Celebrities Who Broke Up While Pregnant

Celebrity relationships are dramatic enough without getting a kid involved, but when you add famous offspring into the mix, it sometimes gets even worse. If you think having a kid will save a relationship, think again — band aid babies don't work, even if you're rich, famous, and powerful. Not to mention that co-parenting, child support disputes, and custody battles add in extra layers of complications to breakups that are often already messy, painful, public, and far too drawn out.

From cheating allegations to accusations of deadbeat dads, baby mama drama, and expensive divorces, these famous couples all split up while the woman was still pregnant, and spoiler alert: almost every single one of these romances ended really badly. To this day, many of these Hollywood exes and co-parents still don't get along and can't seem to keep their issues to themselves. We're sure that their poor kids will really love that when they grow up and learn how to Google their parents. These are the celebrities who broke up while pregnant.

Christina Milian and The-Dream split up just nine days before the birth of their daughter, Violet. According to TMZ, the producer filed for divorce on Feb. 17, 2010, and Violet was born on Feb. 26 of that year. However, the public apparently didn't know about the split until that July. And the breakup was ugly: in a missive on his own website (via People), The-Dream claimed he was so distraught over the failed marriage that he tried taking his own life. Before the breakup was even announced, he dished in interviews that he didn't help out much in raising the little girl.

TMZ reports that Milian accused The-Dream of cheating on her and claimed the only reason she signed their initial divorce forms was because he presented them to her when she was nine months pregnant and in no condition to put her John Hancock on paperwork. Thankfully, the exes reportedly reached an amicable agreement by November 2010.

Heidi Klum's ex, Flavio Briatore, dumped her shortly after she got pregnant with their daughter, Leni, in 2003, and he's had basically no hand in raising the little girl — but he doesn't regret it at all, because Klum's then-partner, Seal, stepped in to be a daddy to Leni. "Leni is my natural daughter, but the three of us happily agreed that it made more sense if Seal adopted her, because a child needs to grow up in a family," the businessman told Italian newspaper Il Corriere Della Sera (via the Mirror) in 2015. "Heidi, Seal and I have built an amazing relationship. It's hard to miss a baby that you never see. But I know that Leni is not an abandoned child."

Klum welcomed Leni into the world in May 2004, Seal adopted her and changed her last name to "Samuel" to match his own, and the couple wed in 2005. However, Klum and Seal have since split and she's now married to rocker Tom Kaulitz.

Moesha actress Shar Jackson was engaged to dancer Kevin Federline when she got pregnant with their second child in late 2003. Unfortunately for her, by early 2004, K-Fed met none other than global pop superstar Britney Spears — and the "Oops! I Did It Again" singer inadvertently spelled the end of Federline and Jackson's engagement. In June 2004, Spears and Federline tied the knot, leaving Jackson in the dust. Jackson gave birth to son Kaleb a month after Federline and Spears' wedding. Though Federline and Jackson are amicable now, it was understandably an ugly situation for quite a while, with Jackson revealing in 2005 that she and Federline were still together when he began seeing Spears.

"How do you call yourself a human being knowing that you put somebody else through that pain? That's a vicious cycle right there, man," she told Sister 2 Sister magazine (via The Associated Press). "We gotta break that." She also said (via the Daily Mail) that Federline's abandoning her "wasn't like just breaking up a relationship. It was breaking up a family." The pair have since made peace, perhaps in part because Jackson also told Sister 2 Sister that she didn't want child support from Federline — just for him to spend time with their kids.

Tom Brady dated actress Bridget Moynahan for three years before their split in December 2006. One month later, Moynahan's rep confirmed that she was pregnant with the New England Patriots quarterback's baby. The timing could not have possibly been worse: Brady had already very publicly moved on with supermodel Gisele Bündchen, which left Moynahan understandably unhappy. She told More magazine (via People) in 2009 that she didn't find out she was pregnant until two months after her periods became irregular, so in the NFL star's defense, he didn't know she was expecting when he began traipsing around red carpets with the then-Victoria's Secret Angel. Still, Moynahan noted, "[Tom] was not in the [delivery] room. He was there on that day and came in afterwards. He certainly wasn't holding my hand while I pushed."

In April 2019, Moynahan told BUILD (via Yahoo! Entertainment) that she's "still working through" the aftermath of her public split more than a decade later, but revealed that she, now-husband Andrew Frankel, Brady, and Bündchen are all amicable co-parents now.

When Mary-Louise Parker was pregnant with longtime boyfriend Billy Crudup's son, William, in 2003, he dumped her for Claire Danes. Parker never spoke outright about the breakup, but did touch upon its impact on her life in her 2015 memoir, Dear Mr. You (via Jezebel). In one chapter, Parker writes a letter to a cab driver she encountered shortly after the split, whom she berated for getting lost. The driver said he didn't want her in his cab anymore, and she broke down, wailing, "No one does ... I am pregnant and alone ... I'm trying to get through it but I'm by myself every night and every morning and no one, nothing helps. I'm sorry I yelled ... Please, I know I am awful, it's been made clear but ... please look at me."

Meanwhile, Crudup hinted to the Los Angeles Times that he thinks his personal life temporarily affected the types of roles he was offered, but chalked it up to his own behavior, admitting, "Not that I haven't behaved like an [expletive]. That's common to human experience, and maybe I've done that as a public figure in a way that's hard to handle. But that's part of existence — dealing with frailties."

Despite their bitter split, these two have managed to successfully co-parent their son, who's taken to writing and directing his own work. In January 2020, Crudup revealed to Us Weekly that he and Parker even co-starred together in one of William's student films.

Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen married in 2000 after meeting on the set of Spin City. In 2005, the couple split when Richards was pregnant with their second daughter, Lola. In documents from the divorce obtained by The Smoking Gun, Richards alleged that Sheen was verbally and physically abusive and that she was previously discouraged from filing a restraining order because of the potential damage it could do to each others' employment and Sheen's own image. 

Richards also claimed that Sheen had told her he was sober and not entertaining prostitutes when they first began dating and admitted that she had believed him, but was wrong. Alleging that he began abusing prescription drugs, looking at disturbing pornography of participants that appeared underage, and gambling, she added that his behavior was allegedly accompanied by severe mood swings. Richards claimed Sheen was so furious when he found out she was pregnant with their daughter, Sam, in 2003 that he demanded she get an abortion. However, she noted that for a brief period after Sam's birth, he was "wonderful" — that is, until Richards stopped breastfeeding and wanted to vaccinate Sam, at which point Sheen reportedly once more became verbally abusive. 

Sheen defended himself in a statement, per People, calling Richards' claims a "smear campaign." Of course, it's Sheen, so all of this was only the tip of the iceberg. The exes' battles have continued off and on for nearly two decades, usually over child support payments.

Former Gossip Girl matriarch Kelly Rutherford announced she was pregnant with her second child by husband Daniel Giersch in December 2008. One month later, she filed for divorce, People reports, with Rutherford accusing Giersch, a German citizen, of being a flight risk. The divorce was extremely acrimonious — the couple fought a bitter international custody battle for nearly six years, and the California judge in the case said in a filing that Rutherford's own attorney called immigration and got Giersch deported (Rutherford denied the claim). After a long, drawn out case, People reported that Giersch won primary custody of his and Rutherford's son, Hermes, and daughter, Helena, because his work visa had expired so he couldn't legally come back to the United States. The children would reside with him in Monaco for most of the year.

In 2015, Hermes and Helena visited Rutherford and stayed with her for the summer, and Rutherford refused to send them back to Monaco as required by her custody agreement with Giersch. She lost custody entirely, the Daily Mail reported, and is now only allowed to visit her children in France and Monaco.

In 2007, Eddie Murphy "spectacularly dumped" former Spice Girl Melanie "Mel B." Brown when she was pregnant with daughter Angel Iris — after she allegedly said she wanted a break to mull over the future of their romance. The Daily Mail reported that Murphy initially denied paternity of the child until a DNA test proved the baby was his. The comedian wasn't a part of the child's life much until 2010, Brown claims. She said on her reality show (via the Daily Mail), "When the results of the DNA test came in and Angel was in fact, no surprise, Eddie Murphy's child, I encouraged their relationship from day one, and I didn't really hear anything for a few years. So this year it's been really, really nice that they've both been able to get in contact with each other and get to know each other. Unbeknownst to press and the media, Eddie and Angel have started seeing each other but it's always been behind closed doors."

In December 2018, Us Weekly reported that Murphy was taking care of Angel in Los Angeles while Brown recovered from broken ribs and other injuries at home in London. Sources said at the time that Angel and Murphy were spending quite a bit of time together, and he posed for a sweet photo with all 10 of his children, Angel included, that same month.

Rapper Nas and "Milkshake" singer Kelis split while she was pregnant with their son, Knight, in 2010. Nas told Complex in 2012, "There was a point where we were trying to hold onto a relationship that was finished. She was pregnant and in the studio while we were recording Distant Relatives, and [Knight] would move when the music would come on. That was a great feeling for me, just to have that feeling of family. It ended around the time the record was being done." Kelis had a bit of a different take on why the marriage failed, writing on Instagram (via Global Grind), "I divorced his cheating behind lol I don't want him back at all."

The split may have been even uglier than anyone imagined, however: in a 2018 interview with Hollywood Unlocked, Kelis accused Nas of being both mentally and physically abusive throughout their marriage, including while she was pregnant, as well as of abusing alcohol, and admitted to hitting him back during their altercations. Kelis also confessed that if she hadn't been pregnant, she may have stayed with Nas. Meanwhile, the rapper later denied her allegations on Instagram (via People), accusing Kelis of being verbally abusive to their associates and claiming her interview was in retaliation over their joint custody agreement.

In 2010, the New York Daily News reported that NFL legend Tiki Barber dumped his wife of 11 years, Ginny Cha, when she was pregnant with twins and on doctor-ordered bedrest — so he could publicly prance around with a blonde 10 years her junior, who interned at NBC when he was a talking head for the network's Today show. He then was reportedly surprised that she filed for divorce before their twins were born. (Cha and Barber were already parents to two children at the time of their split.)

"He was absolutely under the impression they were holding off on divorce filings until after the kids were born," an insider said, noting that the estranged couple were in "talks predominantly focused on the children" when Cha's attorney filed for divorce. The source added of Barber, "He wants joint custody. He has always been an involved father and wants to remain an involved father for all his children. Quite frankly, Ginny's side wants to limit his input."

Their divorce wasn't finalized for another two years, the New York Post reports, because of disputes about money.

Cosby Show alum Keshia Knight Pulliam and NFL linebacker Ed Hartwell were married for only six months — and together for just 10 months total — when he filed for divorce in July 2016, reportedly a week after Knight Pulliam announced she was pregnant with daughter Ella. 

Hartwell told Page Six at the time that the pregnancy was the catalyst for the breakup, and that he wanted a paternity test to make sure the child was his before he paid support: "She wanted a baby really fast, and what I was trying to explain to her was that ... when you first get married, especially since we didn't have a long courtship, that we should actually focus on each other." He added that the couple had stopped being intimate because of her desire to have a child, saying, "Some things just weren't adding up ... I just want to make sure it is mine."

Pulliam continued to insist the baby is Hartwell's. Following some delays in paternity testing — Pulliam reportedly called for a judge to "lock him up until he hands over his sample," per TMZ — Hartwell admitted he's the father in February 2017, after a DNA test proved as much. Fast forward to April 2020, when Pulliam called for Hartwell to be jailed once again, this time for allegedly missing $31,647 in child support payments (via Bossip). As of this writing, there's no word on whether Hartwell has settled this reported debt.

Stunner Elizabeth Hurley was in an 18-month relationship with millionaire Steve Bing when she got pregnant. He reportedly dumped her almost immediately and demanded a paternity test. Sources close to Bing claimed the Royals star "snookered" him into having a child, and that she reportedly refused Bing's urges to have an abortion (via The Telegraph). After son Damian was born in April 2002, and was confirmed by a DNA test to be his, Bing reportedly offered to pay generous sums to the boy, which Hurley refused.

A source told the Daily Mail, "Steve has always said that he would be generous if Damian turned out to be his son and he was happy to agree to pay £100,000 ($123,000) a year to his upkeep ... If she decides not to use the money it will be kept in a trust for Damian when he grows up." 

There was later a potential wrinkle in Damian's inheritance from his paternal grandfather's trust, which was specifically set up for the elder's grandchildren. Damian, who has since followed in his mother's footsteps by signing with Tess Model Management, scored a major win in court in 2019, after millionaire Dr. Peter Bing reportedly "tried cutting him out of his inheritance because he was born out of wedlock," per the Daily Mail. A judge ultimately ruled that Damian was indeed a beneficiary, and should receive "at least several millions" upon the trust's expiration in October 2020.

Outspoken DJ and producer Diplo's on-again-off-again girlfriend, Kathryn Lockhart, was off-again when it was revealed she was pregnant with their second child — and Diplo was dating Katy Perry at the time. Us Weekly reports that son Lazer Lee Louis Pentz was born in November 2014. Diplo and Perry split not long after the birth, but Lockhart and Diplo haven't publicly reunited since then. Still, they have always seemed really amicable.

Before their split and after the birth of their first child, Diplo told Ask Men of love and relationships, "I've learned a lot. You don't really have a chance with a real relationship unless you would give up everything for it. Now, I'm with an awesome girl with a baby, and I didn't plan it, but I couldn't ever ask for a better person to share this life with." He also admitted to Rolling Stone in 2012 that he and Lockhart "got pregnant by accident" with their first child and were living together, even though they weren't exactly dating anymore — adding that he had "local girls" in other cities.

Blue Bloods star Donnie Wahlberg may have broken up with model Michelle Tomlinson, but it wasn't because she was pregnant. It was because he was married to Kim Fey at the time, and Tomlinson was his alleged mistress. Well, sort of ... the timeline is a bit tricky here. 

It's unclear when exactly Wahlberg and Tomlinson began hooking up. But Wahlberg and Fey — who share two sons together, Xavier and Elijah — were already in the midst of their divorce following nine years of marriage at the time of the model's pregnancy, per People. However, shortly after their divorce was finalized in October 2010, sources cited by the National Enquirer claimed that the former New Kid On the Block star allegedly "freaked out" when Tomlinson told him she was expecting and immediately called it quits: "He told her then and there it was over." Yikes. Have fun with that, Jenny McCarthy.

Minnie Driver announced her pregnancy in 2008, but never revealed the father of her son, Henry, until four years after he was born — and whatever went down during that relationship appeared to have left her at least slightly salty. The father turned out to be Timothy J. Lea, a producer and writer on TV series The Riches, in which Driver starred alongside Eddie Izzard from 2007 to 2008. "I don't need to protect him anymore," the Good Will Hunting star told the Observer (via the Daily Mail) in February 2012. "He can fend for himself. He's a grown-up." She added, "Our relationship was very complicated and private, and I honestly didn't want to have to talk about it. I didn't want people coming up to him ... and raising eyebrows."

Unfortunately, that backfired for her, she said, with paparazzi often shouting at her and asking who her "sperm donor" was, which baffled her because her baby's father isn't famous. When asked if Lea was acting as a father to Henry, Driver replied, "Sort of. He's figuring it out ... I mean, he hasn't been that involved; his choice. But he is now."

Burn Notice star Seth Peterson was married to actress and photographer Kylee Cochran (not pictured) for 12 years when she filed for divorce in January 2014, accusing him of leaving her for a 22-year-old woman. Cochran was seven months pregnant with Peterson's third child at the time, TMZ reported, and they already shared an 8-year-old daughter Fenix Isabella and a 5-year-old son Lennon Henry. Per E! News, Cochran requested full legal and physical custody of their children and to grant Peterson only supervised visitation, citing Peterson's alleged "history of drug use and multiple vehicle accidents."

Insiders told the New York Daily News that Peterson eventually agreed to mediation with his estranged wife, who he reportedly ditched to shack up with Miranda Doerfler, a fledgling horror writer he met on Twitter. His agreement to mediate their differences was reportedly a long time coming, with sources alleging he canceled on several appointments to do so before Cochran's divorce filing became public.

Sherri Shepherd married her second husband, Lamar Sally, in 2011, and Sally filed for divorce from Shepherd in May 2014 — when their surrogate was six months pregnant with their son, Lamar Jr. This created a lot of complications in the split, because Shepherd had no biological tie to the child and didn't want to pay child support for the baby boy. A judge ruled in 2015 that Shepherd was, in fact, considered Lamar's mother, and TMZ reported that she eventually agreed to pay $4,100 a month in child support.

In February 2017, however, Shepherd made clear that she considers Lamar Jr. to just be Sally's child, not hers. She told Dr. Oz, "I feel I had a very tight pre-nup, but there's a baby here and I have always said I would take care of his son because he's here and I make money. I always said I would provide financially."

Celebrity Rehab star and ex-Miss Teen USA Kari Ann Peniche and Justin Williams filed for divorce in July 2011 after just four months of marriage. TMZ reported that Peniche was pregnant and Williams questioned whether he was the father of her unborn child at the time. The gossip rag later reported that the baby was Williams', and the couple briefly reconciled — but by 2012, it got ugly again.

Williams alleged that he gave their then-10-month old son a hair follicle drug test that came back positive for methamphetamine. In a court filing, he claimed that the baby boy had "a habit of sucking on Kari Ann's hair and clothes and I became concerned that he could be affected by drug residue." He also alleged that he had evidence that Peniche had been abusing substances for at least two months at that point in time and demanded full custody of the child, noting, "I do not want him to continue to be exposed to smoke from meth or to accidentally ingest illegal drugs while with Kari Ann."

Little Women: LA star Briana Renee split from husband Matt Grundhoffer when she was pregnant with his child after he was allegedly busted cheating on her, Radar Online reported. According to the media outlet, Grundhoffer reportedly sent explicit messages to a woman named Makayla, then graduated to full-on sexting and nude photos (complete with identifying tattoos) before Makayla says she put the kibosh on the affair. 

In a clip of the show (via Radar Online), Grundhoffer sobs to Renee, "I feel like I made a horrible decision. And that decision cost me more than I know to f**king say. And I can't change that. I'm sorry. You don't deserve this." An unmoved Renee remarked to the cameras that she needed a break and space from Grundhoffer, adding, "I understand he's hurting, I understand he's sorry, I understand all that, but I don't care."

The couple reconciled just before she gave birth to their son, Maverick. However, TMZ reported that Renee gave Grundhoffer and his alleged wandering eye and smack-talking mouth the boot for good in November 2017. Two months after they finalized their bitter divorce, during which Renee and their son were granted a five-year domestic violence restraining order against Grundhoffer (via The Sun), Renee got remarried to artisan carpenter Tim Manning in December 2019.

Before Tristan Thompson got then-girlfriend Khloé Kardashian pregnant, he dated stunning model Jordan Craig — and got Craig pregnant before they split. Craig gave birth to Thompson's child in December 2016. People reports that Thompson began dating Kardashian that September, so timelines estimate that Craig was about five months pregnant when Thompson took up with the reality star. However, Thompson and Kardashian have each adamantly maintained the NBA star was single when they first started dating, per People.

Still, Craig believed he was certainly cheating, and not just with the reality starlet. In court documents obtained by Radar Online, Craig alleged that she confronted Thompson about his supposed infidelity with at least one other woman before Kardashian even entered the picture. "Tristan insisted he would change for our family, and tried to get back together on numerous occasions," she claimed in the filing, adding that she saw paparazzi photos of him "with one of the women I previously confronted him about, and whom Tristan had denied even knowing." Craig also alleged that Thompson's reported affair with Kardashian caused her so much stress during her pregnancy that her obstetrician recommended she go on bed rest.

If Tristan Thompson and Khloé Kardashian were indeed hooking up behind Jordan Craig's back, karma came swiftly for KoKo: in April 2018, just days before Kardashian gave birth to her and Thompson's daughter, True, video footage emerged of Thompson with other women. One video posted to TMZ was from October 2017, which would have made Kardashian about three months along at the time, as well as footage from April 2018 of Thompson entering a New York City hotel with another woman. TMZ reported that Kardashian began "having early contractions" on April 11, 2018, though her due date wasn't until the end of the month, noting, "It may not be a coincidence [the contractions] happened just hours after videos surfaced of Tristan hooking up with other women."

Kardashian and Thompson were estranged afterward, but over time their couple status was relatively murky — until it was reported that Thompson kissed Kylie Jenner's BFF, Jordyn Woods, at a party ... at which point the pair were seemingly dunzo forever.

WNBA stars Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson were only married for one month when Griner filed for divorce in 2015 — which came as little surprise, because before they tied the knot, they were each arrested for assault in a domestic dispute over "serious relationship issues." At the time, Johnson was pregnant with twins, who she claimed to TMZ she planned on raising with Griner and were conceived via in-vitro fertilization. However, Griner claimed to have no biological ties to the unborn babies and said in documents obtained by TMZ that she didn't even know of Johnson's plans for the pregnancy. Griner would later say in an interview that she knew Johnson was pregnant, but was simply shocked that Johnson would announce the pregnancy at just nine weeks.

The pair's divorce was finalized in the summer of 2016, with a judge ruling that Griner had to pay Johnson $2,516 per child per month in child support, but neither party had to pay spousal support — and by then, Johnson had already moved on from Griner with a man.

NBA star Brandon Jennings was excited enough about then-girlfriend Lashontae Heckard's pregnancy to announce it on Instagram in May 2015. However, a month later, Jennings boasted on social media about his single status. Shady much? Heckard gave birth to Jennings' third child (their only one together) in November 2015, and since then they've appeared to have been at odds.

In July 2019, Jennings slammed Heckard for allegedly trying to get cast on Basketball Wives, writing on Snapchat (via Atlanta Black Star) that she wasn't actually a wife (nevermind that not all of the women featured on the VH1 reality series were ever married). He went on to shade her for allegedly speaking poorly about him, irony be damned, and later added, "If I'm not bothering you or asking you for anything! You don't exist to me! That means don't ask me for s**t! Go find another n***a to help u!" That should go over well in a child support hearing.