Your suspicion is true: There really is an Oscar curse. Best Actress nominees have a sky-high 60 percent divorce rate and the winners are more than one and a half times more likely to divorce than the leading ladies they’re up against. This reel of Best Actress winners wound up single after shacking up with Oscar.
MORE: The Oscar Curse: Are Successful Women Unlucky in Love?
1Katharine Hepburn, “Morning Glory” (1933)
Named the most iconic leading lady of all time, Katharine Hepburn’s 60-year career and record-breaking four Best Actress Oscars made her more successful than most of the men in her life. Her only marriage ended the year she won her first Oscar and she settled instead for a 26-year affair with married actor Spencer Tracy. She described it as “absolute bliss,” though she was always the other woman.
2Ginger Rogers, “Kitty Foyle” (1940)
Screen legend Ginger Rogers, best known as Fred Astaire’s love interest in some of the most iconic Hollywood musicals, made a lot of movies—and divorced a lot of men (five, to be exact). She and her second husband, actor Lew Ayres, split the same year she won Best Actress for her title role in “Kitty Foyle.”
3Ingrid Bergman, “Anastasia” (1957)
Best known as Humphrey Bogart’s gorgeous love interest in “Casablanca,” Ingrid Bergman won three Oscars, two Emmys, one Tony and a lot of hearts in her career. Her three marriages left a trail of heartbreak and her second—to Italian director Roberto Rossellini—ended the same year that she won the Oscar for her leading role in “Anastasia.
4Jane Fonda, “Klute” (1971)
Better known now for her workouts than her acting chops, Jane Fonda took home the Oscar for her role as a call girl helping to solve a missing person’s case in “Klute.” The next year, her marriage to French director Roger Vadim ended in divorce. She went on to become a household name—and rack up two more divorces.
5Julia Roberts, “Erin Brockovich” (2000)
Julia Roberts, still Hollywood’s favorite pretty woman, took home the gold for her title role in “Erin Brockovich.” Three months later, her three-year relationship with “Law & Order” star Benjamin Bratt officially fizzled out. (Of course, Roberts met her current husband while she was still with Bratt, so who knows if some other sparks weren’t already flying.)
6Halle Berry, “Monster’s Ball” (2001)
Halle Berry was a rising star when she became the first African American to win the Best Actress Oscar. Married to Eric Benet at the time, the bombshell couple split the following year.
7Hilary Swank, “Million Dollar Baby” (2004)
When Hilary Swank won the Oscar for “Boys Don’t Cry,” she hugged her husband, kissed him—and then totally forgot to thank him (she even read off a written list!). They survived that mishap and she thanked him first the next time (saying, “I like to think I’ve learned from past mistakes”), but a year later, the two called it quits on their 10-year marriage. Rumor had it he couldn’t handle her success.
8Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line” (2005)
Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Philippe seemed like a match made in Hollywood heaven until they shocked everyone by splitting a scant eight months after she took home the Best Actress Oscar for her role as June Carter in “Walk the Line.” With Ryan fading into oblivion (have you seen him since “Cruel Intentions?”) and Reese skyrocketing to stardom, her success may have pushed him over the line. They called it quits amid rumors that Ryan was cheating.
9Kate Winslet, “The Reader” (2008)
When Kate Winslet won a long-overdue Best Actress award for her role in “The Reader,” she and Sam Mendes (an acclaimed director and Academy Award winner himself) seemed like one of those quiet, strong couples that would stay above the fray. Alas, they too fell prey to the Oscar curse, splitting a year after Kate finally took home the top prize.
10Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side” (2009)
When Sandra Bullock should have been making headlines for her Oscar-winning role in “The Blind Side,” her divorce took top billing instead. A scant 10 days after her win, Sandra moved out amid a flurry of rumors that her husband, Jesse James, had cheated.
