The Messiest Celebrity Drama Of 2025

Every year brings its share of celebrity scandals, but 2025 was chaotic. We really got it all this year: legal battles, family feuds, cheating allegations and breakups, a controversial jean ad, a digital footprint that'll leave you canceled for the rest of your career, and more. Even politicians ended up tangled in the same chaotic news cycle. No single meltdown defined the year because there were simply too many of them, each one mutating and dragging new people into the mess before the last one had even cooled down. Ready to get into them?

Here are the craziest, messiest celeb scandals of 2025.

Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle Ad That Broke Everyone's Brain

Who knew thirty seconds of denim marketing could cause weeks of discourse? In August, American Eagle dropped a campaign starring Sydney Sweeney where she stares into the camera and says with vocal fry: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue."

Critics read the campaign as flirting with some very loaded ideas about genetics and beauty, while others thought the backlash was a classic case of people reading way too much into a corny pun about pants. And if you're also angry at Sydney Sweeney, just wait until you hear what other brands have said about genes.

Sweeney addressed the controversy in early December 2025, stating, "I was honestly surprised by the reaction. I did it because I love the jeans and love the brand. I don’t support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren’t true."

Karla Sofía Gascón's Rise and Fall

Karla Sofía Gascón, a trans woman, was having the kind of awards season that careers are built on. Her film Emilia Pérez, about a cartel boss who transitions and starts a new life, premiered at Cannes to major buzz and led nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, including a historic Best Actress nod.

Then Gascón’s worst nightmare happened: screenshots of old social media posts started circulating. The posts showed Gascón criticizing vaccine mandates, questioning narratives around George Floyd, speaking against Muslim immigration, and making disparaging remarks about various public figures and groups. The progressive voices that had been championing the film as a breakthrough for representation pivoted hard.

Gascón issued an apology, saying, "I want to acknowledge the conversation around my past social media posts that have caused hurt…I am deeply sorry to those I have caused pain."  

The Cyrus Family Cannot Catch a Break

If 2025 had a first family of dysfunction, it was the Cyruses. The mess unfolded in layers, starting with Firerose, Billy Ray Cyrus' ex-wife, who came forward with allegations of narcissistic abuse more than a year after their divorce.

In a December Instagram post, she wrote: "In your 20s you'll meet a 49-year-old man who convinces you you're his soulmate…It is very important you don't believe him." She described a pattern of "control, isolation, rage, manipulation, walking on eggshells," claiming she was cut off from friends and family during the relationship. She also alleged Billy Ray warned her against going out in public, telling her, "You’re a Cyrus now. You can’t be going to church. You can’t be going to public places where people could follow you home. You’re going to be murdered."

Trace Cyrus posted a public plea to his father to reconnect with his children as well. "The man that I wanted so desperately to be just like I barely recognize now," he wrote, adding that he and his sisters had been worried for years. He specifically called out the situation with his youngest sister: "That's your baby girl. She deserves better."

Let’s not forget about Billy Ray’s poor performance at President Trump's Liberty Ball.

Blake Lively vs. Justin Baldoni: The War That Would Not End

This legal battle felt like it lasted approximately one thousand years. “It Ends with Us” – yeah, right. It’s never-ending. What started as tension around their film project spiraled into lawsuits, countersuits, leaked audio, and endless public statements that kept the story alive month after month.

By January, Baldoni's attorney was accusing Lively's team of orchestrating a media attack. Days later, Baldoni filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and publicist Leslie Sloane, alleging civil extortion and defamation. Lively's lawyers moved to dismiss by citing California protections for people reporting harassment in good faith. The judge threw out Baldoni’s, but we’re not done. He’s still fighting Lively’s accusations to this day, refusing to settle and instead pushing the case toward a jury trial scheduled for March 2026.

Justin Bieber's Unhinged Social Media Activities

Early in the year, Justin Bieber unfollowed his wife Hailey on Instagram, and fans immediately spiraled into speculation about whether their marriage was in trouble, especially since they had just welcomed their first child, Jack Blues.

Justin tried to explain it away in a now-deleted Instagram Story: "Someone went on my account and unfollowed my wife. S–t is getting suss out here." The explanation somehow made things worse because people immediately started asking why a hacker would bother unfollowing just one account. 

But he also appeared on multiple livestreams this year, prompting viewers to speculate that the singer may have been under the influence. He also appeared to throw shade at Selena Gomez by comparing her to Gollum.

The Vanity Fair Portraits That Had Everyone Screaming

Leave it to a photoshoot to cause absolute mayhem. Vanity Fair recently dropped a series of extreme close-up portraits of Trump administration officials, shot by Christopher Anderson at the White House. These were not at all your standard glossy political headshots; they showed every single pore, every stray hair, every crease in the makeup. 

Comments flooded social media, with many calling the portraits a "jump scare" and accusing the magazine of doing these officials "dirty," with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's image drawing the most attention. Tens of thousands of viewers picked apart her visible skin texture while speculating about possible cosmetic procedures, which quickly spiraled into a much bigger conversation about how women in politics get scrutinized compared to their male counterparts.

Anderson wasn't having the accusations that he tried to make anyone look bad. He told The Independent, "Very close-up portraiture has been a fixture in a lot of my work over the years," explaining that he likes "the idea of penetrating the theater of politics." He also pushed back directly on the criticism: "I know there's a lot to be made with, 'Oh, he intentionally is trying to make people look bad'…that's not the case."

Aimee Lou Wood Calls Out SNL

Saturday Night Live caught heat after airing a White Lotus Season 3 parody that went after actress Aimee Lou Wood in a way that felt unnecessarily cruel. Cast member Sarah Sherman played Wood wearing fake buck teeth, which landed very differently than the political impressions elsewhere in the sketch.

Wood responded the next day, calling the bit "mean and unfunny." She acknowledged that satire comes with the territory but questioned whether there was "a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way" to land the joke.

Her reaction hit harder because she had recently opened up about feeling insecure about her appearance. In an interview, she admitted that when she learned her casting had been debated, she assumed it was because she was "ugly," though she clarified that no one at HBO had ever actually said that to her. She also pointed out that her character was the only non-political figure being mocked in the sketch, which she saw as punching down. To summarize, Wood is precious, and she did not deserve that. 

Nina Dobrev's TikTok Shade

Nina Dobrev stayed quiet after her breakup from Shaun White until eagle-eyed fans caught a very pointed TikTok in November. In the video, she lip-synced to Ariana Grande's "Break Free" while switching from a middle finger to her ring finger during the lyric "I can't pretend anymore."

The post racked up millions of views as fans read it as a comment on the relationship. While People had reported the split as mutual, later reporting hinted at differing visions for the future and possible disagreements over marriage and children. Dobrev seemed to confirm the messier version when another TikTok resurfaced using a viral sound about trying to "fix a man."

They were together for five years before calling it quits.

The Snow White Disaster

Disney's live-action Snow White was in trouble long before it hit theaters. Starring Rachel Zegler, the remake became a lightning rod for criticism from basically every direction.

Zegler's previous comments calling the 1937 original "weird" and "extremely dated" followed her throughout the press cycle. Peter Dinklage publicly questioned the film's approach to the seven dwarves, criticizing the use of CGI rather than casting actors with dwarfism. Vulture's Alison Willmore described the finished movie as an unintentional satire of leftist infighting, with Snow White coming across as passive and indecisive rather than kind. By the time audiences actually saw the film, the conversation around it had grown so loud that it completely drowned out the story Disney was trying to tell.

Since you’re here, I’ll spoil the movie for you anyway: it was bad. Really bad. Which, honestly, feels like the perfect way to describe 2025. Here's hoping 2026 gives us a little less chaos. Or at least better movies.