Of the 62 celebrity weddings that featured on Hello! magazine’s front cover over the past decade, ten of them, 16%, have ended in divorce.
That is more than double the official divorce figure of 7% within the first six years of marriage.
The revelation adds weight to the theory behind the so-called “curse of Hello!” – that couples who appear in the magazine may be destined to split up.
Three of the ten Hello! divorces came within the first two years of marriage and only three couples managed more than five years.
The shortest marriage was Kim Kardashian, who divorced basketball player Kris Humphries after 72 days.
Other ill-fated cover stars include Westlife’s Brian McFadden and Kerry Katona, as well as Boyzone’s Ronan Keating and wife Yvonne.
Ulrika Jonsson sold her 1990 wedding to John Turnbull to Hello! and divorced him five years later. In 2003, she was on the cover with second husband Lance Gerrard-Wright. The union lasted two years.
Elizabeth Hurley and Indian textile tycoon Arun Nayar pocketed $3.5 million when they sold their wedding to Hello! in 2007. They parted four years later.
Hello!’s editor Rosie Nixon said the idea of a curse was “totally unfounded”. But former editor Kay Goddard said: “Perhaps they should put a clause in the contract that celebrity couples who divorce within a certain time should repay some of their fee.”
