An Oscar is a professional goal for many actresses but all too often it seems to come at the cost of personal happiness.
In the past, a surprising number of successful stars have split from their husbands in the months after their big win, which has got superstitious fans worried about the future of recent winner Cate Blanchett’s 16-year marriage to Andrew Upton.
But it seems they needn’t worry because the talented thespian has got a simple secret to a happy personal life: share an email address.
“We work together and it’s a way of synchronising our lives. I can see what he’s up to – it’s not that I don’t trust him,” Blanchett said in an interview earlier this year.
“I don’t think it’s more difficult for actors to have a good marriage than anyone. I think in the end a really important component of any relationship is honesty, and it also comes down to luck.”
And while some may want put the Oscars love curse down to bad luck there seems to be some statistical weight to it. A study conducted by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management concluded that Best Actress winners have a whopping 63 percent chance of their marriages ending sooner than marriages of non-winners. Interestingly, Best Actor winners aren’t at any higher risk of divorce after taking the little gold man home.
While Cate might have figured out how to beat the odds, see the stars whose private lives have fallen apart while their careers were on top.
Cate Blanchett with her husband of 16 years, Andrew Upton.
In possibly the most scandalous spilt in Oscar curse history, Sandra Bullock, who won for The Blind Side in 2010, was shockingly double-crossed by her motorcycle mechanic husband, Jesse James who admitted to cheating on her with a tattoo model.
British actress Kate Winslet took out the top nod for role in The Reader in 2009. Not long after Winslet split from director hubby, Sam Mendes.
When Reese Witherspoon accepted the Best Actress award in 2006 for playing Johnny Cash’s wife, June Carter, in Walk the Line she was married to fellow actor, Ryan Philippe. By the end of that year her marriage had fallen apart despite the couple having two children together.
In 2000 Hilary Swank won for controversial role Boys Don’t Cry. It was her first of two Oscars in five years but all that success couldn’t help her relationship. A year after walking away with the best actress prize for 2005’s Million Dollar Baby she split from husband Chad Lowe, whom she had called “my everything” during her acceptance speech.
Charlize Theron, who won in 2004 for Monster and in her acceptance speech she said of Stuart Townsend: “You are one hell of a partner to have. Thank you for standing by me.” While they lasted longer than most, the pair split after nine years together.
In 2002, Halle Berry got her hands on a gold statue for her gritty role in Monster’s Ball. While accepting the award she called husband Eric Benet “just a joy of my life” but the beautiful-looking couple split the next year after reports of Benet cheating surfaced.
Julia Roberts won in 2001 for Erin Brockovich but broke up with boyfriend Benjamin Bratt just three months later. They had been together for four years.
Gwyneth Paltrow won in 1999 for role Shakespeare in Love. At the time, she was dating a very hunky Ben Affleck but just two months after she took home the Oscar the couple broke up.
In 1998 Helen Hunt thanked her then-boyfriend, Hank Azaria as she got the Oscar for As Good As It Gets. Hunt gushed and called him “the very best man I know” and the pair married later that year. In just six months, they were divorced.
Jane Fonda won in 1972 for her role in Klute but divorced her hubby of almost eight years, Roger Vadim, a year later.
Liza Minnelli has been married a spectacular four times but at the time of her Oscar win in 1973, for her role in Cabaret, she was married to her first husband, Peter Allen. The pair divorced one year later.
Jane Wyman took home an Oscar for her role in Johnny Belinda in 1948. Wyman split from her husband, Ronald Reagan, that same year and remains the only ex-wife of an American President.
Vivien Leigh, pictured here with actor Spencer Tracy, won in 1940 for her role as Southern belle, Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. The young actress was married to Herbert Leigh Holman, who was more than 10 years her senior, divorced her husband shortly after her win.
