Sandra Bullock and Jesse James Divorce is Finalized

The five-year marriage of Jesse James and Sandra Bullock is now officially over. In April of this year, Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock filed for divorce from her husband, TV star and CEO of West Coast Choppers, Jesse James. According to People, the couple said the reason for their divorce was "discord or conflict of personality". In March, Michelle McGee, tattoo model and stripper, stepped forward to say that she and James had an affair for almost a year. People states that "the divorce helps clear the way for her to finalize the adoption of her son Louis as a single mother".

LeAnn Rimes and Dean Sheremet also divorced over infidelity this month, after an eight-year marriage, due to Rimes' affair with Eddie Cibrian (who was also married). While infidelity was a breaking point in both of these relationships, a big difference between the Rimes-Sheremet divorce and the Bullock-James divorce is that, while James publicly apologized, Rimes went out in public with Cibrian and did not seem to show a bit of remorse. According to People, Cibrian's marriage is also in the process of ending as a result of this affair, which has now turned into a real relationship. Luckily, Rimes and Sheremet did not have children, but Cibrian and his estranged wife do.

Another high profile celebrity divorce from this time last year was the Gosselin divorce. It was obvious from watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 that Jon and Kate Gosselin had a tense relationship, even in the first season of the show. Jon appeared to have multiple affairs during their relationship, which helped lead to the end of this marriage also. According to People, "on April 19, when Kate was out of town promoting her latest book, paparazzi snapped her husband leaving a local bar at 2 a.m. with a 23-year-old woman, Deanna Hummel, whose brother later claimed she'd been having a months-long affair with Jon."

One of the worst celebrity infidelity break-ups recently was that of Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren. It seems like every day a new woman steps forward to say that they have also slept with Woods. His infidelity has been big news and a great let down, as Woods has been a role model for many years now. According to Time, "alleged mistresses are popping up to dish details of late-night trysts, fans are aghast and the pitchfork-wielding pundits are bloodying their former hero with barely concealed glee."

Infidelity is a huge problem in celebrity relationships. In the case of Bullock-James, their breakup was still highly visible to the public eye, but things were kept tasteful, much more so than the other high profile celebrity divorces and breakups that I have mentioned. LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian seemed to rub their affair in the faces of their spouses. Jon Gosselin loves any publicity he can get, and proceeded to publicly humiliate himself, Kate, and their eight children by running around with much younger women before their divorce was finalized. Woods took every opportunity he could to publicly make statements about his affairs, which was really unnecessary. For months, everywhere I turned, I heard about Tiger Woods and his infidelity and "sex addiction."

One thing that can be said for Sandra Bullock and Jesse James was that they kept it classy. Even though it's impossible as a celebrity to not have your life broadcast to the world, they didn't make an effort to escalate the coverage and worked hard to protect James' children.

Sources:

Mike Fleeman, "Sandra Bullock and Jesse James Finalize Divorce", People.

Pernilla Cedenheim, "LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian One Year Later", People.

Liza Hamm, "'I Have a Lot of Anger'", People.

Alex Altman, "Tiger Woods Must Face His Fans' Moral Outrage", Time.