Some celebrity couples are made for each other. Others are just made. There have been plenty of oddly-matched duos over the years. However, the ones below take the cake as the most outrageous and unbelievable, literally. Here are our top five celebrity engagement publicity stunts that still make us cringe:
1. Clare Crawley and Dale Moss
Wait, so everything we see on reality TV isn’t… real? Sure, 2020 brought us many challenges, but one of the biggest was getting on board with this couple. Ever since Clare gave Dale her first impression rose on the first night of The Bachelorette, it’s been nothing but drama for these two. After just 12 days into the show, Moss popped the question, and the two quickly rode off into the La Quinta sunset.
Immediately, rumors spread like wildfire that their relationship was entirely concocted for ratings, and ABC planned on replacing Crawley with Tayshia Adams from the start. After the show aired, Crawley went on Twitter to like a bunch of tweets that claimed the show’s producers had full control over the season’s storyline and forced her out early in the season. People have speculated that Crawley was purposefully set up to fall for Moss. During an interview on Raising the Bar With Alli and Adrian, Moss admitted he never signed up for the show but decided to go through with it after his nomination. Shortly after ABC aired a special interview with the new couple, the two called it quits — but not before 5.3 million people tuned in to see how it all played out.
2. DJ Khaled and Nicki Minaj
These two music icons are both happily married today, but once upon a time, DJ Khaled proposed to the rapper live on MTV UK with a stunning 10-carat radiant-cut diamond ring with a price tag of $500,000.
Khaled seemed convincing in the video, stating, “I want to let your fans know, my fans know, my family, your family, that I wanna marry you… I have to be here today to let you know how serious I am and about how serious this is to me.” Could it be a match made in hip-hop heaven? Not so fast! A few days after the engagement video went viral, Minaj broke her silence and told fans that it was all a publicity stunt to promote Khaled’s then-upcoming new single, “’I Wanna Be With You,” which featured the rapper on the track.
3. Tana Mongeau and Jake Paul
These two highly controversial YouTube stars broke the internet two summers ago when they got engaged at Mongeau’s 21st birthday party in Los Angeles. The birthday celebration was oh-so-conveniently being filmed for the star’s new reality series MTV No Filter: Tana Turns 21.
These two had only been linked romantically for two months before the news broke. So naturally, everyone was skeptical if their engagement was true love or classic clickbait. The month after that, Mongeau and Paul tied the knot at the Graffiti Mansion in Las Vegas. Their fans could watch the two exchange vows live on Halogen TV for a mere $50. The entire relationship seemingly started as a way to attract more views, and it worked. Both stars gained hundreds of thousands of new subscribers even after they split up a few months later.
4. Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray
Calling all One Tree Hill fans! While the on-screen romance between Brooke Davis and Lucas Scott was hot and heavy, the real-life couple’s relationship was quite the opposite. The two began dating back in 2003, conveniently the same year the hit show premiered on TV, and Murray proposed to Bush shortly after. The pair even made it down the aisle after a year-long engagement.
Unfortunately, only five months after the two said “I do,” Bush filed for an annulment, citing fraud as her reason. Yikes! This marriage may not have lasted long, but it did spike the show’s ratings the following season. Years later, Bush admitted in an interview with Andy Cohen that she didn’t want to go through with the engagement and marriage, but she felt pressured to do so from the show’s producers and WB network.
5. Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries
No one can forget Kim Kardashian’s laughably short-lived marriage to former NBA player Kris Humphries back in 2011. The pair lasted only 72 days before calling it quits, but fans weren’t convinced it was real to begin with.
Rumors spread quickly that Humphries’s surprise proposal, which aired on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, was staged for the show. Not to mention, these two met, got engaged, and walked down the aisle in just one year. But not after dropping a staggering $10 million on their over-the-top wedding ceremony. Nearly four and a half million people watched Kim’s Fairytale Wedding, a four-hour special broadcast on E!, but the reality star filed for divorce just three weeks later.
Do these celebrity engagements make the top of your list? Which do you wish made it down the aisle? Drop a comment below and let us know!
Featured image via “File:CMM-Bush-Wedding.jpg” by Chad Michael Murray, Sophia Bush / CC BY-SA 4.0
