Apart from the perceived happily ever after ending of a classic rom-com, those celebrity hookups we see in the gossip columns infrequently work out. Not that every single one of them is doomed, but more often than not after a few years, the Brangelina’s and Bennifer’s of this world fall apart.

While there are several lessons from these failed relationships, not coming up with a portmanteau isn’t one of them. Divorce being expensive is one, and the reason, therefore, can be the same, no matter what the actual reason. Sometimes, you realize you don’t want to split, as one of these celebrity encounters proved.

Michael Douglas and Diandra Luker – $45 Million

Featured in the 2022 TV special “The 28th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards,” the American actor/producer Michael Douglas has been happily married to fellow actress Catherine Zeta-Jones since 2000. But tying the knot with the woman of his dreams may have cost Douglas a reported fortune of $45 million.

Douglas and his first wife, Diandra Luker, only finalized their divorce in 2000. After being together since 1977, the former couple’s separation was a lengthy and presumably painful one. In the end, Luker got away not only with $45 million but also with a massive Santa Barbara estate.

Phil Collins and Orianne Cevey – $34 Million

As the rock star that he is, Phil Collins has had his fair share of female partners. But the one that seemed to stick the most was Swiss national Orianne Cevey. The couple first met when she worked as his translator during a tour, and they got married in 2009.

They lived together in Switzerland but split up in 2006. Divorce didn’t stop them from being together either, and despite forking out $34 million on a settlement, Collins reunited with Cevey, and they lived in Miami. It all came tumbling down again when she secretly married another man while living with Collins. He sold the Miami house in 2021.

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills – $48.7 Million

In essence, Paul McCartney would have been a one-woman man. He was married to photographer Linda Eastman for 29 years and would have been married even longer had she not passed away unexpectedly. He tried to let it be and even attended therapy to handle her death.

He then married former model Heather Mills in 2002, and they had a daughter named Beatrice Milly McCartney. But the constant media scrutiny became too much for Mills, and she opted out of the marriage. The divorce was finalized in 2008, and Mills got a tidy settlement that amounts to $34K for every day she was married to him.