Top 4 Worst Celeb Breakups

Breakups, even the messy ones, are an essential rite of passage and now that the deed is done, etiquette dictates that you knock him off your Facebook list, systematically exorcise your room of all his souvenirs and then join Adele and Katy Perry for an evening of wallowing.

Now of course, if you are a world famous celeb, the process differs a bit: You send out a tweet declaring your newly single status and then spend the next month dodging all-too-personal questions from a posse of media outlets whose sole mission in life is to document every crushing detail in print.

Breakups are a harrowing ordeal, and one that can do well without an audience of millions. Here are some celebs who went through eye-hurtingly public breakups and lived to tell the tale:

Anne Hathaway – Raffaello Follieri
Before you go about crowning your ex the biggest scumbag on earth, get a load of this: Did your ex turn out to be a pathological liar who was later investigated by the FBI for cheating church officials for huge sums of money? Well, Anne Hathaway's did. She also had to surrender her jewelry and private journals to the authorities for investigation. If there ever was an award for Most Wronged Celeb, it would have Anne's name all over it.  

Charlie Sheen – Denise Richards
In his 29 year career in showbiz, Charlie Sheen has earned a string of nicknames, none of which can be repeated in polite company, and all with good reason. A reason that was made crystal clear to wife Denise Richards when she announced her decision to split up with him. In the protracted divorce battle that ensued, Denise perhaps hoped to claim her fair share of the couple's assets, but she was instead awarded with a two-year long mud-slinging battle as everything from prostitutes, drugs and death threats to aliens from outer space were blamed for the split. 

Balthazar – Rosetta Getty
Given Balthazar's philandering ways, a protracted divorce battle was perhaps always on the cards but it is Sienna Miller's whose apartment bears the battle scars. The model was photographed topless with Balthazar while he was married to Rosetta Getty and was later rewarded for her efforts with the word 's**t' grafittied on the walls of her apartment, complete with a satanic symbol. 

Jennifer Lopez – Ben Affleck
Unlike their onscreen persona, precious few celebrities can lay claim to their own happily ever after in real life. And yet, the charming duo of Bennifer had it all. The dream wedding of 2003 would have perhaps gone on track, if it weren't for The Enquirer, whose idea of a wedding present was to publish a series of photos of Ben Affleck living it up with a couple of half-dressed Canadian strippers a week before the wedding. The world watched in hushed silence as overnight the wedding was off, the 'Ben' from Bennifer painstakingly blacked out, Ben Affleck relegated to the couch and asked to find a new home for his 1 million engagement ring.