There’s always something fascinating about celebrity couples. When it comes to fame, it seems that more is always better. Thus, when two famous people get together, they suddenly generate much more attention (not to mention headlines!) than they ever would on their own. If you need any proof, just look at the sheer number of YouTube and TikTok videos with people dishing about their favorite famous couples.
Of course, this love for celebrities getting together existed long before social media. In fact, decades before YouTube was invented, headlines around the world celebrated the hottest celebrity couples of the ‘70s. Just who were the major power couples of the time? How did they get together, and how did their marriage end? No need to wait for answers; just keep reading to discover everything you need to know!
Elvis and Priscilla Presley
The beginning of the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla Presley was pretty sketchy at the time and would have gotten the King completely canceled these days. You see, the two met when Elvis was in the military and stationed in West Germany. He was 24 and she was only 14, which seems a bit icky. Nonetheless, the two eventually began living together, and they made things official on May 1, 1967, with an elaborate wedding at the famous Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, things began to fall apart once Priscilla got pregnant.
You see, Elvis was worried that being a family man would negatively affect his career, so he asked for a trial separation when she was seven months pregnant with their daughter, Lisa Marie. While he took back the request, Priscilla later wrote that her husband was unable to have sex with her once she became a mother (paging Dr. Freud!). They eventually got divorced in 1972 after Priscilla realized a simple, bleak truth: she didn’t want to share her husband, as one of the most famous musicians in the world, there was no shortage of women trying to sleep with Elvis wherever he went!
Burt Reynolds and Sally Field
Celebrity couples are always more popular with the American public when they have previously appeared onscreen together. That’s a big part of why Burt Reynolds and Sally Field were such a hot item: they had blazing hot chemistry in Smokey and the Bandit, a film that helped cement Reynolds as a household name. Meanwhile, Field was famous for shows like Gidget before she launched her own film career. Their marriage brought two of the country’s biggest stars together under one roof, and they each became more famous (something that once seemed impossible) because of it.
Unfortunately, the success that made them such a hit with audiences ultimately ended their marriage. You see, Reynolds was increasingly jealous of his wife’s success, and it got so bad that he refused to attend the Academy Awards as a couple. Sadly, their marriage fell apart after five years, and Field has spoken openly about how they were on-again, off-again the entire time. In a bittersweet 2015 Variety interview with Reynolds, he called her “the love of my life” and expressed regret for how things ended. Field, however, did not so much as call Reynolds for three decades before he died and seemed generally happy to have this marriage in her rearview mirror.
Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw
Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw are another ‘70s power couple that got together after starring in a film together. MacGraw was considered one of the hottest women in the world (both in terms of her beauty and her brand) when she was offered a role in the 1927 film The Getaway. She accepted the offer, meaning she would be working closely with co-star Steve McQueen. Of course, MacGraw wanted to be even closer to McGraw despite the fact that she was married to the film’s producer, Robert Evans.
During filming, Ali MacGraw had a very passionate affair with Steve McQueen that led to her divorcing her husband. One month after the divorce was finalized, MacGraw and McQueen tied the knot, but it wasn’t meant to last. They divorced five years later, with her complaining about his mood swings, alcoholism, and seemingly endless affairs. Thus, their union ended just as wildly (if not as passionately) as it began.
Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy was a different kind of celebrity in the ‘70s. She had become a household name thanks to her husband, John F. Kennedy. Once he was tragically assassinated, that left Jacqueline in a strange position: she was no longer First Lady but was still wildly famous. And she also didn’t want to grow old alone, so it made sense that she ended up marrying Aristotle Onassis, one of the wealthiest men in the entire world, in 1968.
Like many of the ‘70s power couples on this list, they didn’t exactly have a happy marriage. He was prone to having trysts with other women, including a messy, prolonged affair with opera singer Maria Callas. While he lived in Greece, she spent most of her time in New York, where she spent so much of his money that Onassis strongly considered divorcing her. That didn’t happen, and he died in 1975, leaving Jacqueline fabulously wealthy. She would never marry again, though she remained a major celebrity in her own right.