokker reesamteesa has a banger of a story about her whirlwind romance, quick wedding, and rapid divorce from "Legion," a man she describes as a "pathological liar." It's a shocking story - part mystery, part love gone wrong - that Alicia has been fully engrossed by, and in this Par...

Actor, comedian, and musician Cheech Marin stormed into the public imagination back in the 70's as half of the stoner comedy duo Cheech & Chong, but his career has long since expanded beyond weed-fueled road trip movies. Along the way, he's had ups and downs with creative partner Tommy Chong, gone through two divorces, and opened an art museum celebrating Chicano art. Alicia has the whole smoke-fi...

Actor and filmmaker John Derek may not have been the gifted auteur he imagined himself to be, but his luck with the ladies was undeniable. His four marriages were all to starlets, and his roving eye eventually led to an ugly split from a young Linda Evans, later of Dynasty fame, for an even younger - in fact, a minor at the time - Bo Derek. Want early, ad-free episodes, Dumpster Dives, bonus divor...

Not every big breakup is romantic, as songwriting and performing legends Daryl Hall and John Oates are unfortunately learning in the Chancery Court of Nashville, Tennessee. Friends since college, the duo spent years honing their craft before breaking out big in the 1970s, and giving the world some of the catchiest music around - Maneater, Rich Girl, Kiss on My List, You Make My Dreams, among many...

James Brown was known by a lot of titles: The Godfather of Soul and The Hardest Working Man in Show Business among them, but as Alicia shares, his personal life was more than a little bit of a catastrophe. From trouble with the law, to trouble with the IRS, to extremely abusive relationships with women, this musical legend's legacy is mixed at best. And was he murdered? Content warning: This episo...