TILL death do us part may be part of the wedding vows – but if you’re exchanging rings in Las Vegas it might pay to have a prenup ready to go.
Lily Allen recently revealed her devastation at her split from husband David Harbour – four years after the pair got married in Sin City.
Lily Allen wore a 60s-inspired Dior dress as she married Stranger Things star David Harbour in Las Vegas[/caption]
The couple’s wedding – complete with Elvis impersonator and In-and-Out burgers instead of a wedding cake – was a classic Sin City ‘quickie’ but the marriage fell apart amid rumours Lily had discovered her husband was active on a dating site.
They’re far from the only celeb pairing to have tied the knot in the Nevada city, only for the marriage to end in disaster.
At least Lily and David can say they actually dated before getting hitched – unlike some of the couples to succumb to the Vegas curse.
Here we take a look at the other celebs whose Sin City dream soon became a nightmare.
Nicolas Cage and Erika Koike
Hollywood action legend Nicolas Cage married makeup artist Erika Koite in Las Vegas back in March 2019, having dated since April the year before.
But after only four days of being husband and wife, Cage filed for an annulment.
Cage hinted that Koike had another lover, saying he wasn’t aware of her “relationship with another person”, and also cited his ignorance of her “criminal history” as another factor influencing his decision to bring things to an end.
Koike had previously received two DUIs, and was also arrested for domestic violence in 2006 – although this charge was dismissed for lack of evidence.
The 61-year old star hasn’t spoken out much about what actually went down in those four days, telling the New York Times that he was “pretty upset about [the marriage] and the way things happened.”
Court documents reveal that at the time of marrying, they were “both drinking to the point of intoxication” before participating in the ceremony.
Cage’s marriage to Erika Koike lasted for only four days before Cage sought an annulment[/caption]
Cage later said that he was “pretty upset” about the situation[/caption]
The documents also add that Cage “lacked understanding” and had “reacted on impulse without the ability to recognize or understand the full impact of his actions”.
Leaving Las Vegas indeed…
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner
Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas married just hours after the Billboard Music Awards[/caption]
A Little White Chapel is famed for offering drive-through weddings[/caption]
After a year of dating, singer Joe Jonas and English actress Sophie Turner found themselves in Vegas for the Billboard Music Awards, where Joe and his brothers performed in their first awards show since their reunion.
And almost straight after the ceremony ended, the couple headed to a local wedding chapel to tie the knot.
The ceremony took place at A Little White Chapel, known for its drive-through “tunnel of vows” where couples can get hitched without stepping out of their car.
Attended by the other Jonas brothers as well as the rapper Diplo, Sophie walked down the aisle to the country song Speechless by Dan+Shay.
But famously, things weren’t to last – the couple became embroiled in a messy custody suite after Jonas filed for divorce in September 2023, taking the couple’s two daughters with him.
Their divorce was finalised in September of last year.
Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow
Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra tied the knot at the Sands Hotel[/caption]
The ceremony lasted just five minutes[/caption]
The famous crooner was nearly 50 when he met Farrow – who at the time was only 19 – back in 1964.
Two years later they were engaged, with Sinatra gifting the teen actress a 9 carat diamond ring.
Their wedding was quickly arranged, with the civil ceremony in a Las Vegas Hotel lasting a whole five minutes.
Farrow didn’t even bother with a proper wedding dress, instead pulling one out of her wardrobe, and she spent just $27 on a different dress for the reception.
“We decided to be married about 20 minutes ago,” Sinatra joked to a newspaper at the time.
But it was their age gap attitude to marriage that led to the couple divorcing only two years later, although they remained good friends until the singer’s death in 1998.
I would be falling asleep at the table at Las Vegas, trying to talk to people about their cats
Mia Farrow
Sinatra expected his new wife to give up her acting career, a situation that soon became unsustainable for the young star.
Farrow later told the Guardian: “Poor Frank, saddled with such a child. I would be falling asleep at the table at Las Vegas, trying to talk to people about their cats. He was very patient with me.”
Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon
After previous marriages to Tommy Lee and Kid Rock, Anderson announced in 2007 that she was engaged to poker-player (and Paris Hilton sex-tape co-star) Rick Salomon.
The pair wed in a half-hour long ceremony at the Mirage Hotel, Las Vegas – which took place in between Anderson’s appearances at her friend’s Hans Klok’s magic shows.
It was only a few months before the couple separated – over a crack pipe in a Christmas tree.
“[That] crack pipe has nothing to do with me,” Salomon later told a documentary. “But I am a crack head.”
After Salomon sobered up, the couple gave it another go and remarried in 2014 – though it only took three months before Anderson filed for divorce, once again.
Bruce Willis and Demi Moore
After only three months of dating, an unplanned trip to Vegas in 1987 saw Willis get on one knee.
And the couple were in such a rush, it seems, they didn’t even make it to a chapel – tying the knot in their suite at the Golden Nugget Hotel.
“We were moving to the gambling tables when Bruce said, ‘I think we should get married’,” Demi later recounted.
“We’d be joking about it on the flight there but suddenly it didn’t seem like he was kidding.”
The couple ended up renewing their vows in a lavish second ceremony with friends and family and went on to have three daughters together.
However, in June 1998 Willis and Moore announced their separation.
The pair remained amicable and Moore has helped to care for Willis in recent years as his health has declined.
Lily Allen and David Harbour’s Split
Lily and David began dating in 2019 and wed in Vegas on September 7, 2020.
The couple split in December amid rumours the Stranger Things star was ‘interested in other women’ and had an active profile on dating app Raya.
This week Lily revealed, on her Missing Me? podcast, that she was struggling with the “pain” of her break up and suffering panic attacks.
Lily admitted to her podcast co-star and best friend Miquita Oliver: “I’m finding it really hard to be interested in anything. I’m really not in a good place.
“I know I’ve been talking about it for months but I’ve been spiralling and spiralling and spiralling and it’s got out of control.
“I came to the Miss Me Christmas lunch and had a panic attack and had to go home. I went to see something at the theatre the other night with my friends Carla and Claire and I had to leave at half time.
“I can’t concentrate on anything except the pain that I’m going through.”
She also revealed she was taking a break from work but reassured listeners she has not relapsed into previous drug and alcohol addictions.
She added: “I do want to reassure people because there will be speculation because of the amount of time that I’m going to be taking away, that I’m going to drug rehab – I’m not. I’ve not relapsed.”
Britney Spears and Jason Alexander
In January 2004, at the height of her fame, Spears married her childhood friend Jason Alexander at the Little White Chapel after a night of boozing in the Nevada city.
Only 55 hours later, Britney and her team had the wedding annulled at the insistence of her family.
“I don’t even remember the night at all, but from what I pieced together, he and I lounged around the hotel room and stayed up late watching movies – then had the brilliant idea of going to A Little White Chapel at three thirty in the morning,” she recalled.
“I was just honestly very drunk – and probably, in a more general sense at the time in my life, very bored.”
Too bad for Jason, who later told ABC News that he had been “in love with her”.
Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck
After a rocky first engagement that came to an end back in 2004, Bennifer rekindled their romance and announced their second engagement in April 2022.
One month later, they tied the knot at the Little White Chapel in Las Vegas.
“Last night, we flew to Vegas, stood in line for a license with four other couples, all making the same journey to the wedding capital of the world,” Jennifer announced.
“In the end it was the best possible wedding we could have imagined. One we dreamed of long ago and one made very real.”
Sadly the couple’s second chance was doomed to failure – and J-Lo filed for divorce in August 2024, just two years after getting hitched.
Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra
NBA legend Rodman married the singer and model Carmen Electra at the Little Chapel of the Flowers in November 1998.
But only nine days later, claiming he was of “unsound mind”, Rodman filed for an annulment.
“It’s easy to get caught up in a moment,” Carmen later explained.
“You think it’s romantic, but then you realize,’God we did it in Vegas?’ It’s like getting a cheeseburger at a fast-food restaurant.”
Despite the annulment request, the couple made up and celebrated New Year’s Eve together – though they brought their romance to an amicable end in April, five months after marrying.
Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton
Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton head out with vials of each other’s blood around their necks[/caption]
Before the days of Brangelina, Angelina Jolie was in a whirlwind relationship with the actor Billy Bob Thornton – only dating for two months before tying the knot in 2000.
The couple became showbiz media favourites after some very public declarations of love – including wearing vials of each other’s blood around their necks and Jolie getting “Billy Bob” tattooed on her arm.
The pair wed in the Vegas’s Little Church of the West, with Jolie making the bold move of ditching the traditional white dress for a pair of blue jeans.
Despite announcing they’d adopted a child from Cambodia in March of 2022, the couple separated only three months later.
In a 2018 interview, Thornton claimed they’d “probably still be together” if not for lifestyle differences.
“Hers is a global lifestyle and mine is an agoraphobic lifestyle – there was a different path in life we wanted to take,” he added.
