When love goes out of the window, fight to keep the dogs. That’s Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp and soon-to-be-ex-wife Amber Heard’s story in a nutshell.
According to a report by Yahoo UK News, the couple has embarked on a bitter custody battle over their dogs, Pistol and Boo – the same pups they had smuggled into Australia some months back without appropriate paperwork.
Now entangled in a messy divorce with Heard accusing Depp of domestic abuse, the star pair is said to be fighting for the custody of their beloved pets. While Heard wants Pistol, Depp wants both Pistol and Boo. And both are determined to walk the war path for it.
As bizarre as it sounds, Depp and Heard are not the first celebrities embroiled in weird custody battles. Here are some other (in)famous Hollywood divorce arguments.
Psst… quite a few of them are about pets.
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon
While the duo now posts happy pictures with their twins, pop star Mariah Carey and rapper and TV host Nick Cannon fought an ugly divorce battle a couple of years back over the custody of their eight Jack Russell terriers. The couple is said to have had amicably settled all other financial and legal clauses, but stumbled when it came to the pooches, who fly first class and go for at least $46,000 worth annual spa getaways.
Whew! A dog’s life is not such a bad thing, eh?
Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards
While they got divorced way back in 2006, what haven’t yet gone out of circulation in the gossip mills are first, their friends-now-foes-now vibe, and more to the point, Denise’s demand for the custody of Sheen’s sperm.
Yes, you read that right.
Sheen accused Denise of sending an e-mail to his then-girlfriend Brooke Mueller asking for a sperm donation from him. Denise denied it, labelling the e-mail doctored.
Snigger.
Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams
When she filed for divorce from musician Ryan Adams in December 2015, Mandy Moore demanded pet support apart from spousal support. The couple owned six cats and two dogs, and when the time came to end the marriage, the actress-songstress found it overwhelming to take care of all of them. She demanded Adams take full responsibility for four of the pets.
David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach
When it came down to divorce from Pamela Bach, the original Baywatch star insisted on keeping total possession of the nickname “Hoff” and the catchphrase “Don’t Hassle the Hoff.”
Flummoxed? So was the rest of the world.
Dennis Hopper and Victoria Duffy
You’d think death would be the end of it all. As it turned out for actors Dennis Hopper and Victoria Duffy, not always. Hopper filed for a divorce on his deathbed in 2010, and the duo had enough fights hitting the ceiling over the valuable works of art they had collected. Later, Duffy filed a lawsuit against Hopper’s trust, demanding back, among other things, her exercise bike, rosebushes and, hold your horses, asparagus tongs.
Erm...
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)