The Messy Rumors About Vince Vaughn & Jennifer Aniston That Resulted In A Legal Battle

For a brief spell in the mid-2000s, "Friends" icon Jennifer Aniston was romantically linked to fellow Hollywood actor Vince Vaughn. The two started seeing each other in 2005, striking up a summer romance while acting opposite one another in the 2006 romcom "The Break-Up." Coincidentally, Aniston and Vaughn would themselves break up the same year the movie was released. By all accounts, the split was amicable, and came as a result of the pair simply outgrowing what had been a healing experience for Aniston, in particular, following her then-recent divorce from Brad Pitt. However, messy tabloid rumors insisted that something else was afoot — and it got so out of hand that Vaughn actually ended up taking legal action.

In October 2006, The Sun, The Daily Mirror, and Page Six all ran stories claiming that Vaughn had shared an intimate moment with an unnamed woman during a charity event in London, citing photo evidence of the alleged encounter. These tabloid reports further claimed that Vaughn and Aniston had broken up mere days before the photo was taken, and strongly implied that Vaughn had been unfaithful in their relationship. In response, Vaughn sued all three publications.

As reported by the BBC at the time, Vaughn asserted that the photograph in question had been deliberately misconstrued, and categorically denied that he had ever cheated on Aniston. He also pushed back on the tabloids' claims that he and Aniston had broken up at that point, stating that they were still together as of October 2006. Unfortunately, no information regarding the outcome of Vaughn's legal cases is readily available online. However, we should note that Aniston herself has never publicly accused Vaughn of cheating and has only had positive things to say about him in the aftermath of their relationship.

In December 2006, two months after Vince Vaughn vowed to take the tabloids to court, his and Jennifer Aniston's reps confirmed to People that they had broken up ... for real, this time. "After Jennifer's trip to London several weeks ago, Jennifer and Vince mutually agreed to end their relationship but continue to be good friends today," they said in a statement. Notably, Vaughn had been living in London while filming the Christmas movie "Fred Claus," while Aniston primarily split her time between New York and Los Angeles, with this distance seemingly contributing to their decision to call it a day.

That being said, it also seems that the unwanted media attention that prompted Vaughn to lawyer up also took a toll on his romance with Aniston. During an interview with Playboy in 2015, he explained that while he enjoyed his time with the "Ferris Bueller" sitcom alum, celebrity relationships have their drawbacks. "You know, she's great," he said (via ABC News), adding, "For me personally — and I think most well-known actors who are together feel this way — I never enjoyed the paparazzi side of it. You like someone and you're spending time with them; that's separate and that was all fine. But I really spent most of that time finding ways not to be drawn into the attention."

As we mentioned previously, Aniston herself also looks back on her fling with Vaughn fondly. Speaking to Vogue in 2008, she described the "Psycho" actor as my "defibrillator," adding that he "literally brought me back to life" following her aforementioned divorce from Brad Pitt. She also reaffirmed that their breakup was no one's fault, saying of their relationship, "It sort of ran its course."