If there’s a universal truth to being a celebrity in the 21st century, it’s that fans will dig deep into your personal business. That’s why you’re always hearing about who’s dating who and which couples just got married or divorced - the people want to know what’s going on in celebrities’ lives.
One thing that tends to get glossed over is first marriages. Many people know that Scarlett Johansson is married to Saturday Night Live's Colin Jost, but do you recall who she married first? Britney Spears had a brief marriage before moving on, but you’ve likely forgotten that husband's name.
This sort of thing happens because, for the most part, popular culture is focused on what’s happening now. Still, it’s interesting to look back and see who was hitched back in the day.
Drew Barrymore had a highly publicized marriage to fellow actor Tom Green, which ended in divorce, but before that, she was married to Jeremy Thomas. Thomas is a Welsh businessman who let Barrymore, who was 19 at the time, drink in his club. This was during a time when Barrymore was dealing with alcoholism, so the relationship didn’t start on the best of terms.
They married despite their 12-year age difference, and it was a whirlwind affair. They married in his club, The Room, and separated after only 19 days. Two months later, Barrymore filed for divorce, alleging that Thomas married her for her money and to obtain a green card. The divorce was finally completed in 1995, and Barrymore spoke about it later that year with Rolling Stone:
My ex-husband… The Devil… I just want to be free. That’s the whole point I’ve been trying to make since I was a child, and I’m still making it.
Fans of Uma Thurman know she was married to Ethan Hawke for some time. They share a daughter and son together, and were a power couple in Hollywood. That marriage ended in 2005, and it was Thurman's second divorce - she had married Gary Oldman several years earlier.
The couple met on the set of State of Grace, likely in 1989, and tied the knot in 1990. They were only married for two years, finalizing their divorce in 1992. While married, Thurman and Oldman kept the details of their relationship out of the spotlight as much as possible. Thurman has largely remained tight-lipped about her ex, but in 1996, she spoke with Vanity Fair about the relationship:
We met when I was 18. He was 12 years older. It was a crazy love affair that ended as it needed to. He was my first love. I had no prior experience.
Tom Hanks has been married to Rita Wilson since 1988. Because they’ve been married for so long, it’s easy to forget that Wilson is Hanks’s second wife and not the mother of two of his four children.
Hanks first married actress Samantha Lewes in 1978; they share a son, Colin, and a daughter, Elizabeth, known as E.A. Abuse allegations made by E.A. in her 2025 memoir cast a negative light on Lewes, who passed away from bone cancer in 2002. Hanks spoke to Access Hollywood about E.A.’s writing:
I’m not surprised that my daughter had the wherewithal as well as the curiosity to examine this thing that I think she was incredibly honest about. We all come from checkered, cracked lives, all of us. She’s a knockout, always has been. If you’ve had kids, you realize that you see who they are when they’re about 6 weeks old.
Tom Cruise’s marriages to Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes are well publicized, but his first marriage to Mimi Rogers often gets overlooked.
The couple married in 1987 and were together until 1990. They met when Rogers audited him for Scientology as one of her clients, and they developed a romance. Rogers claimed in an interview with Playboy that Cruise wanted to become a monk, which affected their intimacy.
She was allegedly threatened by the Church of Scientology over these claims and was told to retract them or her career would be destroyed. She later retracted her statement and walked away with a $4 million divorce settlement from her ex.
