When a marriage ends it is always a sad occasion. For whatever reason, the love between a couple has faded and they realize it’s time to move on. But when children are involved, it adds a layer of complication.

Will parents be able to amicably co-parent? Will they be awarded sole custody or will they share the kids 50/50? There are a lot of things that parents need to consider.

In this case, celebrities are just like the rest of us. They have the same issues that arise when their marriage comes to an end. It's an emotional and difficult time, and no one is immune to its troubles. But for celebrities, the whole world speculates on their reasons for splitting, who was at fault, when they'll move on and with whom.

We’ve rounded up 20 celebrity couples who split up after having kids together. Are they consciously uncoupling like Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, having an all-out custody battle like Kelly Rutherford and her ex, or are they landing somewhere in the middle like Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes? Read on to find out.

20 Gwyneth Paltrow And Chris Martin Invented The Conscious Uncoupling

Actress and lifestyle guru Gwyneth Paltrow married Coldplay frontman Chris Martin in December 2003. The couple started to grow their family in 2004 when they welcomed their daughter Apple to the world. Two years later, Paltrow and Martin expanded their family again. Their son Moses was born in 2006.

After 13 years of marriage, the couple announced to the world in January 2016 that they had decided to consciously uncouple. The news hit the world hard, as the Paltrow-Martins had been seen by the media as one of Hollywood’s rare happy families.

Paltrow told Eonline that, while divorce is never easy, the couple had worked hard to be great co-parents.

"I think, unfortunately, though we couldn't stay in a romantic relationship...our values are very much around the importance of family and the importance of those relationships, and I'm lucky that we're aligned in that way," she said. "And it's been hard, and you know, like, we've gone through really difficult times with it but we've always said these children are our priority."

19 Chris Pratt And Anna Faris Part Ways

While Chris Pratt and Anna Faris usually have us cracking up, when the couple announced their divorce in December 2017, no one was laughing. The couple were married for eight years and welcomed their son to the world in 2012.

Recently, Pratt opened up about going through a divorce in the public eye. "Divorce sucks. But at the end of the day, we've got a great kid who's got two parents who love him very much,’ Pratt told Entertainment Weekly. “And we're finding a way to navigate this while still remaining friends and still being kind to one another. It's not ideal, but yeah, I think both of us are actually probably doing better."

Faris spoke about the most important part of co-parenting. “What Chris and I try to do is to communicate openly. We reiterate that there aren’t rules to this. We have a lot of love and friendship, and our big goal is to protect [our son] Jack,” Faris told People.

18 Another Woman Rocks Pregnant Khloe Kardashian’s World

Reality star Khloe Kardashian and NBA player Tristan Thompson became a public couple in September 2016 after being spotted around town together for a few months prior. “I would love to have a family. We’ve talked about it … I know for a fact that he would be an impeccable father,” Kardashian told ES Magazine. In April 2017, on the topic of kids, she added. “I definitely want to be a mom. But I don’t put the pressure on it. It’s not like, ‘The clock is ticking.’ I feel in my soul it will happen.” Slightly prophetic seeing as only three or four months later the couple were expecting their first child.

A little over a year later, the Kardashian took to Instagram to announce her pregnancy. A belly picture was accompanied by a lovey-dovey caption thanking Thompson for being such an amazing partner during the pregnancy.

Sadly it was only days before the birth of the couple’s first child, a daughter named True, that a cheating scandal rocked their lives. Thompson was seen kissing another woman in April 2018 and supposedly used Instagram to hit on women.

Kardashian has stayed mum since the scandal broke, but after bringing True into the world, their relationship is clearly still on the rocks.

17 Channing Tatum And Jenna Dewan Tatum’s Last Dance Together

It all started on the set of one of the biggest teen heartthrob/dance battle films of the 2000s. Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan Tatum met on the set of Step Up. He was the male lead, she was the female lead. It was a relationship right out of a fairytale.

The two were engaged 2 years later and married in July 2009. Their daughter Everly was born on May 31st, 2013 in London. Tatum opened up to Redbook about the couple’s love of dance, their daughter and her hatred for diaper changes.

“When we wake up in the morning, we put on music, and while Everly's eating we dance and it just starts to get stupid. Changing the baby is an intermission—but our daughter hates getting her diaper changed, so it's almost like a breakdancing battle to get it on her. As soon as you lay her down, she's bridging out of it and doing some jujitsu windmill. It's pretty intense."

In April 2018, the couple sadly announced the end of their marriage. “We have lovingly chosen to separate as a couple. We fell deeply in love so many years ago and have had a magical journey together,” the couple wrote on Instagram. “Absolutely nothing has changed about how much we love one another, but love is a beautiful adventure that is taking us on different paths for now.”

The world is still mourning the loss of this fun-loving couple and I can’t wait to see what great co-parents they become.

16 Denise Richards And Charlie Sheen’s Rocky Road To Co-Parenting

Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen met back in 1991 on the set of Loaded Weapon 1. They were married in June 2002, and the couple has two daughters together: Sam born in March 2004 and Lola Rose born in June 2005.

While Richards was pregnant with Lola Rose in March 2005, she filed for divorce from Sheen. The divorce was finalized in 2006 and on pretty bad terms.

Sheen had to stay 300 feet away from his ex-wife and their daughters, except during supervised visits.

In 2010, Richards was granted full custody of their daughters. By 2012, the couple was on good terms and Richards was even granted custody of Sheen’s twin sons when they were taken from their mother.

The couple now spends the holidays as a family and even take their kids to movies and concerts together.

15 Naya Rivera And Ryan Dorsey Have Their Priorities Straight

Glee star Naya Rivera and actor Ryan Dorsey married in 2014. Shortly thereafter in September 2015, they welcomed their son Josey Hollis to the world. In November 2016, Rivera filed for divorce after two years of marriage. They released a joint statement at the time, saying that they would “continue to be great co-parenting partners” for Josey.

The couple tried to reconcile, but in November 2017, a few days before Rivera was arrested for domestic battery, she filed for divorce again.

Still, Josey was the number one priority for both Dorsey and Rivera. They celebrated Christmas as a family and a rep for Rivera told E! News that. “The family is working together peacefully and all matters have been amicably resolved."

14 America’s Sweethearts Call It Quits

When Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner split, the world was in a state of shock. They seemed like such a down-to-earth couple who kept their family mostly out of the spotlight. The pair married in 2005 and welcomed their first daughter Violet that same year. Three years later in 2009, Seraphina Rose Elizabeth, the couple’s second daughter, was born. Affleck and Garner completed their family in 2012 with the addition of their son Samuel.

After ten years of marriage, just a day after their anniversary, the couple announced their split.

They filed for divorce officially in 2017. Since then, the couple has worked together to co-parent their three children.

“You have to be on the same page. You have to cooperate," Affleck told TODAY. "If you recognize that you both have the best interest of the kids at heart, it’s quite a special connection. We’re the only two people in the world who care this much about these three kids. We don’t always agree. I tend to be more permissive about video games, for example. I played video games when I was a kid.”

13 Idina Menzel And Taye Diggs Had A Broadway Romance

Did you know that Broadway superstar Idina Menzel and actor Taye Diggs were married for a decade? Me neither! Turns out they were co-stars in the original production of Rent back in 1996. They married in 2003 and the couple welcomed a son, Walker Nathaniel Diggs, in 2009. They separated in December 2013 after being married for a decade and their divorce was finalized in 2015.

The Frozen star shared more about how the couple raises their child together, but separately. “Your child comes first, that’s all,” Menzel told PEOPLE. “It’s all about that. He comes first and you have to get past your own egos and you never talk bad about each other.”

Diggs couldn’t agree more. The Private Practice star shared that Walker is still the couple’s main objective. “He’s what’s most important for us, so we’re still there as a family,” Diggs told PEOPLE. He also spoke about his relationship with Menzel: “We were friends to start out with, but especially when you have a kid in the mix, there’s no time for any negativity.”

12 The Jolie-Pitt Split

Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met on the set of their film Mr and Mrs Smith in the summer of 2004. It was a controversial coupling, as Pitt was still married to America’s sweetheart Jennifer Aniston. Pitt and Aniston announced the end of their 5-year marriage in January 2005 and were officially divorced in March 2005.

Only four months later, Pitt and Jolie were featured in a W Magazine spread titled “Domestic Bliss”. In January 2006, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child and Pitt officially adopted Jolie’s two adopted children, Maddox and Zahara. In May 2006, the couple’s daughter Shiloh was born. The duo expanded their family yet again in March 2007 when they adopted son, Pax. The family was finally complete when, in July 2008, the couple welcomed twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline.

Almost ten years after their relationship began, the couple finally tied the knot in 2014. Only two years later, the couple split in 2016 when Jolie filed for divorce.

In 2017, Pitt opened up in GQ about divorce and moving forward as a family. “It’s just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart… So our focus is that everyone comes out stronger and better people — there is no other outcome.”

11 Kelly Rutherford’s Custody Battle

Perhaps one of the most vicious Hollywood custody battles happened between Gossip Girl actress Kelly Rutherford and her German-citizen husband Daniel Giersch.

The couple married in 2006 and welcomed their son Hermés Gustaf Daniel in 2006. Their daughter Helena Grace was born in 2009. The couple starting having trouble before the birth of Helena, and they started divorce proceedings in 2008. It was finalized in 2010.

Rutherford and Giersch then found themselves embroiled in a custody battle that lasted more than six years. When they divorced Rutherford sought 50-50 custody while Giersch sued for sole legal and physical custody of both children. They eventually settled on joint custody, but the issues did not stop there. Court proceedings continued and both Giersch and Rutherford continued to battle for the custody of their children. In 2012, the children were sent to live in Monaco with their father.

Rutherford fought, and continues to fight, for access to her children, but the outlook is bleak. In 2015, a Monaco judge made the final decision that the children would stay with their father.

10 Reese Witherspoon And Ryan Phillippe’s Young Love

Married in 1999, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe were only 24 and 25 years old respectively when they became husband and wife. They welcomed two children to their family, daughter Ava in 1999 and son Deacon in 2003. After eight years of marriage, the couple called it quits in October 2007.

Witherspoon has admitted that she was “ridiculously young” when the couple decided to get married.

“I was so, so young. I was, like, ridiculously young. I learnt a lot, though. It was an excellent opportunity for me to really find out what it means to be a partner and to be in a marriage and it’s not anything that I thought it was,” Witherspoon told Elle.

“You have to get to that point as a divorced parent, as any parent, where you’re not putting yourself first,” Phillippe told Entertainment Tonight. “You want the kids’ experience to be its own and not like, ‘Well, I need to have my time!’ We have been very good about that.”

9 Jennifer Lopez And Marc Anthony Are There For Their Twins

Latin music fans were over the moon when Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony began dating and got married in 2004.

Three years later, during the last night of their co-headlining tour, the couple announced to the world that, yes, they were expecting their first child.

Later, the world found out that they were, in fact, expecting their first two children—twins!

Lopez gave birth to their son, Maximilian David and their daughter, Emme Maribel, in February 2008. When the twins were three years old, Lopez and Anthony announced that they were separating and their divorce was finalized in 2014.

And while Lopez retains full custody of the twins, the couple works together to raise them. In an interview with Redbook, Lopez said their relationship is all about the kids now. "We share something very special with the kids, and we know that. We're there for them, and that's the main thing."

8 Sometimes Models And Actors Don’t Mix

Model Miranda Kerr once said that she had been wary to start dating actor Orlando Bloom because he was an actor. But in 2009, they became a couple and only a year later in 2010, they were engaged to be married. The big shock came only a month after they announced their engagement when the couple announced that they had gone ahead and gotten married.

And just one month after their wedding, Kerr and Bloom officially announced that they were four months pregnant. In January 2011, the happy couple welcomed their son, Flynn Christopher Blanchard Copeland Bloom, to the world.

Two years later, in October 2013, after rumours had been swirling for months, the duo announced the split.

While the marriage may have been over, Kerr and Bloom continued to work together to raise their son. "Despite this being the end of their marriage, they love, support and respect each other as both parents of their son and as family," they said in a joint statement. “’Miranda and I have a remarkable relationship. We co-parent really well,” Bloom told Elle in 2017.

7 Bruce Willis And Demi Moore’s Amicable Split

Actress Demi Moore met actor Bruce Willis at the 1987 premiere of the film Stakeout. Their courtship was short and the couple married in November 1987. During their marriage, Moore and Willis had three daughters together: their eldest, Rumer, was born in 1988, Scout followed in 1991 and their youngest daughter, Tallulah, was born in 1994.

The couple announced their separation in 1998 and filed for divorce in 2000.

Willis took the divorce as a personal failing, saying, “I felt I had failed as a father and a husband by not being able to make it work."

Still, the couple remains as a wonderful example to others trying to get co-parenting right. “They always made an effort to do all of the family events still together and made such an effort to still have our family be as one unit, as opposed to two separate things, which I think really made an impact,” said their daughter Rumer.

6 Courteney Cox And David Arquette Are Still Friends

Not only did the 1995 film Scream produce nightmares for many of us, it also gave us Courteney Cox and David Arquette. They met on the set of the film and began dating. Four years later, in June 1999, the couple married. One day and five years after their marriage their daughter, Coco Riley Arquette, was born in June 2004.

The couple announced their separation in October 2010 but remained close friends who continued to run Coquette Productions together. Arquette filed for divorce in 2012 and the divorce was finalized in 2013.

In 2016 Cox opened up about why she and Arquette got divorced while on an expedition with Bear Grylls. "I think that we were such good friends," she explained. "We found ourselves leading separate lives and just coexisting and being great friends, but not having the intimacy that...is so important in a relationship. I think you really need to work in a relationship, and I think that we tried. We're just really different, too. I'm the polar opposite of him. That can be great for a lot of things, but I need this kind of real, one-on-one connection. And I don't know. I don't know."

“We're good co-parents together,” she added.

5 Kate Winslet Doesn’t Believe In 50/50 Time Sharing

Actress Kate Winslet has split form two husbands with whom she has children.

Winslet married assistant director Jim Threapleton in 1998 and the couple welcomed their daughter, Mia, in 2000. Winslet has said many times that she lost herself in this marriage and the couple divorced in 2001.

After her divorce, Winslet met director Sam Mendes. She turned down the role he offered her in his play, but the two began dating. They married in 2003 and later that year their son Joe was born. When rumours of an affair between Mendes and actress Rebecca Hall started to swirl through the tabloids, the couple announced their separation in 2010. Their divorce was finalized a year later.

And while Winslet does co-parent with both of her exes, she has custody of both Mia and Joe. “They’ve always been with me. They don’t go from pillar to post; they’re not flown here and there with nannies,” Winslet told Vogue. “That’s never happened. My kids don’t go back and forth; none of this 50/50 time with the mums and dads—my children live with me, that is it.”

4 Heidi Klum Is A Mom And A Dad To Her Kids

Model Heidi Klum and musician Seal began their relationship in early 2004 while Klum was expecting a child with the Italian managing director of Renault's Formula One team, Flavio Briatore. Klum gave birth to her first daughter, Helene (Leni) Klum in May 2004. Seal was by her side for the birth and Klum has unequivocally stated that Seal is Leni’s father.

The couple went on to get engaged in December 2004 and married in May 2005 on a Mexican beach. They had three biological children together during their marriage—their eldest son, Henry Günther Ademola Dashtu Samuel, was born in 2005, followed by another son Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel born in 2006, and finally, their daughter Lou Sulola Samuel was born in 2009.

2009 was a big year for the couple, as Klum adopted Seal’s last name, and Seal officially adopted Leni, who also became a Samuel. The couple always seemed to be so in love. Every year they renewed their vows and their Hollywood Halloween parties were a thing to be envied. So when Klum and Seal announced that they were separating in 2012, it felt like a pretty big blow to romance.

And while the couple still co-parent, they also recognize the differences between their lives and those of “normal” families. “[Seal] was never your typical dad who left for work in the morning with his briefcase and would be home by dinner time every night. He travelled a lot,” Klum said in an interview with Redbook. “The kids knew it was part of his job. I’m a mom and a dad at the same time.”

3 Amy Poehler And Will Arnett Know That Divorce Is Lame

While both Amy Poehler and Will Arnett are not exactly keen on being in the spotlight—”I don't like people knowing my...”—they have shared a little about their journey from a married couple, to parents, to divorced co-parents.

The couple married in August 2003 and often worked together. Poehler had a recurring role on Arnett’s series Arrested Development, Arnett had a guest spot on Poehler’s Parks and Rec and they played a very creepy brother-sister duo in Blades of Glory.

They have two sons together: Archie was born in 2008 and Abel was born 2010. The couple announced their separation in 2012 and their divorce was finalized in July 2016. And while they may not share the screen as often anymore, the pair still work hard to be great parents.

"I am proud of how my ex-husband Will and I have been taking care of our children," Poehler wrote in her memoir, Yes Please.

"I am beyond grateful he is their father, and I don't think a ten-year marriage constitutes failure. That being said, getting a divorce really sucks."

2 Ashlee Simpson And Pete Wentz Prove The Kids Are Alright

At only 24 years old, singer Ashlee Simpson was engaged Fall Out Boy bassist, Pete Wentz in April 2008. Their engagement was short and the couple married in May 2008 on Simpson’s parents’ residence. It wasn’t long before the couple welcomed their son, Bronx Mowgli, in November 2008. In February 2011, Simpson filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in November 2011. Simpson remarried in 2014 and now has a daughter with husband Evan Ross.

They released a joint statement stating, “We remain friends and deeply committed and loving parents to our son Bronx, whose happiness and well-being remains our number one priority.”

“We co-parent really well,” Wentz told People in 2018. “I have to say, I have really good co-parents to deal with. [Ashlee and Evan] are both communicative and easy-going. For Bronx, it’s basically the only life he’s really known. So it’s normal to him, and he’s really good at it. Our schedules can be crazy, so we’ve been good about making sure Bronx has balance.”

1 Before Gisele, There Was Bridget Moynahan

Long before Tom Brady settled down with supermodel Gisele Bündchen, and when he only had 2 Super Bowl wins under his belt, NFL quarterback Tom Brady was wrapped up in a bigger scandal than even #deflategate.

In 2003, Brady was dating actress and model Bridget Moynahan. The couple split in December 2006. But, it was only two months later that actress and model Bridget Moynahan confirmed that she was pregnant with her first child with Brady.

Their son, John Edward Thomas Moynahan, was born six months later. By the birth of John, Brady was already dating Bündchen.

Even though the circumstances were mucky, to say the least, Moynahan and Brady have a great co-parenting relationship. “I have a relationship with these people on a daily basis. I'm raising a child, and it's public,” she told More. “My son has two loving parents and an extended family, whether it's cousins or stepmothers or boyfriends. My son is surrounded by love.”

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