Yahoo News The 11 most bitter break-ups reality TV has ever seen
When celebs are thrown together and spend weeks in each other's company, sparks begin to fly. One thing leads to another and boom, a reality TV romance is born.
But while we may hope to see couples live happily ever after, these relationships rarely last. In fact sometimes they turn completely toxic.
Whether it's infidelity, arguing or just plan old jealousy, pretty much all of our favourite reality TV couples to date have failed to go the distance.
Here, we take a look back at some of the nastiest break-ups the world of reality TV has ever seen.
1. Katie Price and Peter Andre
The unlikely couple met on I'm a Celebrity, and they soon became one of the most iconic reality TV pairings ever. Their relationship spawned a massive ten reality shows, they had two children and even released an album together.
However, the fairytale came to an end in 2009 and the couple ended up divorcing. What followed was a five-year feud that saw them both throwing insults back and forth both in the press and on social media.
In 2014 they called a truce, and they've been relatively amicable ever since – or so we hear.
2. Stephen Bear and Lillie Lexie Gregg
The heartbroken star spent weeks watching her boyfriend flirt with Chloe Khan on Celebrity Big Brother before she finally cracked.
Lillie Lexie jumped at the chance when CBB bosses gave her the opportunity to confront the love rat on national television. In a tearful speech, she told Bear: "The embarrassment and the humiliation I've had... I've never experienced anything so difficult in my life... it's all one big game to you, but it's a joke at my expense. You've absolutely humiliated me."
Despite this, Bear went on to win the show. So who was more heartless, him or the voters at home?
3. Jeremy McConnell and Stephanie Davis
These two fell in love on Celebrity Big Brother, much to the dismay of Stephanie's then-boyfriend Sam Reece. Their relationship went from strength to strength while on the show, and the pair seemed destined to live together happily ever after.
However, just a few weeks after they left the house, it emerged that Jez had been sleeping with numerous women behind Steph's back and things quickly began to get ugly. But then, in what could only be described as something straight out of EastEnders, Steph fell pregnant.
While Jeremy denied the baby was his, after the former Hollywoaks actress gave birth, the Irish reality star confirmed he was the dad and the pair even ended up briefly reconciling.
Now it gets dark.
It didn't last long, and their tumultuous relationship went from bad to toxic when Jeremy assaulted her after a booze and cocaine binge. He's since been sentenced to 200 hours' community service and a 20-week suspended prison sentence.
4. Gaz Beadle and Charlotte Crosby
It was a long road for these two. We saw them split up and get back together countless times on Geordie Shore, and we totally thought they'd end up together in the end.
But then Ex on the Beach happened. While he was still seeing Charlotte, Gaz had a threesome and it all kicked off.
After the pair split, Charlotte revealed that she had suffered an ectopic pregnancy while Gaz was on the show, which triggered a very messy social media feud that became incredibly public.
Charlotte then quit Geordie Shore for good, and the pair still aren't on speaking terms. But it's not all bad: the reality star moved on and found love with Stephen Bear.
5. Vicky Pattison and Ricci Guarnaccio
They met on series two of Geordie Shore, and immediately hit it off. But between Vicky's short temper and Ricci's jealously issues, it soon became far more volatile than either of them had hoped.
During one particularly drunken night out, it all came to a head, and the pair ended up calling off their engagement with Vicky exclaiming: "I'm f**king miserable... I don't have a life I have our life and that's not me. If I met myself a year ago I wouldn't recognise me... I was strong and I was confident and I made decisions on my own and now I'm none of those things."
They never managed to make up, and Ricci went on record saying that his ex needed "professional help" for her anger issues. He later claimed he was fired from the show because Vicky wasn't happy with him being there following their split. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, babes.
6. Mario Falcone and Lucy Mecklenburgh
They were the golden couple of TOWIE, and even got engaged on the show. But their romantic fairytale soon started to crumble when it emerged that Lucy had cheated with Mark Wright at the start of their relationship.
Mario never fully forgave his fiancee and got revenge by sleeping with countless other women behind his back.
However, The Only Way Is Essex star told Digital Spy at the time that she she didn't end things with Mario because he cheated, it was actually something far "worse" than that – but we never got to find out what.
Want to tell us now, Lucy?
7. Louise Thompson and Spencer Matthews
One of the most toxic relationships to ever play out on reality television, Louise and Spencer's seemed doomed from the start thanks to the Lothario's notorious reputation. And it turned out fans weren't wrong not to trust him.
At a party in front of all their friends, it eventually came out that Spenny had cheated on Louise with pretty much every woman in London. However, The Jump star claimed it was HER fault.
"It's f**king hard to respect you when you allow me to cheat on you," he screamed at her.
After going their separate ways, Louise went in on Spencer, and labelled him everything from a cheat to a "beast" in interviews.
"He's pretty shameful. I just think he's disgusting." she told New Magazine. "I guess no one could have stopped him. He's an unstoppable beast!"
8. Jon Clark and Hannah Elizabeth
It took viewers by complete surprise, and seemed like the perfect fairytale when Jon proposed to Hannah during series one of Love Island.
But sadly for the formerly happy couple, it wasn't meant to be. Despite the romantic proposal, the pair didn't even manage to win the show, and they later called off their engagement.
Following their split, Hannah went on to slam Jon for being "jealous," and claimed he used her career as a glamour model to make her feel bad about herself.
The break-up turned out to be for the best though, as Jon ended up joining TOWIE, while Hannah bagged herself a new man.
9. Jess Wright and Ricky Rayment
These two were going strong until poor Jess found out that Ricky had been messaging another woman behind her back.
Although he initially denied it, Ricky eventually came clean about his mistake, telling Jess at the time: "I haven't been in a good place with you, so I have been flirting with other girls."
Jess was distraught, and fans became so angry with Ricky that he had to quit Twitter for a while after being sent death threats. Messy break-ups are one thing, but threatening someone's life is another.
Who knew TOWIE fans were so intense?
10. Hugo Taylor and Millie Mackintosh
These two first started dating back in 2011 and were absolutely besotted with each other – or so we thought.
Just months into their romance, Millie discovered that Hugo had cheated with her best pal Rosie Fortescue.
She decided to let the pair know she was aware of their betrayal by announcing it in front of all their friends at Francis Boulle and Mark-Francis Vandelli's roaring twenties-themed joint birthday party.
Grabbing a glass of champagne, she toasted the birthday boys before casually adding: "A second toast to my best friend Rosie for hooking up with Hugo Taylor when we were together and lying about it."
Despite the messy split, Hugo and Millie eventually forgave each other many years later and are now back together, engaged and are planning their wedding.
11. Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger
This was a very toxic relationship that resulted in an even nastier break-up.
After ten years together on and off, Mark ended his relationship with Lauren, accusing her of cheating. She then hit back in the press, accusing him of doing the dirty on her.
The public slanging match went on for years and sunk to lows that were shocking even by reality TV standards. Lauren went on to sell a story about aborting Mark's baby, leaving him heartbroken. She was also hinted that they were still seeing each other when he started dating his wife Michelle Keegan.
Eventually, Mark had enough and launched into a rant on Twitter begging Lauren to leave him alone.
He tweeted: "Endless mentions RE: me and us is embarrassing. I really thought after lawyers being involved and polite pleas to stop mentioning me she would stop. Maybe not. It's hurtful to think one person needs to mention YOU every week to earn a living. Being married to another women almost makes it unfair!! If your reading this, please PLEASE respect my wife and STOP."
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