Unveiling the Cult of the Homewrecker: The Celebrity Saga of Love, Betrayal, and Redemption
The union of two people is the beginning of a ‘home’. Since home is where the heart is, it takes love to turn a house or any form of shelter into a home. ‘Home’ is a powerful figure of speech describing the magnitude of a bond taking on the proportions to it becoming a sanctuary to the parties involved. The term ‘Homewrecker’ describes any party that would disrupt or destroy the union. Infidelity depending on the context or the situation is usually frowned upon. It is arguably the highest form of betrayal. In pop culture, famous couples are held to such a high standard, the general public would superficially name, compare or measure their own love lives against the lives of celebrity couples. What happens to the person who decides to wreck the home of the celebrity couple?
In some cases the homewrecker is celebrated. Case in point Angelina Jolie. In the late 90’s and early 00s, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were seen as one of Hollywood’s favorite love stories. They had the perfect background both being successful superstars from successful tv shows. Brad Pitt was cast for a film called “Mr and Mrs Smith”, where Brand would co-star with Angelina Jolie. Rumor has it that the chemistry between the two was so strong they even got intimate on and off set. A passion of fire had sparked between the two co-stars, what made it worse is that Brad Pitt was married to Jennifer Anniston. The following year Jennifer filed for divorce. The industry loved Brad and Angelina together. The magazines would fuse their names “Bragelina” to express how in sync the couple were. Angelina was at the peak of her career during this time, it’s as if people cheered her on for stealing Brad from Jennifer.
Another case where the homewrecker is celebrated is in the world of sports entertainment (wrestling). In WWE back in the 2000s, there was a legendary faction which consisted of the tag team “ The Hardy Boys”, and a female member named Lita. Lita had been in a relationship with one of the hardy boys (Matt Hardy) during her tenure with the WWE. Somewhere along the line she began an affair with another prominent superstar named Edge. Edge was not shamed half as much as he was celebrated and even continued to have further success as time went on.
In some cases Hollywood is hard on homewreckers. A good Case study of this is Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys’ discography is filled with gems about sisterhood, women empowerment and the woes of women in bad relationships. Listening to her old music it sounds tailor made for black sorority members in HBCUs. However nobody would ever guess she would one day contradict the message in her artistry. Swiss Beatz is a producer for the legendary ‘Ruff Ryders’ record label. Swiss Beatz was in a long term relationship with and R&B songstress named Mashonda. Later into Swiss and Mashonda’s relationship, Swiss was rumored to have started an affair with Alicia Keys. Even though Swiss denies ever cheating, Mashonda vehemently stated with proof that Swiss indeed left her to be with Alicia, and furthermore Swiss did cheat repeatedly. Ever since those allegations arose and the fact Alicia never hid but actually stood tall with Swiss Beatz made her lose favor with her fan base. Her records never sold as much as they did before and people believed she wasn’t a genuine person. Even though Swiss, Mashonda and Alicia reconciled and even collectively wrote and put out a book called ‘Blended Family’, describing how they have chosen to heal and grow closer as a family. But Still Alicia remains shunned and seen as the scarlet woman, and she may never be looked at the same way again.
Enter Ariana Grande, a worldwide superstar who rose to superstardom from an early age. Ariana had the ‘innocent’ sweet girl next door image from her years acting on the Disney channel. She grew up to be a pop sensation with many hits world wide. She did not have that much negative attention when she came into the industry.
Her love life was much to be desired because it came with all manner of rumors and numerous entanglements. More specifically last year Ariana faced scrutiny over allegations involving entanglements. Such discussions have contaminated her once pristine reputation. That narrative around Ariana Grande being a cheater has actually been a topic of discussion for a long time. This conversation reached a fever pitch following her marriage to Dalton Gomez (a 28 year old luxury real estate agent from California). After the divorce she shortly entered yet another relationship after which as a result had the public and her fans questioning her morals towards relationships.
Ariana’s reputation as an ethically bankrupt lover goes way back. She was rumored to be in a tumultuous relationship with an Australian actor, Jai Brooks back in 2012. The two had been dating for nearly a year until they broke up in 2013 amidst rumors of Ariana cheating on him with English singer Nathan Sykes. After Jai went on social media and exposed Ariana for cheating, Ariana defended herself saying that Jai was falsely accusing her of her actions. The public chose to side with Ariana on this matter. After this scandal Ariana would jump in and out of different relationships until she surprisingly landed in the arms of Big Sean. Most fans were perplexed as to why Big Sean and Ariana would even be in a relationship when those two might as well be from different dimensions. During their time together they could be described as being obsessed with each other which in turn made it all the more confusing. This confusion was a distraction from the fact that Big Sean was previously in a relationship with Nia Rivera. The Glee star Nia Rivera (who is now deceased) claimed in her auto-biography that while in her relationship with Big Sean they had been fighting for five days, and on the day Big Sean was in Los Angeles he never tried to reconvene with her. Unbeknownst to Big Sean, Nia had a key to his apartment and when she walked into his house on that evening, she walked in to find Ariana Grande on the couch of the living room. Nia then stated she had no idea her and Sean were no longer getting married let alone being in a relationship. After her and Big Sean broke up she had multiple on and off relationships with several celebrities namely Mac Miller and Pete Davidson shortly after. It was rumored that Pete was actually in a relationship when he met Ariana but then broke up with his girlfriend via text message. Ariana even got engaged to Pete just for them to split up months after.
Ariana met Dalton Gomes and started dating him around late December 2019 and early January 2020. The public only knew about Ariana and Dalton when Dalton featured in her music video. Ariana and Dalton got engaged late December 2020. They got married on the 15th of May 2021. But in just 2 years the two separated in July 2023. Shortly after the separation (while legally still being married to Dalton), Ariana got into a relationship with her co-star Ethan Slater. While Ethan Slater was dating Ariana he himself was also still married to his high school sweetheart Lilly jane. Ethan also had a new born child with Lilly. What makes it worse is that Ethan divorced his wife just after Ariana divorced Dalton. Lilly Jane publicly stated it was all Ariana’s fault that her and Ethan didn’t work out.
“Breakup with your girlfriend I’m bored”, and songs like “Yes and?”She is clearly unapologetic and borderline proud of her behavior towards relationships. At this point there is little reason to maintain the image she once had. Or maybe this could be a marketing strategy. One thing for sure. No one can love Ariana as much as Ariana loves herself.
