9 Love Triangles That Completely Rocked Hollywood

Hollywood has always been interesting. For every fascinating story to come out of modern Hollywood, there's a story from Old Hollywood that rivals it. Old Hollywood was full of scandalous affairs, weird fad diets, nepo babies with no talent, nepo babies with lots of talent, movies audiences couldn't believe were made, instant classics, and more, with many of the stories still captivating everyone from the pop culture obsessed to people who don't even own a television. Everyone loves a good human interest story, and Hollywood has a way of attracting some very interesting humans.

Unsurprisingly, Old Hollywood was rife with love triangles. Even more unsurprising, Hollywood is still full of love triangles today. Even though love triangles are nothing new in Hollywood, they're always surprising, and some are so potent they impact more than just the immediate parties involved. Take a closer look at nine love triangles, old and new, that completely rocked Hollywood.

Courtney Love's public life has always been controversial, and one of her most sordid controversies involved two other people, Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan of Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins fame, respectively. The two frontmen were involved in a battle for Love's affection in the early '90s, and it reportedly started after Love traveled to Chicago to visit Corgan in an effort to get her band, Hole, a spot on a Smashing Pumpkins tour. While visiting Corgan, Love ran into Cobain, and the two hooked up, much to Corgan's chagrin. Love reportedly tried to reconcile with Corgan, but he told her, "Well, if you slept with Rockstar A, you can't come back to Rockstar B," per Far Out Magazine.

The rift between Corgan and Cobain remained as Cobain and Love went on to marry and have a child together. Tragically, however, the two leading men never got the chance to repair their relationship because Cobain died in 1994. Corgan and Love, however, did patch things up and even went on to collaborate on Hole's iconic album "Celebrity Skin." These days, Corgan and Love are close friends. "We'll talk every ... maybe six or eight weeks ... She's a furious texter, just put it that way. It's like a text storm, you know? And it can be about anything. We were talking about Rothschilds one second and then what's in the news the next, and it's all good," Corgan said on an episode of "The Allison Hagendorf Show" podcast.

Frank Sinatra was married four times throughout his life, with three of the marriages ending in divorce. Two of the Old Hollywood crooner's marriages nearly overlapped, resulting in one of the first famous love triangles in Tinseltown. Frank's first wife was Nancy Barbato Sinatra. The pair met as teenagers and married just a few years later. They welcomed three children during their marriage (including famed singer Nancy Sinatra), and Nancy eventually left her job as a secretary to accompany Frank while on tour. Unfortunately, Frank was infamous for his extramarital affairs, and about 10 years into his marriage to Nancy, Frank began a relationship with Ava Gardner, the famed Oscar-nominated actor.

Nancy knew about her husband's affair, but she was determined to keep her marriage intact. "I have something too fine and precious to give up," Nancy told The New York Times of her marriage at the time. Sadly, Frank didn't feel the same way, and he and Nancy divorced in 1951. Just days after Frank's divorce from Nancy was finalized, he and Gardner got married. The marriage lasted only about six years and was riddled with affairs from both parties. And while Frank went on to marry two more women, Nancy stayed single the rest of her life. According to Nancy and Frank's granddaughter A.J. Lambert, that was a positive in Nancy's life. "'Thank God I never remarried,' [Nancy] said. 'I was never even close. I would have had to be in love, and I would never fall in love again,'" the grandson told Vanity Fair.

Frank Sinatra's third wife was Mia Farrow. The two were married for just two years while Farrow was in her early 20s and Sinatra was in his early 50s. But that is not the relationship that resulted in a love triangle for Farrow. After her second divorce, Farrow began dating legendary filmmaker Woody Allen. While in a relationship, the duo made 13 films together and welcomed three children, two of whom were adopted. Farrow entered the relationship with several children already, and though Allen and Farrow never married, Allen acted as a stepfather to Farrow's children, including Soon-Yi Previn, whom Farrow had adopted with her ex-husband Andre Previn.

In the early '90s, after over a decade together, Farrow and Allen split up after Farrow learned that Allen and Soon-Yi were having a relationship. "I get why people can't believe it because who on Earth could believe that of Woody Allen? I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. Everybody admired Woody so much, loved him, and I did too," Farrow said of the relationship coming to light in the docuseries "Allen vs. Farrow." Farrow and Allen, unsurprisingly, didn't end their relationship on good terms, and neither did Farrow and Soon-Yi. While Allen and Soon-Yi have married and are still married, Farrow and Soon-Yi don't have a relationship. Additionally, Farrow doesn't have a relationship with another child of hers, and Allen doesn't have a relationship with two of his children.

Madonna once sang, "Rita Hayworth gave good face," and Madge wasn't kidding. Rita Hayworth's face was so good, in fact, that she had five different husbands throughout her life, and two of those men were fighting for her face at the same time. Hayworth's second husband was Orson Welles, the legendary filmmaker best known for writing, directing, and starring in "Citizen Kane." While filming a movie in Brazil, Welles saw a photo of Hayworth in a magazine, and he decided he would seek out Hayworth when he returned to the States. Welles did just that, and soon after meeting, the two got married and eventually welcomed a child together.

Even with a child, however, Hayworth and Welles' marriage was far from solid. Welles was allegedly involved in multiple affairs, and the two separated just a couple of years after marrying. But Hayworth didn't stay single for long. While separated from Welles, Hayworth traveled to Italy and met Prince Aly Khan, whom she started dating soon afterward. While Khan didn't have rule over anything (his title was one of courtesy by the British government because he descended from the Persian Qajar dynasty), he was a socialite and well known in Europe, which led Hayworth to move across the ocean to be with Khan. The two had a child together, but after just a couple of years of marriage, Hayworth and Khan divorced because it was also riddled with affairs (on Khan's end).

The end of Brandi Glanville and Eddie Cibrian's relationship was about as messy and publicized as any relationship in Hollywood. The model and the actor married in the early 2000s and welcomed two children during their marriage. Near the end of the decade, Cibrian starred in a film alongside LeeAnn Rimes, and they began an affair, officially establishing the love triangle. But it wasn't so much a triangle as it was a square — Cibrian also had an affair with reality star Scheana Marie, then-employee of Lisa Vanderpump, who co-starred on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" with Glanville.

Cibrian's relationships with Glanville and Marie ultimately ended, and in 2011, he married Rimes. But the drama between Glanville, Cibrian, and Rimes didn't end there. Because Glanville and Cibrian's children were still young, the two had to stay in contact, and it took years for Glanville and Rimes to become friendly with one another. "These days, I love LeAnn, who married Eddie in 2011. She's great and we all hang out together. I've forgiven her. We're going to be around each other forever because of the kids, so why not make the best of it?" Glanville wrote in an op-ed for The Sun in 2021. "Eddie and I still squabble, but it's like the three of us are doing the parenting — it's nice to have a third person and she's usually on my side," she noted. And while Glanville and Rimes appear to still be friends, Glanville still throws the occasional bit of shade at her ex-husband's wife.

Meg Ryan is the rom-com queen, but she probably would've preferred one of her on-screen storylines to what actually happened between her, Dennis Quaid, and Russell Crowe. Ryan and Quaid were married for most of the '90s, and they're still the quintessential '90s couple to many. Unfortunately, their marriage suffered as Ryan's career took off while Quaid was managing a drug addiction. In an episode of "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?" Quaid said of his former relationship, "I tried to be a big person and tell myself that didn't bother me, but people are human. She was ascending as I went into rehab" (via People).

While still married to Quaid, Ryan began seeing her "Proof of Life" co-star Russell Crowe, and the media was not kind to Ryan, labeling her a cheater. At the time, Ryan defended herself and Quaid, saying neither behaved poorly during their marriage and that no one really knew why they were divorcing. However, years later, Ryan shared more details about her relationship with Quaid, confirming prior suspicions. "[W]hat wasn't in the story was the reality of my marriage for nine years. Dennis was not faithful to me for a long time, and that was very painful. I found out more about that once I was divorced," Ryan told InStyle in 2008 (via "Today"). Ryan's relationship with Crowe didn't last too long either — those two split up before Quaid and Ryan's divorce was finalized in 2001.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

When two talented artists get into a relationship, things are bound to be at least a tad dramatic, but the relationship between Anjelica Huston and Jack Nicholson had enough drama to earn them both another Oscar. Huston and Nicholson began dating in the '70s after meeting each other at a party at Nicholson's house. They dated on and off for years, always finding their way back to each other after affairs. For example, Huston left Nicholson for Ryan O'Neal for a couple of years in the '70s, and Nicholson was notoriously unfaithful throughout his and Huston's entire relationship (Gomez Addams would never).

Despite Huston's desires to marry and have children, she and Nicholson never did. The final nail in the coffin of their relationship was Huston learning that Nicholson had been having an affair with actor Rebecca Broussard. And their relationship was about to become very serious because Broussard was pregnant with Nicholson's child. Huston and Nicholson split for good in 1990, and the end of the relationship devastated Huston. About five years later, the two reunited in the name of art, co-starring in the Sean Penn film "The Crossing Guard." The two, fittingly, played exes. "I was more surprised that [Huston] wanted to. As long as she did, that's good by me. She's got a lot of hideous things to say to me in the movie. I'm sure that's why she wanted to do it. I'm only kidding. But our scenes are all vicious," Nicholson said to Vanity Fair at the time.

Few Tinseltown tales remain as interesting as the iconic feud between Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor. The two were best friends, and they often spent time as a foursome, Reynolds accompanied by her husband, Eddie Fisher, and Taylor by her boyfriend, Mike Todd. At Taylor and Todd's wedding, Reynolds and Fisher served as matron of honor and best man, respectively. Reynolds and Fisher even named their son after Todd. The group was close. Tragically, Todd died in a plane crash in 1958, and in an effort to comfort Taylor, Fisher became even closer with the movie star. They got too close — Taylor and Fisher struck up an affair, and Fisher and Reynolds got divorced.

Taylor and Fisher eventually got married, but they also got divorced. While the affair ruined Fisher's career, Reynolds and Taylor became even more successful after the love triangle imploded, and both ladies went on to remarry (Taylor more than one man). "A man doesn't leave a woman for another woman unless he wants to go. You know, when Mike Todd died, I sent Eddie to help Elizabeth. I don't think she ever really loved Eddie. He was an interim interest during her mourning period," Reynolds told People in a 1983 interview. Reynolds and Taylor did repair their friendship, but Reynolds never reconciled with their shared ex-husband. All three parties have been gone now for years, but the story of their love triangle is just as fascinating as it must have been when the news broke.

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's romance was one of Old Hollywood's best-kept secrets. The two were in love, but their relationship stayed a secret from the public because Tracy was married to Louise Treadwell, and as a devout Catholic, he had no intention of leaving her. And he never did. Tracy and Treadwell stayed married throughout Tracy's entire life, with Tracy opting to sleep in hotels and rented homes instead of the home he shared with his wife. For nearly 30 years, Hepburn and Tracy continued their affair, never officially becoming a couple or merging their lives in any meaningful way. "I honestly don't know," Hepburn once said of why she continued seeing a man who was never going to fully be with her. "I can only say that I could never have left him. [We] just passed 27 years together in what was to me absolute bliss," she said (via Remind Magazine).

And what about Treadwell? An actor about Hollywood, too, surely she knew of her husband's extramarital activities? She sure did, and according to reports, she accepted her husband's affair. "I can get a divorce whenever I want to, but my wife and Kate like things just as they are," Tracy apparently once said to actor Joan Fontaine. Tracy tragically died in his late 60s, and while he was ailing in his final years, Hepburn finally moved in with him to care for him, and it served as the only time the two lived together throughout their decades-long relationship. Hepburn didn't attend Tracy's funeral, and she remained single the rest of her life.