Celebrity feuds: when the stars fall out with their famous friends

Social Media Content Producer

June 3, 2020Jun 3, 2020, 11:44 AM GMT+1

Falling out with someone on the down-low can be a stressful and emotional experience, so we can't imagine the pressure there must be when a feud turns public. Arguing when you are in the limelight can spark huge debates with thousands of other people, leading to a row not just with the few involved but escalating to a huge social media uproar. Here are some of the most dramatic celebrity feuds ever…

Coleen Nolan and Kim Woodburn

Loose Women panellist Coleen Nolan appeared in the Celebrity Big Brother house for series 19, alongside Kim Woodburn in 2017. The How Clean is your House? star struggled throughout her time in the house, explaining that she felt she was bullied. Although the 76-year-old had few public fights with Coleen whilst in the house, Kim had many explosive rows with Nicola McLean. Following the announcement that Coleen had won the series, Kim on her eviction interview revealed that: "She shouldn't have won. It should have been Jedward."

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Kim appeared on Loose Women following her stint in Celebrity Big Brother, where Coleen sent a video that stated "when and if we bump into each other, we can always be civil and polite" to which Kim replied she is a "two-faced maggot!" In 2018, Kim appeared on Loose Women in an effort to bury the feud with Coleen, however the meeting ended with Kim calling Coleen "lying trash" and a "piece of filth" before storming off air. After the appearance, there was a huge backlash, with many petitioning for Coleen to be sacked.

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In September, Coleen made an appearance on This Morning following the recent argument and explained: "I honestly genuinely thought she was coming on to make amends and we were going to have a laugh about it. It was like 'let's put it to bed, let's make amends' and it didn't go that way."

Cheryl and Sarah Harding

Cheryl and Sarah Harding thrived in girl group Girls Aloud but the pair were extremely competitive throughout their time on Popstars: The Rivals. Sarah was considered to be one of the better singers, whereas Cheryl slipped below her. In 2013, when asked about Cheryl's new job on The X Factor, Sarah exclaimed: "X Factor. What X Factor? Who knows if I'll tune in." Sarah spoke in the Celebrity Big Brother house about the feud: "Even if we had fallen out, I'm sure it wouldn't be a major deal in the future." But there were no congratulations from Cheryl when Sarah won Celebrity Big Brother.

Gemma Collins and Jason Gardiner

After receiving the lowest score of the series so far, Gemma Collins was branded "lazy" and "mediocre" by Dancing on Ice judge Jason Gardiner, explaining that she needed to put in some more work to achieve higher scores. The 38-year-old argued back: "Can I just say one thing? Maybe if you didn't sell stories on me, I wouldn't have been so upset this week. So take that! Boring, boring! Don't sell stries on me."

The Only Way is Essex star even told the judge to "shut up" and shouted he was "boring" live on air. Speaking on This Morning ahead of the final on Friday 11 January, Jason explained: "We have to forgive these people for being ignorant for not knowing their stuff, she doesn't understand where I can come from, she doesn't know that I can skate."

Gwyneth Paltrow and Martha Stewart

The feud begun in 2013, when Bloomberg TV asked what Martha thought about Gwyneth's choice to enter into the lifestyle industry with her Goop brand. Martha stated: "She really wants to be part of the lifestyle business…Gwyneth, for example has a book on the bestseller list. She must be doing something right. She's a charming, pretty person who has a feeling for lifestyle. She wants to be a lifestyle arbiter. Fine. Good. I think I started this whole category of lifestyle."

The 46-year-old American actress responded in 2014 to E! News: "No one has ever said anything bad about me before, so I'm shocked and devastated…I'll try to recover. If I'm really honest, I'm so psyched that she sees us as competition. I really am."

Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay

Gordon Ramsay spoke to RadioTimes to explain that he will not speak to Jamie Oliver unless the chef apologises to his wife, Tanya, following Jamie's comments about his family. Gordon stated that "Jamie turned round and said [in a newspaper], I've got five kids, he's got four kids," which the 52-year-old explained was a comment of poor taste following his wife suffering a miscarriage at five months.

Katherine Geigl and Shonda Rhymes

Katherine Heigl rose to fame as Izzie Stevens in hit show Grey's Anatomy, but she chose to opt out of an Emmy nomination after claiming that the material she was given to work with by producer Shonda Rhymes wasn't good enough. Ouch. She then exited the show in season six in 2008. Fast forward four years and Shonda spoke out about the dispute, telling Oprah Winfrey: "On some level it stung and on some level I was not surprised. When people show you who they are, believe them. I carry that [mantra] with me a lot. It has served me well." Katherine seemed to have some regrets after that, telling Entertainment Weekly: "At the time I thought I was doing the right thing..." She continued: "I could have more gracefully said that without going into a private work matter. It was between me and the writers. I ambushed them, and it wasn't very nice or fair."

Lady Gaga and Perez Hilton

Perez Hilton and Lady Gaga are two very big personalities, so perhaps it's no surprise that their friendship became very rocky and collapsed - with an ongoing Twitter feud for extra measure. It started in 2013 and it doesn't look like they've reconciled since. Speaking out about what actually started the feud in an interview with Howard Stern later that year, Lady Gaga said: "He started asking me really terrible questions, and he was being very negative about Born This Way, and we had had a lot to drink." She continued: "He was supposed to be my friend and I felt betrayed, so I started crying." Perez wrote in a statement: "It is still too painful for me to go into detail about why I chose to no longer make her a part of my life."

Liam and Noel Gallagher

In one of the most infamous fallouts in rock and roll, Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher are the epitome of sibling rivalry. Cracks in their relationship started to show when Noel walked out of the band in 1994. He returned, but things just continued to get worse, with the band not turning up to shows and reports of fights between the brothers. The band eventually split and Noel and Liam continued to throw insults at each other. Noel famously said of his brother in an interview with Q magazine: "He's the angriest man you'll ever meet. He's like a man with a fork in a world of soup." Although the feud is ongoing (especially on Twitter), it looks like they've calmed things down a little. In fact, Liam tweeted Noel on his 50th birthday, writing: "Happy 50th rkid stay young LG."

Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall

Many Sex and the City fans always had their suspicions about the show's stars' real life friendships, and an ongoing feud between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall was finally exposed in 2017. After SJP confirmed there would be no third SATC film, rumours spread that Kim was the reason behind the decision. Frustrated at the finger being pointed at her, Kim - who played the inimitable Samantha Jones - decided to tell her side of the story to Piers Morgan. After explaining to him how no one had even contacted her about making a new film, she continued: "Nobody ever picks up the phone and tries to contact you and say, ‘How you doing?’ That would have been the way to handle it.” Talking specifically about Sarah, she added. “I think she could've been nicer. I really think she could've been nicer. I don't know what her issue is."

Taylor Swift and Kanye West

There are more think pieces on this particular feud than there are hit songs from the two megastars in question - which is really saying something. The Taylor Swift and Kanye West saga started when Kanye hijacked Taylor's MTV Awards win in 2009 by going up on stage during her acceptance speech and grabbing the microphone to tell the world that Beyonce should have won. Kanye apologised for his actions on The Jay Leno Show, before personally calling Taylor to say sorry - which she accepted. However, Taylor didn't appear to be 100% over it, as she wrote the song Innocent about the incident, which included the lyrics: "It's okay, life is a tough crowd / 32, and still growing up now / who you are is not what you did / you're still an innocent." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kanye retracted his apology. But then, a couple of years later, the pair were very pally at the Grammys and Kanye even told Ryan Seacrest they might be collaborating, saying: "She wants to get in the studio and we're definitely going to go in." At one point, Taylor posts a photo of an amazing bouquet of flowers sent by Kanye. Hit songs Look What You Made Me Do and This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things were clearly directed at Kanye and Kim - so we'll have to see what happens next...

Will Smith and Janet Hubert

Fans of Fresh Prince of Bel Air will remember how the actress who played Aunt Viv changed after season three, but do you know the story behind why? Well, reports show that Janet Hubert - who played the original Aunt Viv - left the show because of an ongoing feud with Will Smith. In a radio interview in 1993, Will - who played the show's title character - revealed: "I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be 'The Aunt Viv of Bel Air Show' because I know she is going to dog me in the press. She has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She's mad now but she's been mad all along. She said once, 'I've been in the business for ten years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show. No matter what, to her I'm just the antichrist." Even Alfonso Ribeiro - who played Carlton Banks - said during one of his standup shows: "There were days when we were all on the set and she would literally go off on people and it got to a point by the time the second season came around where we were like, 'This is unacceptable'." Jane has been pretty vocal about her feelings towards Will and the rest of the cast, continuing to speak out about the treatment towards her. Speaking to Huffington Post, she said: "My departure was planned for a long time... There will never be a reunion of the Fresh Prince. Will Smith and Alfonso destroyed a 20-year-career with untruths. I got slammed. Will apologised later in an Essence Magazine article, but it still lingers. It's still there." To rub more salt in the wound, Janet was not part of the cast's reunion photos shared in 2017.

John Legend and Kanye West

John Legend and Kanye West were once friends, however, their bromance has seemed to cool off over the last twelve months, with the All of Me singer now revealing that the "natural cycle of life" is to blame for the deterioration of the relationship. Speaking to The Times in May, doting dad John explained: "I just think we’re doing our own thing. He’s up in Wyoming, I’m here in LA. We’ve both got growing families and I no longer have a formal business relationship with him as an artist." What's more, speaking in October to Vanity Fair, John also said: "I’m not trying to disown Kanye because I still love him and love everything we’ve done together creatively. But we were never the closest of friends."

Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun

In November, megastar Taylor Swift called out music titan Scooter Braun for his "tyrannical control" over her music, revealing that Scooter would not give her permission to play old songs at the 2019 AMAs, and also refused to let the singer use footage of old performances in her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.

In a Tumblr post at the time, Taylor wrote: " Guys - it’s been announced recently that the American Music Awards will be honouring me with the Artist of the Decade Award at this year’s ceremony." She added: "I’ve been planning to perform a medley of my hits throughout the decade on the show. Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year."

In response, Scooter released a statement on his website that read: "As Taylor Swift’s partner for over a decade, we were shocked to see her Tumblr statements yesterday based on false information. At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special. In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere. Since Taylor’s decision to leave Big Machine last fall, we have continued to honour all of her requests to license her catalogue to third parties as she promotes her current record [Lover] in which we do not financially participate."

Chrissy Teigen and Alison Roman

Chrissy Teigen and food writer Alison Roman found themselves caught up in a Twitter disagreement in May, with Alison criticising Chrissy's latest cookbook.

In response, mother-of-two Chrissy wrote on Twitter: "This is a huge bummer and hit me hard. I have made her recipes for years now, bought the cookbooks, supported her on social and praised her in interviews. I even signed on to executive produce the very show she talks about doing in this article." Chrissy added: "There are many days I cry very hard because cravings, the site, is our baby we love to pump content onto. We do this work ourselves, and there is NO monetary gain yet. It is just work work work and the reward is you liking it. So to be called a sellout....hooooo it hurts."

Thankfully, the New York Times food writer promptly issued an apology, taking to social media to write: "Hi @chrissyteigen! I sent an email but also wanted to say here that I’m genuinely sorry I caused you pain with what I said. I shouldn’t have used you /your business (or Marie’s!) as an example to show what I wanted for my own career- it was flippant, careless and I’m so sorry."