Do you think Hollywood marriages are destined to fail?
Another Hollywood marriage is ending in divorce. Actress Kate Winslet and her husband Director Sam Mendes have amicably split. Do Hollywood marriages end because it’s harder to maintain a relationship in the spotlight?
“Technically, I don’t know if they have a higher divorce rate but nationwide its 50%,” says Dr. Jenn Berman, a Beverly Hills psychotherapist and relationship expert. “The fact is that being a big movie star requires traveling and when people are on set, they’re in close quarters with people they may have chemistry with. There are a lot of temptations.”
We can only imagine how difficult it is to maintain a relationship without a hint of jealousy. Kate has been in films with gorgeous actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio that require acting in intense love scenes! Even though Kate’s hubby directed her with Leo in Revolutionary Road , one of our experts believes this film played a part in their demise. “Not simply because of the steamy love scenes between Kate and Leonardo DiCaprio,” says Dr. Carole Lieberman, a celebrity psychiatrist. “It was the theme of that movie, the boredom and restlessness of a married couple whose marriage ends in disaster, that unconsciously eroded Kate and Sam’s marriage. They identified with the married couple in the movie and began dreading the outcome of their real life marriage, which was beginning to feel equally humdrum,” she believes.
Why else do these marriages fail? “Stars want their offscreen lives to be as exciting and dramatic as the changing roles they play onscreen,” says Dr. Lieberman. “It’s especially difficult when love scenes in the star’s own bedroom are not as passionate as the scenes they play for the camera.”
“I think very often that Hollywood marriages are built on a foundation of never neverland because they believe in their own scripts. Also, they often feel that issues that they have in the marriage will go away by themselves,” explains Dr. Gilda Carle, a psychotherapist and relationship expert. “A lot of people don’t want to put in the effort or the time or the pain that’s involved to make a marriage work.”
Do you think Hollywood marriages are more likely to fail? -Jennifer Murray