Well, yet another celebrity cheating scandal is upon us.
After over a decade of marriage, Natalie Portman's husband, Benjamin Millepied, has reportedly cheated on his wife with 25-year-old ballet dancer, Camille Étienne. The news was first reported by the French outlet Voici. Naturally, people quickly took to social media in disbelief and indignation. While we at GLAMOUR don't like to report on unfounded gossip, it seems as though our collective fascination with highly-publicised "wrongdoings" says something us a society.
Looking back at our collective social history, it seems to be an almost innate human impulse to seek out celebrity relationship gossip — especially when it involves a particularly salacious cheating scandal. From the Greek's mythologised tale of Helen of Troy's war-instigating affair to the rumours in the court of King Henry VIII to, far more recently, the cheating scandals that surrounded Charles and Diana's marriage, celebrity cheating scandals, have, in some form or another, always had some sort of dark hold over us.
Of course, these scandals, and our relationships to them, have evolved over time. Ever since the dawn of the tabloid age, we have gobbled up celebrity cheating scandals with new, and arguably more sinister, appetite. In even more recent years, social media has made it easier than ever to gossip about the latest scandal. Accounts like DeuxMoi, which posts rumours from anonymous sources, have effectively democratised the celebrity gossip system, giving us instant access to an almost endless supply of celebrity rumours, while Twitter has given us an infinite number of co-conspirators, all ready to dive headfirst into the discourse. Recently, we've seen the rise of a sort of citizen detective — an online Harriet the Spy who takes to Twitter or Instagram to present their carefully collected evidence to back up or debunk the rumours. The wild rumour about Joe Alwyn having an affair with Emma Laird is one such example.
Our obsession with the celebrity cheating scandal is at an all-time high — but why?
For one thing, celebrity cheating scandals have become a lot more personal in recent years. This is, in many ways, a reflection of our changing relationship with celebrity as a whole. Alongside the rise of social media, we have gained far more access to our favourite celebrities. In turn, many fans fall into fairly intense parasocial relationships with the stars they idolise. These stars become more like friends. “Celebrities have become familiar with the details of their lives displayed on our screen; this creates the same type of interest, protectiveness, and interest that a person has for their friends and family,” explains psychologist Ngozi Cadmus.
And so, when they are cheated on, we feel distraught, and when they cheat, we feel betrayed. The rabid reaction when Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson with Rupert Sanders, her director in Snow White and the Huntsman, is a prime example — fans were horrified, with some openly weeping in reaction videos. With these kinds of intense fan relationships, celebrity affairs can send us tailspinning into what amounts to an identity crisis.
Parasocial relationships aside, celebrity cheating scandals satisfy our urge to gossip. Gossip is, society tells us, not something we are supposed to do. As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” And so, after an indulgent gossip, most of us are left with that all-too familiar gnawing feeling of guilt. But with celebrity gossip, that guilt is somewhat removed. Celebrities are people we know a lot about — we can tell stories about their lives and everyone will understand. But at the end of the day, they aren't our real friends. The gossip can be just as salacious, without feeling quite so vicious.
“Nobody thinks talking about Angelina Jolie and Brad's Pitt divorce will impact them directly, making it easier to speak about,” explains Cadmus. “However, we cannot deny that the spread of hearsay information can destroy the lives of those being talked about. It can be problematic if people spread gossip about those around them. Nevertheless, in the case of public figures and celebrities, a distance cushions the fall-out from the fan.”
Added to this is the fact that we often place celebrities on a pedestal. When they fall from that pedestal, we are given a chance to pass resounding moral judgement. Just take the scandal that saw Meg Ryan allegedly cheating on her husband, Dennis Quaid, with co-star Russel Crowe. This is the darker more sinister side of our love of the celebrity cheating scandal. Not only do we delight in indulging in the rumours, we also get the opportunity to feel better about ourselves. “Value base judgements are made and our evaluation of the world is confirmed and that feels good,” says Cadmus.
Plus, she adds, we sometimes get some twisted satisfaction in seeing celebrities suffer. “There is a strong need, especially in this climate of high energy prices and the cost of living being through the roof, to focus on celebrity drama that gives us an escape from our dire reality,” she says. “Most celebrities live a fantasy-type life that the average person will never experience in their life. When a public figure's life appears in chaos, it bursts the bubble they live in and makes them seem more relatable, strengthening the parasocial relationship in the fan's mind.”
But there is also an argument to be made that gossip can actually be productive, too — that it isn't merely, as Roosevelt said, the fodder of “small minds”. That it can teach us about other people — their motivations, their red flags, their toxic traits. When it comes to cheating scandals, this is more true than ever.
One quick glimpse at the response to the latest Natalie Portman scandal proves it. Twitter is filled with takes — alongside the arguably very sexist how-could-he-she's-so-beautiful take is the more measured no-one-should-be-cheated-on-regardless-of-their-looks take. In other words, people are using the scandal to understand how relationships work, and, perhaps more importantly, the way that our society can contribute to toxic relationship patterns.
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Whether it's to pass moral judgment, challenge the toxic relationship patterns in society, or, quite simply, to have a good old fashioned gossip, there's no denying that we are obsessed with celebrity cheating scandals. And just like the truth about these distant celebrity relationships, we'll probably never really know exactly why we love it so much.
