At Grace Morton and Matt Budman’s weekend-long, multi-million-dollar Jamaica wedding, in 2023, guests including Catherine Zeta-Jones and Shay Mitchell were welcomed with rum cocktails served in coconuts emblazoned with images of the couple’s two miniature dachshunds, Marvin and Otis. Bill Murray gave an impromptu, a cappella rendition of “Brandy,” by Looking Glass, at the rehearsal dinner, which was followed by a reggae set by Bob Marley’s son Ky-Mani. For the big day, Morton, the daughter of Hard Rock hotelier Peter Morton, wore a custom Chanel dress inspired by a vintage Karl Lagerfeld design, originally worn by Claudia Schiffer—Morton’s godmother—in 1992.
As the weekend’s festivities at Round Hill wound down with a performance by D.J. Mark Ronson, the newlyweds walked hand in hand down the beach. They were, as Morton told Vogue, “blissfully in awe of the love and magic we all shared. ”
They were separated in a few months. A little more than a year later, Morton announced her engagement to Greg Chait, the founder of the Elder Statesman, a high-end-cashmere line.
Morton and Budman joined the many oversharing famous and fairly well-known couples who have fallen victim in recent years to the Vogue Wedding Curse. According to the Census Bureau, the average marriage that ends in divorce lasts eight years. Meanwhile, six of the unions the magazine featured in 2022 have ended. The marriage of Ben Affleck and J.Lo was, shockingly, the longest run of the lot. There were also six failures in 2021, and three in 2020.
Like sticking your hand in a wood chipper and expecting a different result than the last person who tried it, brides and grooms should heed the curse that seems to befall those who wed under the Vogue canopy of love.
Some of those who didn’t heed the wedding hex:
| Couple | Date of Vogue Feature | Date of approximate separation | Length of marriage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sophie Coote (clothing designer) and Daniel Fraser | June 4, 2023 | September 2024 | Less than a year | Australian indie-pop singer Paige Valentine, a family friend, composed all-original music for the wedding band. |
| Grace Morton (socialite, producer) and Matthew Budman (movie producer) | March 13, 2023 | July 2024 | Less than a year | The couple dated for nine years before tying the knot in a glamorous beach wedding in Jamaica, with a two-hour D.J. set by Mark Ronson. |
| Andy El-Bayeh (founder of creative agency Example) and Harriet Williams (kinesiologist) | April 12, 2022 | August 2024 | Two years | Designer Silvana Azzi Heras designed a family crest for the occasion. The chef was the couple’s “dear friend” Jordan Toft, of Mimi’s and Bert’s. |
| Sophia Bush (actress) and Grant Hughes (entrepreneur) | July 14, 2022 | August 2023 | 13 months | Bush began dating soccer player Ashlyn Harris in October 2023, days after Harris’s divorce from fellow soccer player Ali Krieger was announced. |
| Jennifer Lopez (singer, actress, dancer, skin-care-line founder) and Ben Affleck (actor, director) | August 23, 2022 | August 2024 | Two years | Life coach, author, and podcaster Jay Shetty presided over the ceremony. |
| Jonathan Geffrard (godson of André Leon Talley) and David Horwitz | November 1, 2022 (married April 2022) | October 2022 | Less than a year | Vogue published the feature on the couple’s San José del Cabo wedding one month after Geffrard had filed for divorce. |
| Micaela Erlanger (stylist) and William “Mac” Osborne (real-estate agent) | April 6, 2022 | March 2023 | One year | In Miami, the dockside welcome party was lit up entirely with the couple’s favorite scented candles from Acqua di Parma. Guests, including Lupita Nyong’o, were shuttled to the event in Cruisin’ Tikis boats. |
| Britney Spears and Sam Asghari | June 10, 2022 | July 2023 | 13 months | Guests at the Princess of Pop’s at-home wedding included Madonna, Selena Gomez, Drew Barrymore, Paris Hilton, Ansel Elgort, will.i.am, and Donatella Versace. “We really wanted to make this a small and beautiful moment with family and friends,” Spears told Vogue. |
| Meadow Walker (model, actress) and Louis Thornton-Allan (actor) | October 22, 2021 | January 2024 | Three years | The bride’s “dear friend” Matthew Williams designed her custom Givenchy Haute Couture dress for the intimate Dominican Republic wedding. Vin Diesel, the Fast and the Furious co-star and friend of the bride’s late father, walked her down the aisle. |
| Jeannie Mai (TV personality) and Jeezy (Grammy-nominated artist) | April 1, 2021 | September 2023 | Two years | American R&B singer Tyrese Gibson serenaded the couple with “Sweet Lady” for their first dance. |
| Jordan Barrett (model) and Fernando Casablancas (model) | August 25, 2021 | October 2022 | One year | Kate Moss served as ring bearer at the couple’s Ibiza wedding. Georgia May Jagger (Mick Jagger’s daughter) served as Barrett’s “best man.” |
| Natalie Salmon (fashion editor) and Richard Setterwall | February 26, 2021 | Before June 2022 | Less than a year | The bride wore a Hermione de Paula dress and Louboutin heels while the groom wore a Ralph Lauren suit for the pair’s intimate Portugal wedding. |
| Ivy Getty (heiress) and Tobias Engel | November 8, 2021 | January 2024 | Three years | The wedding ceremony, which took place at San Francisco’s City Hall, was officiated by Nancy Pelosi. Getty’s maid of honor was actress Anya Taylor-Joy. |
| Ariana Grande (pop star) and Dalton Gomez (real-estate agent) | May 26, 2021 | September 2023 | Two years | The wedding was held at Grande’s Montecito home in front of 20 close friends and family. After their divorce, Grande agreed to pay Gomez a settlement of $1.25 million. |
| Sita Chantramonklasri and Matthew Lee (investment banker) | October 30, 2020 | February 2024 | Three years | The couple had a traditional Thai ceremony in Chiang Mai, followed by a Western ceremony days later at the Amanpuri, in Phuket. |
| Aweng Chuol (model) and Alexus Ade (nail artist) | July 7, 2020 | December 2021 | One year | They got married at Manhattan’s City Hall. Ade said she loved her wife so much that all of her “childhood dreams of what a wedding should be went out the window.” |
| Ali Krieger and Ashlyn Harris (U.S.W.N.T. players) | January 18, 2020 | September 2023 | Nearly four years | See Sophia Bush. |
| Ellie Goulding (singer) and Caspar Jopling (art dealer) | August 31, 2019 | February 2024 | Four and a half years | The wedding, which took place at the York Minster cathedral, was attended by Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, and Sienna Miller. |
| Chanel Iman (model) and Sterling Shepard (N.F.L. player) | March 4, 2018 | June 2021 | Three years | Iman is one of the rare individuals to have had not one but two weddings featured in Vogue. The first was her 2018 wedding to N.F.L. player Sterling Shepard. The second was her 2024 wedding to Davon Godchaux, also an N.F.L. player. |
| Miguel (singer) and Nazanin Mandi (actress, singer) | November 27, 2018 | October 2022 | Almost four years | Miguel and Mandi started dating when they were 19 and 18, respectively. They dated for 13 years before getting married, in 2018, at the Hummingbird Nest ranch, outside of Los Angeles. |
| Ashley Furnival (stylist) and Christopher Hench (metal fabricator) | April 16, 2018 | April 2019 | One year | Wedding guest Elijah Wood won the traditional garter toss at the Western-inspired nuptials. |
| Chiara Ferragni (Italian blogger and fashion designer) and Federico Leonardo “Fedez” Lucia (Italian rapper) | September 2, 2018 | February 2024 | Six years | For their Sicily wedding, the couple flew friends and family on private Alitalia flights branded with #TheFerragnez. |
| Shanina Shaik (model) and Greg Andrews (DJ Ruckus) | May 1, 2018 | June 2019 | One year | The couple dated for eight months before Andrews proposed. “When you know, you know!,” Shaik told Vogue in 2018. |
| Laila Gohar (food designer) and Omar Sosa (co-founder of Apartamento) | February 6, 2018 | February 2021 | Three years | The couple rented out the second-oldest bullfighting arena in Spain for the ceremony. |
| Isabel Roth (equestrian) and Jake Stein (film producer) | July 19, 2017 | October 2020 | Three years | Morgan Freeman and Russell Simmons were among the guests at the couple’s Puglia wedding. |
| Dianna Agron (actress) and Winston Marshall (Mumford & Sons banjoist) | October 17, 2016 | August 2020 | Three years | The couple arrived on camels to their Morocco wedding, with Agron wearing a $20,000 Valentino dress. |
| Melissa Losada (handbag designer) and Pablo Bofill D’Huart (architect) | February 18, 2016 | Separated before 2020 | About four years | The couple married on an island off the coast of the Spanish town of Cadaqués. The bride wore two gowns by Valentino and one by Chloé over the course of the weekend. |
Paulina Prosnitz and Carolina de Armas are Associate Editors at Air Mail
