Marriage isn’t always forever — and neither is divorce

Not all A-list former couples stay divorced.

Indeed, many stars have actually remarried the same person for a second time — with mixed results.

Old Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor, for example, was married eight times — including twice to Becket actor Richard Burton. The couple had an on-again, off-again relationship that began in 1962 and ended for good in 1976.

“Even though there were rough times, I wouldn’t give up one minute of my time with Richard Burton,” Taylor later wrote in her 1988 autobiography Elizabeth Takes Off. 

Other couples who reconnected post-divorce are still happily married, like Marie Osmond and her husband, Steve Craig. The duo, who split in 1985, were apart for over two decades before remarrying in 2011. They’ve been together ever since.

Here are nine celebrities who got married to the same person twice.

01 of 09

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

Taylor and Burton tied the knot in March 1964 after falling in love on the set of Cleopatra. They later welcomed a daughter, Maria, via adoption.

The couple later divorced in June 1974, however they soon reconciled and remarried in October 1975. A second divorce followed in July 1976.

Despite their many breakups, Taylor never quite lost hope in their relationship.

“In my heart, I will always believe we would have been married a third and final time,” she told Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Marriage of the Century authors Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger.

02 of 09

Pamela Anderson and Rick Salomon

Baywatch alum Pamela Anderson and professional poker player Rick Salomon got married in Las Vegas in October 2007.

“They are head over heels in love,” a source told PEOPLE at the time.

Anderson filed for divorce two months later, and in March 2008, the couple was granted an annulment. In January 2014, however, news broke that the former husband and wife had wed for a second time.

“We’re very happy. Our families are very happy, and that’s all that matters,” Anderson told E! News at the time.

The following year, the actress filed for divorce a second time, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in April 2015.

03 of 09

Judge Judy Sheindlin and Jerry Sheindlin

Judge Judy Sheindlin and her longtime husband, fellow attorney Jerry Sheindlin, tied the knot for the first time in 1977. Judy later filed for divorce in 1990 when her father died and she was unhappy with her husband’s lack of support.

“She said to me, ‘If you can’t maneuver this, I’m going to divorce you,’ ” Jerry recalled in Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue’s 2020 book, What Makes a Marriage Last: 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life. “And I said, ‘Oh, yeah? I dare you.’ And the next day I got divorce papers. The next day. So, that was the end of that.”

The split didn’t last long. Judy and Jerry missed each other, and in 1991, they remarried.

“I missed her presence the very first week that we were separated,” Jerry said. “It was the first time in years that we didn’t get to see each other every single day. It was such a strange experience.”

04 of 09

Eminem and Kim Scott Mathers

Eminem and Kim Scott Mathers met in 1988 as teenagers and had an on-again, off-again relationship that lasted for nearly two decades.

After welcoming their daughter, Hailie Jade Scott, in December 1995, the couple married in June 1999, divorced in 2001, remarried in January 2006, and divorced for good in December of that same year.

“There was a lot of sadness about why this didn’t work out. They’ve been together for 17 years,” Mathers’ attorney, Michael J. Smith, told PEOPLE at the time. “They’re life-long friends, lovers, have been husband and wife, they’re raising children together … it’s not the end and it’s not over between them.”

05 of 09

Barbara Walters and Merv Adelson

Veteran journalist Barbara Walters was married to TV producer Merv Adelson from 1981 to 1984 and again from 1986 to 1992.

“He was a kind, funny, thoughtful man,” Walters told Vanity Fair in January 2013. “Would things have worked out differently for Merv if we had stayed together? I don’t know. Probably not … I have no regrets.”

06 of 09

Larry King and Alene Akins

Award-winning late-night host Larry King married Playboy bunny Alene Akins in 1961. The couple divorced in 1963, and King went on to marry Mary Francis “Mickey” Sutphin that same year.

After that marriage ended in 1966, King and Akins reconciled and remarried in 1967. The couple divorced for a second and final time in 1972.

They shared two children, Chaia and Andy, the latter of whom King adopted during their first marriage. They died just weeks apart from each other in 2020.

Akins died in 2017, and King died in 2021.

07 of 09

Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson

Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson met on the set of The Harrad Experiment when they were 14 and 22, respectively.

“We were in the stairwell of this Anheuser-Busch Estate waiting for a setup,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter in December 2017. “We started chitchatting.”

“I thought he was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen,” Griffin recalled.

The couple got engaged on Griffith’s 18th birthday and wed in Las Vegas in 1976. The marriage only lasted six months, but in 1989, they rekindled their romance and married for a second time, welcoming their daughter, actress Dakota Johnson, in 1989.

“There was always this connection. I can’t explain it,” Griffith previously told PEOPLE. “It’s almost like soulmates, and it always was. I didn’t want it to be like that sometimes, and sometimes I wanted not to love him. But maybe it was karma, and you have to go through all that to get to where we are now. Now it’s different. It’s like it was in the very beginning, but there is so much more.”

Five years later, the couple called it quits for good in 1994.

08 of 09

NeNe Leakes and Gregg Leakes

The Real Housewives of Atlanta alum NeNe Leakes and her late husband, Gregg Leakes, said “I do” for the first time in 1997. They welcomed their son, Brentt, two years later in 1999.

The couple later divorced in 2011 and got engaged again two years later.

“We were married the first time for 13 years before, and this time we hope it’s forever,” NeNe said at Essence’s Black Women in Music event in February 2013. “It’s great the second time around. I think we’re going to be very successful.”

The couple tied the knot for a second time in June 2013 in Atlanta. In September 2021, Gregg died after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

“I told him I wouldn’t have chosen another husband other than him,” NeNe told PEOPLE at the time. “I said, ‘I married you twice, crazy man.’ ”

09 of 09

Marie Osmond and Steve Craig

Osmond and her husband, Craig, married in 1982 in Salt Lake City in front of 4,000 guests. They welcomed one child, son Stephen, in 1983 before divorcing in 1985.

The former Donny & Marie host went on to marry and later divorce actor and producer Brian Blosil before reconnecting with Craig through their son.

“I am a spiritual person. So [I believe] God has his timing,” she told PEOPLE in October 2019.

On May 4, 2011, the couple tied the knot for a second time in an intimate ceremony at the Las Vegas Mormon Temple followed by a reception at their Nevada home.

“The thing about a second marriage is that you realize things you thought were so important, aren’t,” Osmond said. “I love being with my husband. He is the sweetest man I know. He lives to serve and really listens to people’s needs.”

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