5 Celebrity Weddings That Caused Major Controversies

If 2024 was the year of the Ambani wedding, 2025 is shaping up to be all about Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s upcoming nuptials. The couple, who got engaged in 2023, is gearing up for a grand three-day-long wedding celebration in Venice, Italy. But their best-laid plans have incurred the wrath of locals who have taken to the streets to protest the billionaire’s choice of wedding destination.

Last week, demonstrators in the floating metropolis began protesting the upcoming event with giant signs proclaiming “No space for Bezos”. The local citizens are upset about the disruption the wedding, with all its international guests, would cause to their daily lives.

There are also rising concerns about the environmental peril of letting Bezos dock his $500 million yacht in the Venice lagoon. The mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, however, dismissed the speculations that the city life would be disrupted because of the wedding in a statement. He even assured the protestors that the guest list is smaller than what they’ve been led to believe.

“The many speculations and fake news circulating about Jeff Bezos' wedding are completely unfounded,” read his statement. “Only two hundred guests will have been invited and therefore it will be easy for Venice to accommodate such an event, without any disruption whatsoever to the city, its residents and visitors.”

Whether Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding fulfils the protestors’ prophecy, that the event would sink Venice, or not, it’s not the first time a celebrity has caused drama because of their nuptials.

Here are some of the major controversies surrounding celebrity weddings over the years…

Most Controversial Celebrity Weddings

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively

Controversy: Ill-thought-out wedding venue

Power couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are one of the most talked-about celebrity couples in the world, not always for the right reasons. When the couple tied the knot in 2012, they decided upon Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens in South Carolina as their wedding venue. While the historical architecture and the verdant grounds served as a beautiful backdrop for their wedding, the dark history of the property didn’t go down well with the couple’s fans. As it turns out, the property was one of the largest slave-holding plantations in the area.

Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant

Controversy: Angry Italian locals

The impact Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant’s wedding had on pop culture last year was unprecedented, to say the least. The presence of international stars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, to having Kim Kardashian rub shoulders with Mamta Banerjee during the baraat, the Ambani wedding had everyone talking around the world. However, the couple’s four-day luxury European cruise rubbed many the wrong way. The cruise took off from Palermo and made its way to the South of France while making stops in Rome, Portofino and Genoa. Locals in these coastal towns were not pleased by the disruption caused by the Ambanis shutting down roads and businesses for their celebrations. The loud noise until wee hours of the morning didn’t help matters.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip

Controversy: Problematic vows

The OG royal wedding was not without its fair share of controversies. When Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip got married in 1947, the future monarch created a stir with her choice of words during the vow exchange with her husband at the altar. The queen chose to keep the word ‘obey’ in her vows, a practice that had been abolished for around two decades by that point. In 1928, the Church of England struck out the word from the service, since women were allowed to own property in the same way as men, and the word ‘obey’ seemed misogynistic. Many also felt that a future monarch shouldn’t vow to obey anyone.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan

Controversy: A small, small guest list

When Bollywood royalty Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan decided to get married in 2007, the wedding was expected to be a grand and lavish affair. However, as the wedding approached, it became clear that the Bachchans were going for a small and intimate affair, owing to Abhishek’s grandmother’s health and the fact that they wanted to host it at their residence in Mumbai. The lean guest list ruffled quite a few feathers in Bollywood, creating tabloid gossip fodder for days. The family decided to send wedding sweets to those who were not included in the guest list, an act that didn’t go down too well with some. Actor Shatrugan Sinha returned the sweets, reportedly, saying that if they didn’t want to invite him, they shouldn’t have sent the sweets.

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel

Controversy: A distasteful wedding video

For their Italian wedding celebrations in 2012, Justin Timberlake’s friends made a video that landed the singer in hot water. The controversial clip opened with the caption “Greetings from your Hollywood friends who couldn’t make it” and went on to include videos and interviews with homeless people. The distasteful video, rightfully, created a scandal for the newlyweds. Soon, Justin Timberlake had to step up and apologise for his friend’s lapse in judgment.