7 Times Celebs Aired Dirt About Their Ex After Breaking Up, And 6 Famous Exes Who've Maintained Their Friendship

"I wish we were the kind of people who could divorce and stay friends. We weren’t, and I regret that my actions hurt him."

As we all know, breakups are hard — especially when a couple is in the public eye. Tabloid rumors, differing values, and competitive career paths are just a few things that can contribute to (and worsen) the end of a relationship. When it comes down to it, many different circumstances affect just how messy a breakup can get.

Some former couples can put their past romantic feelings aside and come together for the good of their friendship or children. ... While other exes have no intentions of being friends and don’t shy away from the nitty-gritty details. From Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake to Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley — here are seven celeb exes who publicly called each other out vs. six famous former couples who stayed friends (or at least kept things amicable):

1. Called each other out: Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake

Spears and Timberlake’s relationship was tabloid fodder for most of the early aughts ... and that drama was renewed in 2023 after Spears released her shocking memoir, “The Woman in Me.” Among other allegations, the “Toxic” singer wrote that Timberlake was a serial cheater during their three-year relationship, encouraged her to undergo an abortion and broke up with her over text.

Shortly after the couple’s 2002 breakup, Timberlake released the song “Cry Me a River.” In the music video for the song, Timberlake is shown as being cheated on by a Spears lookalike. At the time of the song’s release, Spears noted that she had already been branded as a “cheating slut and liar” by the press, and the thinly veiled video didn’t help matters. She wrote, “Was I mad at being ‘outed’ by him as sexually active? No. To be honest with you, I liked that Justin said that. Why did my managers work so hard to claim I was some kind of young-girl virgin even into my twenties? Whose business was it if I’d had sex or not?”