Celebrity Scandals We're Thankful For In 2020!

For most people, “thankful” isn’t the word that comes to mind when describing our feelings about the year 2020.

Seemingly cursed from the start, we got dealt a pretty awful hand with the coronavirus pandemic, countless acts of racial and social injustice and police brutality, and a truly WILD election season just to name a few. But throughout all of the madness, our favorite celebs still managed to keep us on our toes with one juicy scandal after another!

Related: Celebrity Splits Of 2020!

Not even quarantine could stop messy breakups and Royal family shakeups from happening, or all of the shocking Hollywood revelations that came to light.

Ch-ch-check out our list of celebrity scandals we’re thankful for (below)!

Megxit

On January 8, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their decision to step back as senior members of the British royal family, a moment that we’ve now all coined as “Megxit.” The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had welcomed their son Archie Harrison only eight months prior, but the two decided it was time to break tradition, ditch the UK, and become financially independent under their new brand, Sussex Royal. It goes without saying that Queen Elizabeth did, in fact, clutch her pearls after hearing that one! This was a HUGE shakeup across the pond!

The internet and notoriously racist British tabloids had fun painting the Suits star to be the villain in all of this, but Harry clarified the couple made the decision to protect their growing family from the negative public scrutiny they already faced as royals. The tough power dynamics and rumored strained familial relationships with Prince William and Kate Middleton behind doors didn’t help matters either.

But with exciting personal ventures ahead for them both, fam like Meg’s mom Doria Ragland nearby for help, and a sprawling new home in Santa Barbara, California, the future is looking bright. We’re thankful these two forged their own paths and gave us all something to talk about!

Jessica Mulroney’s White Privilege!

Before this year, TV host and fashion stylist Jessica Mulroney was primarily known for being one of Meghan Markle‘s closest BFFs. But after the 40-year-old Canadian threatened Black lifestyle influencer Sasha Exeter over voicing her support for the Black Lives Matter movement back in June, she was officially on everyone’s radar for her gross display of white privilege!

Jessica took offense to “a very generic call to action” Sasha posted asking white influencers to use their platforms in support of Black people during such difficult times, but she even took it a step further with threatening a lawsuit against Exter via Instagram DM. Wow, talk about being bold AND wrong!

Once Sasha uploaded a video detailing the harassment she received titled, “My Amy Cooper Experience,” Jessica was forced to muster up a public apology or risk being cancelled. Spoiler alert, it happened anyway! Not only was her Canadian CTV wedding TV show, I Do, Redo, pulled from its network, but Canadian department store Hudson Bay also cut ties with the fashionista, as well as Kleinfeld Canada amid backlash. Jessica’s husband Ben also stepped down from his longtime etalk hosting gig. But the biggest personal blow of all? Miz Markle swiftly gave her pal the boot!

Sources said Prince Harry‘s wife simply could not get past the stylist’s tone-deaf move and as far as we know, the ladies haven’t spoken since! We also heard Jess was going to drum up some big PR spin to get past this, but, in our opinion? We’re just glad this got exposed so she can start doing the real work to be a better person — and that Meg no longer has a phony in her life!

Lea Michele’s Icky Glee Behavior

It all came crashing down for one of Glee‘s brightest burning stars, Lea Michele, after her former co-star Samantha Ware accused the actress of making her life a “living hell” in a viral tweet shared back in June. The message was in response to a statement Michele posted in support of BLM, but Ware’s comment essentially opened the floodgates to countless stories of past bad behavior about Michele.

Former co-stars all the way back to her child actor days on Broadway revealed their horror stories about working with the allegedly tyrannical actress — even members of the beauty biz community said they had icky experiences partnering with her! Lea’s most heinous attack on Samantha, however, reportedly happened on set when she threatened to s**t in her castmate’s wig. Gross! And honestly, her lame apology didn’t even begin to cover it.

Ware unpacked her decision to put Michele on blast to Variety, and her explanation perfectly sums up why we’re thankful for this scandal:

“When you tweet, ‘Black lives matter,’ that would mean you have an understanding of what that hashtag means, but it’s clear that it doesn’t. Does Lea even know what a microaggression is? I don’t know. All that her apology did was affirm that she hasn’t learned anything. Am I calling Lea a racist? No. Does Lea have racist tendencies? I think Lea suffers from a symptom of living in this world in an industry that is tailored to white people.”

We hope that Lea and others like her within the industry actually learned this lesson as well as how to carry themselves like professionals and treat people with respect at work, FFS!

The Ellen Degeneres Take-Down

Ellen DeGeneres‘ “nice guy” act had its final curtain call this year after one bombshell BuzzFeed News report brought forward damning allegations of racism, fear and intimidation while working on the comedian’s popular daytime talk show.

Three of the show’s producers were also accused of sexual misconduct by former employees and were later fired following a Warner Bros. internal investigation. After taking some time off the air, the Finding Dory star returned with an apology, asking everyone from her employees to viewers at home for forgiveness. Not without a few missteps along the way, the woman who’s motto was literally, “be kind” did her best to take accountability for the work environment she fostered and people she hurt.

We’re thankful that something which was long considered an open secret in Hollywood was finally seriously addressed. Hopefully changes are still actively being made and this all wasn’t just a front!

Vanderpump Rules Cast Firings Over Racism!

Another secretly racist show takes out the trash! Vanderpump Rules stars Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute were fired following massive backlash for falsely reporting former co-star Faith Stowers to the police for a theft crime she did not commit.

After the axing, Miz Stowers shared via Page Six:

“I feel so vindicated studios and production are able to see blatant racism and make these positive changes and help move the race forward — help with the fight forward. I was in the middle of prayer and I felt a sense of — I know it sounds corny — I felt a sense of glory. I felt God’s presence and I’m seeing now [that the news has been revealed] maybe that is what that was. He gave me a sign of optimism meant to be hopeful and showing that all of this was worth it.”

The 31-year-old concluded:

“I was ready to put myself in the line of fire because I don’t know what will happen if I don’t say anything, but I’m glad I did. Now I’m seeing Bravo follow suit, releasing women that have given crazy ratings for them because they want to be on the right side of history and I’m seeing people are finally hearing us.”

In addition to the ladies getting the boot, new cast members Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni were given the pink slip due to past vile tweets resurfacing! While we’re not sure if any real lessons were learned, this entire scandal and all it’s fallout did provide a divine helping of drama to satisfy our craving!

College Admissions Finale

After months of denying their guilt in the now-infamous college admissions scandal, to see Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannuli FINALLY admit guilt was a thing of beauty!

Loughlin pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, while her husband pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and honest services wire and mail fraud. The actress is currently serving months in prison, will pay a $150,000 fine, have two years of supervised release, and 250 hours of community service. Mossimo is also currently serving five months with 250 hours of community service, two years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

All of this for paying $500K to get their daughters Bella and Olivia Jade admitted to USC as fake student athletes? Seems like they made a very bad, illegal deal! But it was poetry watching them go down!

Chrishell Stause & Justin Hartley Divorce Drama

If you’re a fan of Netflix‘s Selling Sunset, you know Chrishell Stause was essentially blindsided when her former husband of two years, Justin Hartley, revealed he was filing for divorce via text. Almost immediately after the cell phone message (which occurred in November of 2019), news broke world-wide, and the former soap actress’ life literally imploded before our very eyes. We all got to witness this via reality TV in 2020, and all the headlines that followed were truly wild!

The This Is Us actor quickly moved on with his former The Young and the Restless co-star, Sofia Pernas, while Chrishell began her redemption tour — but not without drama!

The real estate agent appeared on Dancing With The Stars alongside pro Gleb Savchenko, and it wasn’t all sunshine and body glitter! The ballroom expert and his wife of more than a decade filed for divorce recently, and it didn’t take long for fans to speculate Gleb’s close relationship with his new dance partner must have had something with it! This sort of thing has happen on the show before, so it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility here…

Well, Stause took to her own IG platform shortly after the split announcement and shut down that notion before it got any legs. Citing her own painful divorce in her defense, she began:

“I am so saddened about the news of Gleb and Elena’s split. It is unfortunate that this has caused rumors to swirl about my personal life. Having gone through a public split myself, I would not wish this on anyone.”

The 39-year-old continued by denying that she and the DWTS star were anything more than friends during and after their time competing for the Mirror Ball, which officially came to an end on November 3:

“As you can imagine, the countless hours of training, and dance rehearsals has created a strong supportive friendship, but nothing more. I wish nothing but the best for both Gleb and Elena during this unfortunate time.”

Gleb’s estranged wife Elena Samodanova then went to People and shared that he has been unfaithful, but didn’t name-drop Chrishell:

Lily James & Dominic West’s Affair

This tale of two co-stars (who literally play on-screen father and daughter, ICK) falling for each other might be the wildest romp of 2020! In October, photos surfaced of starlet Lily James and actor Dominic West canoodling all over Rome — very clearly on a lovey getaway!

The thing is, Mr. West is very much married to landscape designer Catherine FitzGerald, has been for 10 years, and shares four kids with her. To make things even more bizarre, after the pics were published, the actor and his wife set up a weird press conference outside their home in the UK, where they kissed for cameras and displayed a handwritten note claiming their marriage was “strong”!

Now, sources have said Lily thought Dominic wasn’t married, and that Catherine ran away to her mother’s home because she was actually inconsolable over the entire affair…

But the last we saw, husband and wife were spotted jogging happily together — so who who really knows what TF actually happened. We’ll likely never get the whole truth — but it has been highly entertaining to be an observer of this mess!

Lily was also accused of having an affair with a then-married Armie Hammer — and his ex wife basically confirmed it — so we know at least there will be more drama forthcoming from the Cinderella actress!

Kim Kardashian’s Birthday Trip

While many Americans have been homebound since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, the entire Kardashian family have been traveling the globe — and getting rightfully slammed for it. Between unnecessary trips around the US to European adventures, this famous brood hardly understood the stay-at-home orders and set a truly bad example for their legions of followers.

And although they’re all guilty, Kim Kardashian West was the one who got the most blowback from her travel escapades after a VERY out-of-touch social media post following her controversial 40th birthday trip. KKW flew a fleet of friends and family (seriously, like over 25 people) to French Polynesia for a lavish getaway. In the reveal, she shared:

“40 and feeling so humbled and blessed. There is not a single day that I take for granted, especially during these times when we are all reminded of the things that truly matter. … After 2 weeks of multiple health screens and asking everyone to quarantine, I surprised my closest inner circle with a trip to a private island where we could pretend things were normal just for a brief moment in time.”

There’s nothing normal about flaunting your insane privilege when the pandemic is shattering lives! And the fact that you could “pretend” people weren’t getting sick at rapid rates and dying of COVID-19 is just WOW. Btw, in her luxurious photos, you can see various masked staffers who put their lives at risk to serve her and her guests!

Sure, Khloé Kardashian, Lala Anthony, and Kris Jenner tried to defend the vacation, but we all saw right through it!

Demi Lovato’s Quickie Engagement To Max Ehrich

When Demi Lovato and actor Max Ehrich got together at the start of the pandemic, we had high hopes! The songbird has gone through a difficult few years, and she seemed SO happy — until it all came crashing down.

The duo became engaged after only a few months of knowing each other, and then quickly ended things in explosive fashion. Videos and tweets of Max thirsting over Selena Gomez surfaced — and although Demi initially called them fake, they most definitely played a role in their breakup. The former soap star was further labeled a “clout-chaser”, and it was rumored he was only with Lovato to advance his career.

Demi apparently ignored MANY red flags, but was relieved and “embarrassed” she decided to break things off with him. And thank gawd she did, because what played out next was truly comical. Between Max’s various social media pleas, to him calling paparazzi to take crying photos on the beach, it just kept getting worse!

Then he went as far as to upload cozy pics with a former American Idol contestant in a ploy to make the Confident singer jealous! Spoiler alert: it didn’t work! And to this day, Ehrich is STILL trying to make headlines for his split. Damn!

What was your fave drama moment, Perezcious readers?! SOUND OFF in the comments (below) with all your thoughts!

[Image via Fayes Vision/Avalon/Nicky Nelson/WENN/Kim Kardashian/Instagram/The Ellen DeGeneres Show/YouTube]