Trashy Divorces

Today, Alicia has the sad tale of the King and Queen of the Jazz Age, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. Though they never divorced, the story is a great illustration of the reality that some marriages don’t work, and a lot of people would be better off ending a marriage rather than staying in it. That's what Alicia wishes that Zelda had decided, dancing away from their doomed marriage a century ago instead of disappearing into it. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The promise of ABC's The Bachelor is the dream of happily ever after, but as we all know, well-lit reality TV filmed in romantic locations doesn't reflect the reality most of us live in. And so it was for Rachel Lindsay, lawyer and the season 13 lead of The Bachelorette, who chose chiropractor Bryan Abasolo for her final rose, and married him a couple of years later. Unsurprisingly, it didn't last long.  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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Alicia is celebrating the 135th birthday of the mother of the modern mystery genre: Agatha Christie. And while Agatha Christie's novels held the public's attention, her disappearance in December 1926 galvanized the public and brought various personal scandals - namely, her husband Archie's infidelity - to light, in a way that nothing else could have. But to this day, we have no idea what exactly that 11-day period in the long life of Agatha Christie actually was. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's always exciting when celebrity worlds collide. In this case, it's reality TV star Kristin Cavallari and NFL pro Jay Cutler, and when they settled into matrimonial bliss early in the last decade, it sure seemed like things were great. In no time, the couple had three kids and were living it up in a Nashville mansion with camera crews documenting it all. But there was plenty left on the cutting room floor, and wouldn't you know it, divorce court was just around the corner. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 18th century, modern Germany continued to be a patchwork of various duchies, which kept German nobles in the marriage rotation throughout Europe. So it was that two brothers - Ernst and Leopold - came into the world in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1784 and 1790. One would become the King of Belgium, and one would be the legal father of Prince Albert, later the husband of Queen Victoria. We say "legal father" because apparently it's not 100% clear that Ernst's estranged wife, the long suffering Princess Louise, wasn't comforting her brother-in-law after the death of his wife, England's Princess Charlotte, whose death in childbirth prompted the Hanoverian race to reproduce that gave the world Queen Victoria.  It is, as they say, complicated. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Once upon a time, pop megastar Taylor Swift was an assuming teenager transitioning from a country music past into an unknowable future. Along the way, she met a Jonas brother, Joe, and for a few gossipy months in 2008, the pair were an item. And then... well, then a decade and a half of history and diss tracks would begin to slowly unspool. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Back in the early 80s, divorce lawyer to the stars (and Trashy Divorces alum) Marvin Mitchelson took on the biggest case of his career - and one that seems to have gotten away from him a bit. Sheika Dena al Fassi, the wife of Saudi businessman (and Saudi royal family member) Mohammed al Fassi, was filing for divorce, and estimates of Mohammed's fortune ran as high as $3 billion. On the one hand, Dena won the divorce case handily. On the other, Mohammed had long since left the United States with their four children and had no intention of paying the settlement that a California court ordered. Even decades later - even decades after both Mohammad and Marvin Mitchelson had died - Dena was still trying to collect on a divorce settlement that grew into the hundreds of millions of dollars through the magic of compound interest. This episode originally aired on Patreon on February 26, 2025. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the more casual observers of popular culture, Halle Bailey may only register as Ariel in the 2023 The Little Mermaid remake, but the more discerning know that this young artist has been doing the hard work, alongside her sister Chloe, since she was barely out of diapers. She excels in music - she and her sister have garnered five Grammy nominations and count Beyonce as their mentor - as well as acting, but one area of her life that maybe isn't up to her high standards is her love life, which lately includes a bitter split from ex-boyfriend and her baby's daddy, rapper and YouTuber DDG.   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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America swooned for Sex and the City, HBO's glamorous dive into the lives of four women in New York City at the bleeding edge of the 21st century. But early in the series run, there were already rumors of cast disputes, factions, and trouble on set. Had the show been less singular, and less beloved, the actresses likely would have emerged unscathed by the stories, but instead, Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker have spent two decades fielding questions about their alleged feud, and plotting career strategies around the will-it or won't-it return of their most famous work product. It doesn't sound like it's been easy for either of them.   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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Dumpster this week: We note the passing of Kelly Clarson's ex Brandon Blackstock at just 48. Please keep his four children in your thoughts. Actress, singer, Prince confidant, and other multi-hyphenate Apollonia (Patricia Apollonia Kotero), at the young age of 66, finds herself embroiled in a legal battle with Prince's estate over her name. Though Apollonia has been going by the moniker professionally since the 1980s, including while starring in Prince's Purple Rain film, and owns several trademarks for it, Paisley Park Enterprises is coming after her in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to try to cancel her ownership of her name.  And while the Biebers have managed to avoid entry in the Trashy Divorces Cinematic Universe (by staying married!), we are officially launching "Bieber Watch" after Hailey's strong assertion of the stability of their marriage in May's issue of Vogue. Yeah, we're late to the party - people have been proclaiming the end that marriage since they started dating! Also, Justin Bieber's Instagram shows him recently hanging out with fellow Disney Channel alum Kyle Massey, which caused a bit of an uproar online. Massey stands accused of sending nude pictures to a 13 year old.  Over in Hollywoodland, Leonardo DiCaprio has sat for a rare interview with Esquire Magazine and director Paul Thomas Anderson. In it, he explains that while he has entered his fifth birthday, his emotional age is more like 35. Seems high! Princess Lee Radziwill (and Jackie Kennedy's sister) Lee Radziwill's Upper East Side duplex is on the market - for a mere $17M. At 4,600-square-feet and with views of Central Park and Fifth Avenue, photos reveal a gorgeous home that's certainly out of our price range.  Finally, in Cardi B and Offset news, it seems that Offset may be a bit tweaked that Cardi has moved on with a New England Patriots player - and declared his crush on singer Sabrina Carpenter, though he could not name any of her songs.  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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's Dumpster Dive is sponsored by Incogni! Today in the Dumpster, we're diving right into: The midcentury fabulous Highlands, North Carolina, home that Burt Reynolds owned for a decade or so back in the 80s and 90s. It's on the market, so if you need a two-story monolith, a fire-warmed groove pit, or a stone shower, it can be yours for the low, low price of just $3.699M! If you're looking for some bad news about the 70s - both the decade of the last century and that era of life - the recent saga of Daryl Hall and John Oates might hit the spot. The septuagenarians have settled their lawsuits against each other, but it doesn't sound like either is thrilled. In the "stuff we completely missed" column, actress Laura Prepon married actor Ben Foster - Mazel! - and the pair have since divorced. Apparently their prenuptial agreement went a long way toward speeding that process, but both took the opportunity to fire a few reputational shots at the other.  It seems that the Beckham family - England's David and Victoria and their now-adult children - is bending like... well, like any dysfunctional celebrity family might. Son Brooklyn and his wife Nicola renewed their vows sans any Beckham family representatives, while the famously social media clan has kept mum about the Instagram blasts celebrating the event.  We covered the brief marriage of Oscar winner Halle Berry and Atlanta Brave David Justice years ago, but apparently David is still having - and expressing on podcasts - thoughts about that era of his life. Halle seems suitably unimpressed.  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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Sponsor Protect your privacy from data brokers, scammers, and more with Incogni. Use code Trashy to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan at incogni.com/trashy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The character of Alice Hyatt - a widowed mother who takes a job at a roadside diner on her way to a singing career - made a lot of sense to actress Linda Lavin. After all, her mother had been an opera singer whose aspirations were derailed by marriage and children, and by the time Alice premiered in 1976, Linda was living and thriving in a very different world than her mother had been able to enjoy. But things weren't all sunshine and kittens for the Tony and Golden Globe winner; her 1980s were punctuated by a very trashy divorce indeed. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Child actor Gary Coleman made a big cultural mark on the 1980s in his role as Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes - "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" was his notable catchphrase on the show. But the young man who emerged from the series in 1986 had a hard road ahead of him. Because of health issues stemming from his earliest days, he retained his childlike stature and appearance, and the $18 million he had earned as the highest paid child actor of the decade had been pilfered by none other than his parents. His life never got less complicated. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the passing of Loni Anderson this week, we pulled one of the trashiest divorces out of the vault for an encore this week. Oh, the 1980s were a weird time, and Loni Anderson and Burt Reynolds might have seemed like they could have gone the distance. However, it was not to be. It is a much bleaker portrait of a six-year long marriage, and a divorce without an end. It is also a story of surviving and thriving after an abusive relationship, and we applaud Loni for that from TDHQ! 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When longtime tennis partners - kidding, they were married - Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen announced that they were putting their racquets down back in April 2024, they noted that they had jointly filed for divorce in 2023. Which raises a question about why they chose to announce their split at that particular moment. Turns out, it might have to do with the release of a memoir from a former co-star - Rebel Wilson. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Trashy Royals crossover, Alicia reveals all the dirt about the OG of dictators, Julius Ceasar and his four-ish wives. Each of his wives served a needed purpose for Ceasar in their own time, and these stories get trashy! From young love to power alliances, this is a whole Roman Times soap opera featuring our wives, Cossutia, Cornelia, Pompeia, and Calpurnia. But that is not all – thrown in a little Cleopatra too, and this one becomes a legendary tale. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before he was conquering the music world with Guns N' Roses back in the late '80s and early '90s, guitarist Slash was Saul Hudson. London born and Los Angeles raised, his entertainment-industry parents did not provide the stability that a teen in the '70s and '80s would have benefited from. Consequently, young Slash found himself misusing a number of things, including an early marriage or two, and it took him more than a little while to find himself.  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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was a tough week for celebrity deaths - Ozzy Osbourne, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, and, of course, Hulk Hogan, who shook off his moral coil at the age of 71 on Thursday. We covered the Hulkster back in 2019, and in the handful of years since, he didn't stay out of the limelight. Most recently, he ripped his shirt off at the Republican National Convention as he endorsed another very public sex pest.  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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sally Field has been delivering standout performances on television and film since Gidget back in the 1960s, and has become one of the most beloved actresses alive. But none of this was foreordained, and she didn't stumble onto our television screens unencumbered. A difficult childhood and traumatic teen experiences didn't hold her back - but may shed some light on her glorious singleness after two divorces. Still, after watching Sally Field for a lifetime, all we can really say is that that we like her - we really, really like her.   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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our finale of the Wallis, Duchess of Windsor series, we spend time with the Duke and the Duchess in their time as the toast of international society. David and Wallis appear in all the best places and at all the best tables, but ultimately that is not a fulfilling life for either of them. 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 us out on Cameo! To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices