Even the most tragic love stories can build to a happy ending. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for celebrities who went through massive heartbreak before they found their happily ever afters.
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00:00This is an incredible tale. It's a love story. It's love against the odds.
00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for celebrities who went
00:11through massive heartbreak before they found their happily ever afters.
00:15Came to the point of regretting that year that I wasted saying no. I would have given anything to have had it back.
00:23Number 10. Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor
00:26You can't just come barging into people's lofts, wanting sex, then changing your mind,
00:30then telling them that they've been at a day spa for a week.
00:33Marriage is hard, even outside of Hollywood. Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor met on set
00:38in 1999, and the next year, they were married and expecting a child. They were together
00:44for 17 years before announcing their separation.
00:47Family was always a priority, but I think Ben and I both sort of started to grow in
00:52different directions.
00:53It was a shocker to longtime fans. Ultimately, the COVID-19 outbreak is what reunited them.
00:59Amid the anxiety and uncertainty of a global pandemic, they moved in together to co-parent
01:04their two teenagers through the 2020 lockdown. The time apart allowed for some growth, but
01:09the forced proximity allowed them to reconcile.
01:12They've been together ever since.
01:14We learned as we were going along, you know, together, and I think there's just a freedom
01:20in that. There's a freedom in the comfort of, you know, this relationship and the commitment.
01:26Number 9. Beyoncé and Jay-Z
01:28We built sandcastles that washed away.
01:36In 2014, an infamous video ripped from an elevator security camera spelled trouble for
01:42Beyoncé and Jay-Z's marriage. The singer's sister, Solange Knowles, was seen striking
01:47Jay-Z for undisclosed reasons. The internet was abuzz with rumors about Jay-Z's infidelity.
01:52Their next solo albums, Lemonade and 444, and the subsequent press cycle confirmed those
01:59rumors were true.
02:07Raw and powerful, they put their journey of healing on display for all to see. Being as
02:13famous as they are, Jay-Z's vulnerability and Beyoncé's strength required a lot of
02:18courage. They showed that even money and fame can't buy a perfect marriage.
02:22It's difficult to hear, difficult to say, it's difficult to, you know, to listen to
02:27that sort of pain, and you just have to be strong enough. You have to be strong enough
02:31to go through that, because on the other side, it's beautiful.
02:34Number 8. Patton Oswalt and Michelle McNamara
02:37There's a thing early on where Michelle is speaking to one of the cops, and she says,
02:42I just, I know that I'm grasping at straws right now. And the guy just says, Grasp a
02:46straw and work it into dust, because that's all we ever do.
02:50When Michelle McNamara passed away in 2016, Patton Oswalt was left to raise their daughter
02:56on his own. But alongside the memories and grief, she also left behind an unfinished
03:01manuscript. Still mourning, Oswalt assembled a team of his wife's colleagues to make sure
03:06her book about the Golden State Killer was completed and published.
03:10The log line right now is that I finished the book. I didn't finish the book. I corralled
03:14people around me, a fellow journalist, a friend of hers, a researcher friend of hers, her
03:19publisher. We managed to structure the book and make it make sense and have it get out,
03:23because her whole thing was, she goes, I just want this guy caught.
03:26McNamara's life's work, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, was released two years after her
03:31death to rave reviews and renewed interest in the decades-old cold case. The author's
03:37mission was to bring attention to the grisly, then-unsolved killings. Oswalt honored her
03:42memory by doing just that.
03:44She was about, let's give these cops the credit, let's give the survivors the credit for, you
03:49know, sticking together and forming friendships and making sure this, you know, this thing
03:53stayed alive. So that's, I'm kind of following her lead.
03:55Number 7. Terry Irwin and Steve Irwin
03:58Mate, I was just doing me routine Crocodile demos. I looked into the crowd and I've gone,
04:03have a look at this sheila, she's just beautiful. Next thing, the crocodile's trying to kill
04:07me, so I better concentrate on what I'm doing.
04:09The crocodile hunter's exploits were a family affair. Steve Irwin and his wife, Terry, shared
04:15a passion for nature and animal conservation up until his death in 2006. He died suddenly
04:21and tragically of a stingray attack. But he was doing what he loved. The pain and grief
04:26of losing her husband and the father of her two children was immeasurable. But Terry's
04:31love for him lives on.
04:32I had the best marriage in the whole world for 14 years, and I'm very comfortable with
04:37the person I see in the mirror, so I'm okay to be on my own now. And I'm lonely for Steve,
04:43but I'm not a lonely person.
04:45Irwin once said that his children's budding interest in their profession was his proudest
04:50accomplishment. Almost 20 years after his passing, the Irwin children, Bindi and Robert
04:55Irwin, continue his legacy on TV and at various zoos and wildlife preserves across the world.
05:01What are you most looking forward to?
05:03Being with you guys.
05:04Aww!
05:05Number 6. Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon
05:09How does it feel to write your story?
05:12Mostly lovely. It can be a little complicated. It can be at times kind of harrowing and intense,
05:19but I think it's also been pretty cathartic and lovely.
05:23In 2017, The Big Sick captured the hearts of moviegoers, grossing over $50 million and
05:29scoring an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
05:32Star and co-writer Kumail Nanjiani plays a comedian whose parents insist on arranging
05:37a marriage for him. Instead, he's thrown in the deep end when a graduate student he's
05:41been casually seeing becomes gravely ill.
05:44Apparently, there are good and bad comas, and the kind that they put around the medically
05:50induced coma are definitely, like, the good kind of coma.
05:54The story is based on his real-life romance with his wife, co-writer Emily V. Gordon.
05:59Her illness and the pressure Nanjiani faced from his family were all taken from life,
06:04inspiring a very real and heartbreaking rom-com.
06:07Despite these many obstacles, the two married in 2007.
06:11You woke up in May?
06:12I woke up in April.
06:13April?
06:14Yeah.
06:15We were married in July. Like, we literally just, like, changed everything about our life.
06:19We both quit our jobs, we moved to New York, got married, like, life is short.
06:25Number 5. Betty White and Alan Ludden
06:28It was a love affair. We really had, we missed 18 years by three days, but it was still a
06:33honeymoon.
06:34They were both titans of television. Betty White was one of the longest reigning sitcom
06:39stars, and Alan Ludden, who was also an actor, became widely known for hosting the game show
06:44Password.
06:45Their relationship played out on TV as White was a frequent guest on the show.
06:49I go to St. Louis, we're going to have a big fight, then I go to St. Louis and do King
06:53and I, then we make up and Alan and I are going to get back together again in Janus,
06:57Dennis and Skowhegan.
06:58Gee, I hope I can see it.
07:00Ludden's death from stomach cancer in 1981 ended their near-18-year marriage. It took
07:06White a year to accept his marriage proposal, but later, she said she'd have given anything
07:11to go back and have that year with him.
07:13Although his death was tragic, she said she never felt the need to remarry. No one could
07:18compare to Ludden. He was her happily ever after.
07:21To have had that experience, I mean, there's some people who go through their whole lives
07:24without having the love of their life.
07:25If you've had the best, who needs the rest?
07:30This journey has made me reflect on so many aspects of my life, especially regarding love
07:36and trust.
07:37The Canadian country music star's second marriage sounds like something out of a romantic comedy,
07:42but it came from a place of real pain. Shania Twain met and married legendary rock producer
07:48Mutt Lang in the 1990s. However, they divorced in 2010 when Lang confessed that he was having
07:54an affair with Twain's friend and assistant.
07:57But that's when the amazing plot twist came.
07:59Fred, who was her husband, obviously you both kind of leaned on each other.
08:05Yeah, we slowly became very, very good friends. We had many months of just trying to make
08:11sense of everything.
08:12Twain and the same friend's ex, Frederick T. Board, bonded over their shared pain from
08:17the affair and the fallout. Then they fell in love. The two were married less than a
08:22year after Twain and Lang's divorce was finalized.
08:25My favorite part of the whole ceremony was the kiss. I felt girlish at that moment. I
08:31feel kind of silly saying it, but it was sort of like a seal on things. So that particular
08:37kiss, out of all the kisses that we've had, was just very precious.
08:413. Gloria Estefan and Emilio Estefan
08:44It's a lot of things that people think that your life is beautiful, everything. We went
08:47through a lot of hard work, and you know something? It's beautiful to tell a story because people
08:51think that things become this.
08:52They became famous as part of the Miami sound machine, but these bandmates-turned-spouses
08:58have had their fair share of heartache and close calls. They had been married for 12
09:03years when they faced a life-threatening challenge.
09:05I was on my way to a concert, and I took a nap to be fresh, and I opened my eyes and
09:11thought we were there because the bus had stopped, and then boom, explosion.
09:14In 1990, Gloria Estefan was severely injured in a tour bus accident. Her spine was fractured,
09:20requiring emergency surgery. She had to undergo months of intense physical therapy to walk
09:25again, let alone sing and dance. Through it all, Emilio was by her side. Against all odds,
09:31she returned to the stage the next year.
09:34Coming out of the dark, I know the love that saved me.
09:40The Estefans are still going strong over 30 years later.
09:442. Tina Turner and Erwin Bach
09:47In the mid-1980s, Tina Turner was in the middle of a hard-fought comeback. Not only was she
09:52enjoying a second wind in her music career, but she was also several years removed from
09:57a disastrous and traumatic marriage to Ike Turner. Marrying again was the last thing
10:02on her mind. Then, in 1986, she met Erwin Bach.
10:06He was another kind of handsome. He was an unusual-looking man. Great eyes. So I got
10:12in the car with Erwin, and my heart was boom, boom, all red.
10:16Turner described her first meeting with the music executive as love at first sight. They
10:21were together for about 27 years before marrying in 2013.
10:25It's love. It's something we both have for each other. I always refer to it as an electrical
10:33charge. I still have it. I still have it.
10:36In her later years, Turner's health troubles saw Erwin donating his kidney to her. At the
10:41time she passed away, the two had been together for 37 years. She credited Bach with showing
10:47her that joy could come out of something painful.
10:50I really needed love. I just needed to love a person. The feeling of love in a person
10:56is very important to have.
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11:13Number 1. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
11:23Their story was immortalized in the 2005 biopic Walk the Line. Still, the real story behind
11:29Johnny and June Carter Cash's marriage is even more powerful than what could have been
11:34contained in a two-hour movie. Their deep connection and love for music sustained a
11:3835-year marriage, but it was also a tumultuous relationship.
11:42What was I thinking? I must have been crazy. Y'all are gonna blow this tour. You can't
11:48walk no line.
11:49Cash's longtime battle with substance use disorder was one they fought together. She
11:54stood by him all the way. One of the last projects they made was Cash's iconic Hurt
11:59music video, which became a fitting tribute to their love story. They passed away within
12:04months of each other.
12:05What have I become? My sweetest friend.
12:13Which of these famous couples are relationship goals? Tell us in the comments.
12:18It's exciting to be able to work with so many amazing people and have them help us and support
12:23us and guide us.
12:24So many amazing people, mainly me.
12:25Yeah, but I'm just talking about us as a unit.
12:27Yeah, absolutely.
12:28I don't think of us as separate. I guess you think of us as separate.
12:30Oh, interesting.
12:31I guess that's interesting.
12:32Interesting.
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