
Clocking in With Their Exes: Celebrity Couples Who Had to Work Together After Breaking Up

Their romances may have ended, but these stars wound up working together after the love was gone.
Aug. 9 2025, Published 12:05 a.m. ET
Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell

More than three decades after their split, Malcolm McDowell, 82, and Mary Steenburgen, 72, who were wed for 10 years, teamed up for the Western Last Train to Fortune — and it was like no time had passed.
"From the first moment we started rehearsing, it was like putting on a pair of comfortable slippers," Malcolm said, adding, "We're both now with other partners and very happy."
She's been wed to Ted Danson since 1995, while he married Kelley Kuhr in 1991. The exes share two actor kids, Lilly and Charlie.
Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki

All's well that ends well! Kaley Cuoco, 39, admitted to "crushing so hard" on Johnny Galecki, 50, from the very start of their hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory, but the pair didn't get together until 2008.
After their 2010 split, their characters continued to date — and even wed — which would have been awkward if the two weren't such good pals.
"Luckily, Johnny and I came out of it so brilliantly and we're closer today than we ever were," Cuoco confirmed.
Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult

That's the trouble with franchises! Jennifer Lawrence was bereft when her five-year relationship with her X-Men costar Nicholas Hoult, 35, ended during X-Men: Days of Future Past, while the superhero series kept on going.
"My life was this person and these movies and we broke up around the same time that I wrapped those movies," Lawrence, 34, later said. "Being 24 was this whole year of, 'Who am I without these movies? Who am I without this man?'"
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Jennifer Aniston and Tate Donovan

The 61-year-old was still dating Jennifer Aniston, 56, IRL when he played Rachel's love interest for five episodes of Friends in 1998.
"The only bummer was Jennifer and I were breaking up at the time," Tate Donovan later said. "And so that was tricky to sort of act, and act like we are just meeting each other and falling in love, or whatever, interested in each other when we're sort of breaking up. That was just tough."
Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray

Sophia Bush was angry about how producers sensationalized her marriage to her One Tree Hill costar Chad Michael Murray, 43, which ended after just a few months in 2006 (the show continued until 2012).
"They ran TV ads about it," the 42-year-old later griped. "It was really ugly. They made practice of taking advantage of people's personal lives … and they would end up in storylines. It wasn't OK."
Florence Pugh and Zach Braff

After making A Good Person together, the couple of three years split — but still had to smile on the red carpet to promote the 2023 flick.
While Florence Pugh, 29, admitted to getting "a lumpy throat" talking about the breakup, Zach Braff, 50, was nothing if not a gentleman about his ex, saying he was "just in awe of her talent," and he even spent time with her family!