Liz and Billy, Katy and Justin: 2025 was the year of weird celebrity matches, hatches and dispatches

2 months ago 17

Opinion

January 2, 2026 — 11.40am

Things escalated once my husband started dancing with the dog. New Year’s Eve, linking hands with Alfred the boofhead golden retriever at our neighbour Cheryl’s house. “He’s asking for it,” said one woman watching the pas de deux unfold.

She was right. Alfred, up on his hind legs, had a different dance in mind. Smiling widely, he locked onto Chris in a full-body press. Chris was laughing so hard he couldn’t break Alfred’s clinch. And thus we were walking home shortly after, so he could get changed.

Liz Hurley and Billy Ray Cyrus made for one of the more memorable couplings of the year.

That was my favourite unlikely union of the night, but not of the year. Because 2025 was when celebrities stopped being famous for nothing or concentrating on wellness, and started living big, messy, operatic lives again.

Knocking Alfred and Chris off top spot for an unexpected union is Liz Hurley and Billy Ray Cyrus. Their Easter hard launch – bunny ears, pashing – was the cultural peacock moment we didn’t know we needed. Liz’s cruise ship glamour beside Billy Ray’s frontier-town chic made every Insta shot look like a Tennessee period drama.

Meanwhile, Liz’s son Damian was the constant third wheel, looking like he was contemplating brocade for the rehearsal dinner. If this wedding happens, I want Miley singing The Climb and Hugh Grant winking while reading a poem.

The wedding we’re definitely getting is Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s. Their “surprise” proposal included the bride-to-be in Ralph Lauren sundress with perfect manicure and her tour photographer hiding in bushes. I’m tipping Taylor in strapless Vera Wang ballgown for the big day and Travis knee-deep in triplets before their first anniversary.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged.

Speaking of for better or for worse, Katy Perry was shot into space in full make-up and moved on from Orlando Bloom to canoodle with Justin Trudeau on a boat. Fortunately for us, he wore the Canadian tuxedo – jeans and a bare chest. It was one Celine Dion power ballad away from a national holiday.

There were goodbyes, real and reputational. Rob Reiner and Gene Hackman’s awful deaths were bewildering full stops to their technicolour legacies. David Walliams was cancelled after harassment allegations and leaked slurs. And the royals put the institution and victims before the man formerly known as Prince Andrew. In a year of dispatching, this one felt necessary.

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, managed to dispatch herself. Multiple times. In Paris with a Balenciaga outing that looked like high-fashion funeral cosplay, pulling Concerned Face beside burned LA homes while her unpaid intern Harry hovered, the faux royal tour to Colombia.

Her lifestyle show With Love, Meghan sealed it. Nothing kills hope faster than balloon arches and raw broccoli wreaths. Nothing except a baby dance clip resurrected for reasons no PR could explain. Wait, there are no PRs left! The Sussexes just lost their 11th.

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman at the Country Music Awards in Texas in May 2025.

Closer to home, Australia’s favourite mum and dad couples imploded. Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness filed for divorce, and Hugh went public with new love Sutton Foster. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban called time after 19 years. “Least surprising thing all year,” an LA insider told me.

Before Christmas, AFL glamour couple Lachie and Jules Neale’s split was bonkers, Jules saying she’d been betrayed and demanding a former BFF remove photos of Lachie from her Insta feed.

I was glued to the mess, equal parts heartbreak and theatre, mostly raging at media which papped Jules at the shops and described her as “glassy-eyed”. Like she’s hitting Berghain rather than trying to stay classy and protect her kids.

The weakest move of the year? Tough guy Lachie hiding for so long while his wife took the heat. Mate. You should have owned your part earlier instead of leaving Jules in the headlights.

Sydney Sweeney survived a film flop as well as being cancelled.

There were survivors. Sydney Sweeney weathered a film flop, culture-war accusations over “great jeans/genes” and a Trump endorsement. Oasis reformed.

Brooklyn Beckham continued sulking and blocking family members, even when his dad got a knighthood. Kris Jenner debuted a new face – I’m ropeable with jealousy – and Amber Heard had twins via surrogate.

It was the year that gave us proper celebrities again. People who make terrible choices, disregard achy-breaky hearts, get cancelled, redeemed, stripped, knighted, divorced, reunited.

2026, bring it.

Kate Halfpenny is the founder of Bad Mother Media.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up here.