Entertainment

21 of the Most Unforgettable Celebrity Moments of the Decade

EntertainmentPublished Dec 30, 2019
By Damarys Ocaña Perez
Prince Harry and Meghan MarkleBEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images

It's hard to believe we're going to enter yet another decade come January 1, but it looks like we have to bid adieu to the 2010s. The past 10 years (yes, 10 years ... we're getting old) have been extremely memorable to say the least, and stars around the world did not disappoint in their ability to turn heads. For a decade, we've sipped on so much tea -- from scandals to unexpected hookups, to breakups -- that will last us a lifetime in the memories department. (Who are we kidding? We'll likely forget in a few months' time.)

So much has happened.

Many of us were in our early and mid-20s during the last decade that can make trying to pinpoint specific pop culture events a bit of a blur. Between trying to get through college -- and grad school for those who just couldn't give up school -- and the madness of adulting, we've been quite busy to say the least.

... and it appears Hollywood has kept busy, too.

From moments during the MTV Video Music Awards to not one but two royal weddings, we've seen so much since 2010.

With the decade winding down (yes, we still feel old), we wanted to take a look back at some of events that made us do a double take. Here are 20 moments from the last decade that were quite memorable.

1/21
Lady Gaga Wears a Meat Dress (2010)-placeholder
Lady Gaga Wears a Meat Dress (2010)
FlyNet Pictures/Splash News

Lady Gaga Wears a Meat Dress (2010)

Back when she was still establishing her career, way before winning an Academy Award for her songwriting on A Star Is Born, Lady Gaga wore a dress made out of pounds and pounds of raw beef during the MTV VMAs. It was gross and she gave the weakest explanation for it -- she was protesting the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. 

Huh? 

But it did give her plenty of attention that catapulted her to even more fame.

2/21
Kate Middleton & Prince Williams Get Married (2011)-placeholder
Kate Middleton & Prince Williams Get Married (2011)
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Kate Middleton & Prince Williams Get Married (2011)

Sure, their engagement was an exciting moment (Kate Middleton wore a blue dress that sold out immediately and rocked Princess Diana's famous sapphire engagement ring that Prince William proposed with), but the moment everyone was waiting for was the pair's wedding in April 2011 -- which was watched by more people around the world (3 billion) than Charles and Diana's (750 million). Everyone tuned in to see which designer made Kate's dress, what tiara she'd chosen to wear, and which guests would be there, along with a thousand other thrilling details. From the moment Kate stepped out of the car to the moment the couples kissed on the Buckingham Palace balcony, we weren't disappointed.

3/21
Katie Holmes Files for Divorce (2012)-placeholder
Katie Holmes Files for Divorce (2012)
Splash News

Katie Holmes Files for Divorce (2012)

The word "divorce" doesn't quite capture what Katie Holmes rained down on Tom Cruise on June 29, 2012. For months, she planned her escape from what has been termed a suffocating marriage, and she took their daughter, Suri, with her. Katie established residency in New York on the low, ensuring that she would gain the upper hand in negotiating custody and a non-Scientology-based upbringing of Suri. America's sweetheart had grown up. 

Well played, ma'am.

4/21
Beyonce Rocks the Superbowl Halftime Show (2013)-placeholder
Beyonce Rocks the Superbowl Halftime Show (2013)
Al Pereira/WireImage/Getty Images

Beyonce Rocks the Superbowl Halftime Show (2013)

Queen Bey made Super Bowl XLVII viewers forget that they'd tuned into watch a game. Because for 15 minutes, she reminded everyone just how good she is live -- whether it's singing or dancing, connecting with an audience, or, ya know, breathing. Beyonce even held a mini Destiny's Child reunion. It was simply amazing.

5/21
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Lupita Nyong'o Wins an Oscar (2014)
Splash News

Lupita Nyong'o Wins an Oscar (2014)

It's hard to imagine life before Lupita Nyong'o, who shot to fame after her debut in 12 Years a Slave. The movie premiered in October 2013, but by the time she received an Oscar for her searing role as a slave five months later, she was already well on her way to becoming a star who had wowed with her talent, life story, fashion sense, gorgeous looks, and outspokenness. Since then, she's been in major movies,  including Black Panther, Us, and two Star Wars flicks. She and fellow Wakandian Danai Gurira are shooting Americanah, an upcoming series on HBO Max. 

More, please!

6/21

Reese Witherspoon Gets Arrested (2013)

Reese Witherspoon took a sledgehammer to her nice girl reputation when she got arrested on charges of disorderly conduct in 2013, after her husband was pulled over for suspected DUI in Atlanta and she yelled at the cop. Reese went full celeb, yelling that old standby, "Do you know my name?" and following up with, "You're about to find out who I am." She also told the officer she was pregnant and needed to pee. (She was not.) Reese quickly apologized, and the arrest may have even helped her career, because she immediately started making edgier films.

7/21

Ellen DeGeneres Tweets Oscar Selfie (2014)

Ellen made the Oscars actually fun in 2014 when she ordered pizza for the audience and walked the aisles making jokes with the stars. But her biggest triumph of the night was a genius idea to take a selfie with a bunch of stars who crowded together on an aisle and said cheese. The shot became the most retweeted ever, and in honor of the record, Samsung (an Oscars sponsor that year) made donations of $1.5 million each to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and the Humane Society. 

Not a bad minute's work.

8/21
Taylor Swift Becomes a Pop Star (2014)-placeholder
Taylor Swift Becomes a Pop Star (2014)
Graham Denholm/Getty Images

Taylor Swift Becomes a Pop Star (2014)

With the album 1989, Taylor Swift proved she was more than a quasi-country music sensation, moving away from the genre and becoming a bonafide pop star. The album sold 1.3 million copies in one week and has sold 10 million worldwide. That's the kind of success that helped get her named as the first recipient of Billboard's Woman of the Decade Award.

9/21
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Kim Kardashian Poses Semi-Nude for Magazine Cover (2014)
Uri Schanker/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Kim Kardashian Poses Semi-Nude for Magazine Cover (2014)

Well, they called it. When Paper magazine put Kim Kardashian on its cover literally showing her entire rear, the headline read, Break the Internet. The Internet quickly complied, erupting in enough tweetstorms and shares to make sure that if anyone in the world still didn't know who KKW was, that would soon change.

10/21
Khloe Kardashian's Ex, Lamar Odom, Overdoses in a Brothel (2015)-placeholder
Khloe Kardashian's Ex, Lamar Odom, Overdoses in a Brothel (2015)
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Khloe Kardashian's Ex, Lamar Odom, Overdoses in a Brothel (2015)

This was scandalous, even by Kardashian standards. Two years after he and Khloe separated, NBA player Lamar Odom made headlines after he was discovered passed out on a bed at the Love Ranch brothel, where he'd paid $75,000 for the services of two prostitutes and a private villa. He spent four days in a coma and had several strokes and heart attacks -- all while Khloe oversaw his medical care, as the couple were still legally married. Investigators later said he had cocaine in his system, though Odom contended that he hadn't taken any drugs.

11/21
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Caitlyn Jenner Makes Her Debut (2015)
Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images

Caitlyn Jenner Makes Her Debut (2015)

She'd gone by a different name -- Bruce Jenner -- and a different gender identity for most of her life, but in 2015, Caitlyn Jenner made her debut on the July cover of Vanity Fair, and at age 65, felt free for the first time. For the public, it was the culmination of a process they'd followed for months, but for the former Olympian, Keeping Up With the Kardashians regular, and parent to Kendall and Kylie, the moment had been a lifetime in the making.

12/21
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Josh Duggar Admits to Molesting Girls, Including His Sisters (2015)
Kris Connor/Getty Images

Josh Duggar Admits to Molesting Girls, Including His Sisters (2015)

In 2015, InTouch magazine published an article based on a police report that detailed multiple incidents of sexual abuse committed by Josh Duggar as a teen. The report included the fact that the Duggars had told a police officer and family friend about the abuse in private, but the officer did not arrest Josh. In the months that followed, police opened an investigation, and Jessa and Jill Duggar came forward as victims. Josh apologized, but he never faced charges. He was later busted in the Ashley Madison scandal, in which the names of clients of the adultery dating service were leaked.

13/21
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Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie Split (2016)
Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Splash News

Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie Split (2016)

They seemed like a perfect match, but in 2016, one of Hollywood's beloved power couples ended things ... and it was ugly. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's very Hollywood divorce dragged on for three years, as the couple bickered over how to divide their considerable assets and arrange custody and child support. There was even a brief child abuse investigation against Brad, which was closed without charges. Brad and Angelina, who got married in 2014 and had six kids between them. The once couple had been together since they fell in love on the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith in 2005, while he was still married to Jennifer Aniston.

14/21
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Kim Kardashian Robbed in Paris (2016)
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Kim Kardashian Robbed in Paris (2016)

In one of the most terrifying incidents to happen to a celeb in years, Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint during a stay in Paris in 2016. The robbers, who dressed as police officers, forced the hotel concierge to open her penthouse suite, and pulled her out of bed while asking for money. They placed tape around her head and mouth, and stole her 20-carat diamond ring and more jewelry pieces valued at a total of $5.6 million. A shaken Kim kept a low profile for months while she recovered, and the crime prompted her to be more careful about sharing locations and details online. She now keeps her mansion jewelry-free.

15/21

Beyonce Posts Epic Pregnancy Picture (2017)

She generated major excitement when she revealed her first pregnancy during a concert, but that moment was nothing compared to the mayhem Beyonce caused when she posted a picture on Instagram, announcing she was carrying twins, in February 2017. There she was, sitting under a veil wearing a gorgeous bra, surrounded by flowers. The Bey-as-fertility-goddess pic became instantly iconic.

16/21
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Ashley Judd
Splash News

Ashley Judd & Other Women Fight To Bring Down Harvey Weinstein (2017)

The New York Times and the New Yorker may have earned Pulitzers for their exposes on Harvey Weinstein's decades of alleged sexual misconduct, but it was actresses like Ashley Judd -- the first woman quoted in the Times October 5, 2017, piece -- and other women who had to find the courage to speak about their traumatizing experiences openly. Soon, many others stepped forward, leading to Weinstein's firing from his own company, banishment from Hollywood, and criminal charges -- as well as accusations against other prominent Hollywood men. The scandal also led to the global embrace of the #MeToo movement, which was started by activist Tarana Burke in 2006, and amplified by Alyssa Milano's Twitter call for women to use the hashtag to signal their own experiences.

17/21
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Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Get Married (2018)
Jane Barlow - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Meghan Markle & Prince Harry Get Married (2018)

If there was ever a royal couple to root for, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were it. He always seemed like the most relatable member of the royal family, and she was an unusual bride -- by royal standards, anyway. So when Harry and Meghan married in an equally unconventional wedding at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, we swooned at her modern dress, diamond tiara, and natural makeup, and watched history being made.

18/21
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Kylie Jenner Becomes a Billionaire (2018)
Dan MacMedan/Getty Images

Kylie Jenner Becomes a Billionaire (2018)

It's probably safe to say that no one saw this coming. One moment, Kylie Jenner was a waifish teen, and the next, she was grown and sexy -- and that wasn't even her biggest transformation. Kylie turned a lip kit into a makeup business that made her a billionaire. Critics sniffed at Forbes naming her the world's youngest self-made billionaire on their August 2018 cover, contending that she was born rich and had lots of connections and help, but the fact remains, she's worth 10 figures.

19/21

Justin Bieber & Hailey Baldwin Get Married (2018)

Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber had been together on and off so many times that it only seemed a matter of time before they figured it all out and settled down. Nope. Enter Hailey Baldwin, Justin's childhood friend. The two fended off dating rumors for years, then went public in 2018. The couple, known since then for their intense PDA, were photographed walking into a New York courthouse in September 2018 where witnesses later said they got marriage licenses. Justin was even overheard to say, "I can't wait to marry you, baby." By November, both had acknowledged their married status on social media, and a year later, held a wedding in South Carolina.

20/21
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Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Sing at the Oscars
Ed Herrera via Getty Images

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper Sing at the Oscars (2019)

Their movie, A Star Is Born, was a hit, thanks to their off-the-charts on-screen chemistry, great music, and solid acting. The rumors of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's off-screen attraction and romance were rampant. And then, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper went ahead and fanned the flames at the Oscars. Everyone knew they were going to perform on the show, but when they hit the stage unannounced for a duet, viewers were on the edge of their seats, and stayed there to witness a moment so intimate, it felt like we were snooping.

21/21
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Lori Loughlin & Felicity Huffman Charged in Operation Varsity Blues (2019)
Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Splash News; Rick Davis/SplashNews

Lori Loughlin & Felicity Huffman Charged in Operation Varsity Blues (2019)

The two actresses caught a slew of charges for paying a fraudster to falsify their kids' credentials to get them into college, in one of the year's biggest scandals. Felicity Huffman paid for her daughter's SAT scores to be altered, pleaded guilty, and served 11 days in jail. Lori Loughlin is still fighting charges that she and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, paid $500,000 to get their daughters into University of Southern California -- faking that they were experienced rowers that would join the college's team if admitted. The couple's trial is set for 2020.

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