Trashy Divorces

On May 19, 1536, Anne Boleyn was executed on the Tower Green at the Tower of London, following months of scheming by Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. Alicia follows the final, pivotal months of the one-time Queen consort of England, the woman Henry had broken with the Catholic Church to wed, and the mother of the future Elizabeth I, from celebrations of the death of Catherine of Arago...

It is an exciting week for Alicia, and she wants to share her love, passion, and fervor of the Tudor Era with you - especially her love of Anne Boleyn! Next week marks the 489th anniversary of Anne’s death, and it is her time to shine within our trashy universe this week. In this episode, we explore the 17 surviving love letters that King Henry VIII penned during his courtship and early relationsh...

Continuing our exploration of the mid-century's most famous sisters sextet, we turn our attention to Unity, Jessica, and Deborah Mitford. If you thought the politics of the first three were fascinating, just wait: Unity adopted Nazism and befriended Adolph Hitler, Jessica was an avid communist, and Deborah married a Cavendish and became the celebrated renovator and promoter of Chatsworth House, th...

Hey friends, Alicia and Stacie here to tell you about a new show that we're really excited about. Our friend Rainbow Valentine has been collecting the stories of the first generation of women to have access to The Pill, Rock n Roll, and LSD. In her podcast Psychedelic Women, Rainbow talks to the women who lived and made the counterculture in 1960s San Francisco and, eventually, the world. It's a f...

Starting back in the Jazz Age of the 1920s, the six daughters of an aristocratic family became something of a sensation in Britain. The Mitford Sisters - Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah - traversed many orbits, from being members of the Bright Young Things to becoming avatars of the extreme politics churning through the UK as the horrors of World War II set in. Want early, ad-fre...

Following up on last weekend's Dumpster Dive story about the budding romance of Billy Ray Cyrus and Elizabeth Hurley, we're revisiting one of Liz's past paramours, Australian cricketer Shane Warne. First aired in December 2021, this guy deserves his legendary status both in cricket and among his Trashy Divorces alum peers. Crikey! Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorce...

Academy Award Nominee Jennifer Tilly is having a bit of a moment. After bursting onto the scene in the 1990s - after years of the usual Hollywood slog - she made serious cultural marks in films like Bound and as a scream queen in the Chucky movies and television show. She was also half of one of the least trashy divorces we've ever heard of, which is also how she became independently wealthy enoug...

Sometimes, we've gotta dive into that old dumpster to catch up on the fresh doings of our Trashy Divorces alums. Today, Stacie takes us through the latest messes in the lives of Billy Ray Cyrus, Ye, and Elon Musk. You will want to grab a shower after this. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at patreon.com/trashydiv...

One of the grosser stories we've lived through over the last several years is that of That 70's Show actor Danny Masterson, who has now been convicted of raping two women in 2003. Especially problematically, he and his victims are members of the Church of Scientology, and prosecutors made a strong case that the church itself worked hard to keep the survivors of his assault quiet for nearly two dec...

While Gypsy Rose Blanchard escaped her mother's incredibly abusive control by murdering her, the case was understandably a sensation. Gypsy Rose's childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood had been cruelly misshapen and stolen from her by her mother's abuse, and during her eight years in prison, media attention on what had happened to her only intensified. So too did contacts from young men who...

There are legends in baseball, but there are also cautionary tales. Cincinnati Reds icon Pete Rose, who hit more pitches than anyone else in the history of the game, is a lot of both. His ego was enormous, his personal life a dumpster fire, and even his teammates didn't particularly care for him. Hard to believe a guy like that could go bad! Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bo...

Since Cardi B roared onto the rap scene in 2018 with Invasion of Privacy , she's won all the awards and become one of the most celebrated artists of our day. But the notion of "invasion of privacy" is a little funny in our current era, where stars often seem committed to invading their own privacy by oversharing on social media. Which is our entrée into the tumultuous marriage and (ongoing) divorc...

Hello dahlinks! We've made it to the very last of the Glamorous Gabors, and the later years of Zsa Zsa Gabor. This episode follows her final marriage, to a fake prince that Zsa Zsa's daughter described as an "evil queen," the fake prince's legal action against that daughter, a robbery of the fake prince by a lesbian street gang, and of course, Zsa Zsa's Slap Heard Around The World. The Glamorous G...

In this penultimate episode of The Glamourous Gabors, we continue the saga of Zsa Zsa – what's next in the life of this cultural icon? We explore her relationships with a few more of her lovers, and a few more husbands too. Triumphs and tragedies – Zsa Zsa always brings the party. The Glamorous Gabors was researched and written by Melanie Shawn, with our deep gratitude. Want early, ad-free episode...

In this episode of The Glamorous Gabors, we continue Zsa Zsa's journey, and what a journey it was! Actor George Sanders, hubby number three, takes his turn around the martial dance floor with Zsa Zsa in this one. Also, Zsa Zsa finds fame and as well as a "karmatic" kind of lover with a legendary peppermill all his own, Porfirio Rubirosa. This one has everything you like, Trash Pandas! Want early,...

This week, we turn our attention to the middle - and certainly the best known - sister of our glamorous trio, Zsa Zsa Garbor. In this Part One of her life, we follow the irrepressible Zsa Zsa her through her first marriage - and perhaps an affair with the founder of the Turkish Republic, Kemal Ataturk - as well as her move to the US, where she promptly destroyed her sister Eva's first marriage, fo...

Dahlinks - hold on to your hats for the story of Magda Gabor, the eldest and perhaps the most undercover of the Glamorous Gabor sisters. Magda, continuing the family tradition of being well-versed in the art of falling in love and getting married, also had some nasty breakups. But there's so much more to her story, from her World War II experiences working with the Hungarian Resistance against the...

In this second and final installment of the life of Eva Gabor, we follow her through more marital misadventures, business acumen, affairs, and the possibility of marriage to Merv Griffin. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more? Join us at patreon.com/trashydivorces ! Want a personalized message for someone in your life? Check u...

The youngest of the Gabor sisters was Eva, and to say that Eva worked for the career that Zsa Zsa sauntered into would be about right. An earnest actor, Eva toiled in relative obscurity for a quarter of a century before landing the role that finally made her a household name: Lisa Douglas, a big-city wife whose husband decides to leave it all behind for the bliss of their very own Green Acres . Th...

Jolie Gabor, mother of the famous sisters, grew up in Budapest, Hungary, just in time for the tumultuous 20th century to unfold. Her mother's family was in the jewelry business - put a pin in that - and as a girl, Jolie dreamed of a life in the theater. Her parents were having none of it, and forced her into a not overwhelmingly wanted marriage that almost immediately produced three daughters. But...

The Gabor sisters were some of the most iconic cultural figures in the second half of the 20th century, having arrived on our shores from Nazi-occupied Hungary, where they experienced loss and engaged in heroic resistance. Along with their mother, Jolie, sisters Eva, Zsa Zsa, and Magda, stormed the mid-century zeitgeist and lived through extremely complicated family dynamics, as well as complicate...

Best known for playing TV's most complicated serial killer, Dexter, actor Michael C. Hall has had his share of romantic ups and downs - not to mention a private cancer battle in the midst of his brief second marriage, to Dexter co-star Jennifer Carpenter. His personal background certainly sheds light on some of the professional choices he's made, and which audiences have loved. We are taking our m...

It’s funny to think that back in the 1980s, a leak of nude pictures could cause a headline-grabbing scandal, but that’s exactly what happened to the first Black woman to ever wear the Miss America crown. Vanessa Williams, then 21, was roundly demonized in the press, and was subjected to intense public outrage for her supposed transgression. She was even forced to resign her crown, an overreaction...

In 1936, America was shocked by the details that emerged in a murder trial in New York City. A young heiress, romanced by an older German financier with deep ties to the Nazi party, decided to end things when it became clear that he wouldn't end his marriage to his wife in Germany. Dr. Fritz Gebhardt took Vera Stretz's rejection badly, a gun was drawn, and when police arrived around 2:30 that morn...

Back in 2021, Stacie was captivated by the tale of betrayal told by Barbara Berry, the first wife of superlawyer Johnnie Cochran. For years, he juggled two families and an eye-popping number of other mistresses, while also subjecting Barbara to physical and emotional abuse more directly. Want early, ad-free episodes, regular Dumpster Dives, bonus divorces, limited series, Zoom hangouts, and more?...