We’ve all been there: when we have to face reality and deal with a heart-crushing rejection. That’s the danger of requited love and we’re currently all living in an Olympic sized swimming pool of it. For those of us currently wading into our adult years, we have to think back to our young love and teenage rejections that we don’t often remember fondly. But, hopefully, those painful memories come from a day where social media wasn’t around to track our every step and record every painful experience. People in the spotlight didn't get to avoid this, either.
That’s right, unfortunately for popular celebrities, we know every move they make. And while they’d like to forget the fact that they ever were rejected in the first place, it will live forever in the world of the internet. And what’s worse? When a celebrity is rejected by another celebrity.
And it’s definitely hard to witness a cold hard rejection in a very public setting. Here are 15 A-list celebrities who happened to be rejected by other A-list celebrities that prove love is never easy, even if you’re famous.
15 Nicole Kidman Was Once Turned Down By Jimmy Fallon... And He Didn't Even Know It
This had to be one of the most cringe-worthy moments in TV history. Nicole Kidman went on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon a couple years back and revealed something that even Jimmy Fallon himself didn’t know: that he not only went out on a date with her, but he also rejected her. We know what you’re thinking – how on EARTH do you go out on a date with Nicole Kidman and not know it? Turns out, in Fallon’s case, this is very doable. According to Nicole’s story, she was set up on a date with the Saturday Night Live alumni years ago through a friend. And he blew it not once, but TWICE.
According to Elle, Nicole told Fallon: “I just remember I liked you." The actress had been brought over Fallon’s apartment in 2002 for what he thought was a business meeting, but it turned out to be a blind date. “Not now, I’m married now — so Rick, our mutual friend, says, ‘Oh, Jimmy wants to meet you and you can go over to his apartment. And I’m single, and I’m like ‘Okay, yeah, cool!'”
Apparently, Fallon just started playing video games and ignored Kidman.
She said she figured that there was no chemistry between the two. A bit later, Fallon had a chance to redeem himself at a party where both he and Kidman attended and he still didn’t ask for her number. Wow, buddy.
14 Aziz Ansari Was Absolutely Ghosted By Blake Lively
We’ve all been there – where we like someone way more than they appear to like us. But we don’t really see it until we’re completely ghosted later down the line… probably thanks to embarrassing text messages. Lucky for us, our embarrassing text messages weren’t sent to someone, like, say, bombshell actress Blake Lively?
Well, this isn’t the case for comedian Aziz Ansari, who might still be cringing over these interactions he had the actress before she married Ryan Reynolds. When he stopped by The Howard Stern Show several years back, Ansari told him a story of when he met Blake at an event and the embarrassment that followed after they exchanged phone numbers back in 2011.
Apparently, Aziz sent Blake a string of different text messages that went unanswered by the blonde, including one where he asked her if she was going to the Met Ball followed by the text of where he was going to be after the event. “I’m going to the Boom Boom Room for that afterparty. Hopefully, this is your number? Either way, good seeing you.”
“And that’s just so sad, that I’m questioning the technology,” Aziz said to Stern.
You think he would’ve stopped there, but of course, he didn’t. He even sent her a “Happy Holidays!” text at one point (she didn’t respond to that one either). Ouch.
13 Harry Potter And The Denying Of The Gorgeous Blonde
It’s hard to believe ANYONE turning down someone as insanely beautiful as dancer/actress Julianne Hough, let alone Harry Potter himself, actor Daniel Radcliffe. While appearing on Live With Kelly and Ryan, Hough went into a story that ended in her young heartbreak at his radio silence.
Apparently, Hough was an extra in one of the Harry Potter movies (which, we’re not too sure) when she fell head over heels for the headlining actor.
“I was kind of in love [...] with Daniel Radcliffe,” the dancer told the hosts. “I wrote him a love note. It was Valentine’ Day and I got him a Valentino Beanie Baby. I never heard back.”
Wait, so “the boy who lived” actually straight up dissed someone as stunning as Hough? “Now I’m really embarrassed. I see him sometimes around, and I just [turn] the other way and walk away.”
We like to think that maybe her message (and the beanie baby) got lost in transition and maybe he just thought the love note and the present were from some love-struck fan? Either way, I wonder if he regrets this particular miss now that it’s out in the open. You never know, but we like to think he still thinks about that little love note.
12 Never Go After Eva Longoria Unless You’re Truly Single
As we know now, actress Eva Longoria has been through a lot of heartache in her life and is finally happy in her marriage to businessman, Jose Antonio Baston — and they’re expecting their first child in the near future. But during her single days (like before and after she was married to Tony Parker and Tyler Christopher) she had many suitors interested in courting her.
One such person? George Clooney. That’s right before he settled down to become Mr. Amal Alamuddin, he was interested in getting to know Eva a little bit better. So what happened?
What happened was that there were still other people in the picture.
While he was still with Stacy Keibler, George began to pursue Eva after the two had been friends for many years. “George began pursuing Eva,” an insider told US magazine. “He told her that he was still with Stacy, but had plans to break up with her and was interested in being with Eva.”
Longoria wasn’t interested in being with another woman’s man, however. But George “continued to pursue her with texts and calls. Eva made it clear to him that she would not date or be with him until he was completely single.” George didn’t break it off with Stacy fast enough and Eva ended moving on. Good thing the relationship really didn’t take shape, because they wouldn’t be with the people they’re with now.
11 Sorry, Drake – But Nicki’s Dance Card Is Full
Ah, poor Drake. It seems like every other week, he’s having his heart broken three ways to Sunday. It’s like he always sets up camp firmly in the friend zone regardless of what he does. He’s a really good looking, talented, and funny guy and yet… nada. His on-and-off friendship with fellow rapper Nicki Minaj is one such romantic relationship that never was.
They became friends years ago and Drake always seemed to be more interested in her than she was in him.
“Me and Nicki have a really playful relationship,” Drake said about Minaj to MTV back in 2010. “When I was on tour… I saw Nicki for the first time and, like, literally fell in love. She had this snap-back hat on that said ‘Minaj.” She used to wear that every single day. She was like a theater student and she was so cold at rapping.” But, of course, she turned him down a few times. “I remember one of the first nights that we were out in Miami and I went to Jerry’s [Famous Deli]. I was like [to Nicki] ‘ You want food, you hungry?,’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, I want some food.’ I was like, ‘I’m in, we gon’ eat food together.’"
“I came to her door and she took the food and shut the door in my face! I was just like, ‘Man, this is gonna be a long road for us.’ I’ve always really, actually really had a crush on her, always really loved her, and she’s always just looked at me as, like, her little brother.” No guy ever really wants to go through that.
10 “In The Uncle Zone” – Chris Rock Fails With Rihanna
This one hurts. Well, not for us but it HAD to hurt for Chris Rock. Sure, he’s not as young as he once used to be (like any of us really are), but that doesn’t mean that Rihanna couldn’t have given him a shot? Meh. Rock once told the story of being insanely rejected by the beautiful singer after chatting her up at a party. The comedian, who recently divorced his wife of many years, saw an opportunity to make a move on Rihanna and went for it.
And, of course, he got shot down. And apparently, it had to do with their very vast age difference. “After my divorce was final, I was at a party and I saw Rihanna,” the comedian said while on The Tonight Show. “I was like, ‘OK, let’s start this again. Let me say what’s up’, right? And I’m like, ‘How you doing, Rihanna?’” The actor has never really been silent about his crush on the singer, but it appears that the feeling wasn’t really mutual at the time.
“[She looked at me] like I was one of her aunts,” he confessed. “I was in the uncle zone.”
We’re pretty sure that after this, any dude would be willing and happy to be shoved into the “Friend Zone” after hearing about Rock’s failed shot. The “Uncle Zone” sounds waaaayyyy worse, in our opinion.
9 Apparently, Leo Can't Get Just Anyone
Everyone knows that actor Leonardo DiCaprio is a notorious ladies man, who has dated nearly every beautiful blonde supermodel on the face of the planet. So when we hear about a model turning him down, it should make national news because THAT is a very rare occurrence. But it looks like it actually happened at one point in his playful life.
Back in 2013 while in Cannes during an after party celebrating The Great Gatsby, DiCaprio had his eye on then 20-year-old British model Cara Delevinge (who is, quite frankly, Leo’s type) — but she wasn’t having any of that.
“Normally all Leo has to do is look at a girl and they fall at his feet,” an insider reported in The Sun about the meeting. “Though Cara was having none of it. He spent the night chasing after her and essentially she blew him out. They spoke and he was pretty forward inviting her to a party back at his suite. They swapped numbers but that was it. He tried every trick in the book and apparently kept lunging for her but she kept dodging them. Everyone is howling at the fact she actually knocked back the biggest actor in the world. She thought he was too forward and too old.”
Oh man, if that’s not a motivation killer, I don’t know what is.
8 … Or When Bieber Was Rejected By Rihanna
You’ve heard the term “way out of their league”? Well, it seems that Justin Bieber has heard and lived through that very line a billion and sick times. Even though he’s seemingly happy in his relationship with Selena Gomez, there were some embarrassing times where he was put in his place for attempting to shoot his shot with women that were clearly out of his league. And, like most men, the woman who was way out of his league happened to be Rihanna (you think that most guys would just take a hint when it comes to the singer – she’s pretty much out of EVERYONE’S league).
Rihanna, who is six years Bieber’s senior, was sitting next to him at an NBA All-Star Game when he attempted to put the moves on her. And, in a classic Rihanna way, she wasn’t about to have any of that. According to People, Justin admitted, “I asked her out,” but that “It didn’t go so well since I’m not with her. I asked her out and she was basically like, ‘You’re too young.’”
Well, it’s like that old saying Wayne Gretzky saying: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.” And unfortunately for the Biebs, he missed 100 percent of the shot he did happen to take. At least at this time.
7 “That’s A Hard No” When Bieber Was Rejected By Jennifer Lawrence, Too
Apparently, Justin doesn’t appear to learn his lesson. He constantly seems to enjoy getting shot down by insanely beautiful women. While that takes a lot of guts, doesn’t he get tired of it? We’re sure that actress Jennifer Lawrence had to have turned down a lot of men in her past, but she probably didn’t do any of it publicly, or, more importantly, on live television.
While appearing on Watch What Happens Live, Lawrence was taking calls and answering fans’ questions when a caller filled her in on a little bit of gossip: that Justin Bieber has a crush on her.
Apparently, the singer told Capital FM that he was attracted to The Hunger Games actress and found her to be “unbelievable” and “so cute”.
The caller then followed up with the revelation with asking the actress if she would ever give the Biebs a chance (but, you know, used different words). Lawrence’s answer? “I’m gonna say a hard no.”
Oh, OUCH — you need some cream for that burn. Though, the Oscar winner did thank Bieber for the compliment. Still though, you have to feel sorry for Justin in this sense. There’s nothing like being shot down on live television by one of the world’s most beautiful women. But hey, what can ya do?
6 Yes, Draco Malfoy Turned Down Hermione Granger
On the screen, if fans of Harry Potter were to ever see Draco Malfoy make the moves on Hermione Granger, they would have probably puked from outright disgust. Turns out in real life, Emma Watson actually had a crush on Tom Felton, but, well, the feelings weren’t mutual at the time.
Watson told The Mirror, “Between the ages of ten and twelve I had a really terrible crush on Tom Felton, to the extent that I would go into work in the morning and look down the numbers on the call sheet to see if he was going to be in”
“We love a bad guy, but was a few years older and he had a skateboard – and that just did it really.”
And while she pined away for Draco, Draco didn’t feel the same way back. “He totally knew [she had a crush on him] and the thing is that he’d tell everyone, ‘I see her in a younger, sisterly way,’ and it just broke my heart. It still does.” This actually brings in a whole other level of “hate” to Draco Malfoy, we’ll say.
According to Seventeen, when Felton was interviewed about if he actually knew of the crush that Watson had on him, he nervously replied, “No. Sorry, I’m being a bit aloof with my answers.” Even though a romance never panned out, the two are really good friends.
5 Hilary Duff Once Rejected Aaron Carter On Live Television
We all have that one “who got away”. It could be an old flame who we dated a long time ago or just some unrequited love that just slipped through our fingers when the feelings weren’t returned. Either way, there’s always a lingering question about one person in our pasts. For Aaron Carter, that person in question is actress and ex-girlfriend, Hilary Duff. The two dated more than a decade ago when they were both just fresh-faced newcomers.
Even though the two have been apart for a while now, Carter took to Twitter to express his undying love for the actress, who recently split from husband Mike Comrie.
“Don’t be that stupid [expletive] that loses the love of your life forever… like me…” he tweeted out after retweeting a photo of Duff. “I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to better myself to get back to her. I don’t care what ANY of you think.”
According to E!, Duff was asked about his tweets and declarations of love while appearing on Watch What Happens Live. “It’s… ugh! I don’t know. I don’t know what to say about it! It was so many years ago. I literally haven’t seen him in… so, it’s uncomfortable,” she said to host Andy Cohen. We don’t see a happy reunion sometime in the near future.
4 James McVey Wouldn’t Stop Texting The “Uninterested” Sophie Turner
Don’t you hate it when you think that two celebrities are headed down the road of love but instead take a sharp left into “uncomfortable-ville”? Well, this happened to be the case for Game of Thrones beauty Sophie Turner and The Vamps’ James McVey. We had been seeing their cute Instagram pictures along both of their timelines way back in 2014 and then suddenly, they appeared to be in a Twitter spat and exchanging some harsh words with each other back and forth for the world to see. Was it a joke? Was it real? Were we all duped?
The two apparently went on a road trip together and seemed to be smitten, but then the following week it was over and the insults were firing on both ends. After it was supposedly over, McVey tweeted a photo of the two of them together with the caption, “Whatcha saying…Was this all an act? I know you’re an actress but this isn’t cool.”
Her response was much colder. “@TheVampsJames wow. Harsh words. Ps. Please stop texting me… it’s getting creepy and I’m sorry I’m not interested.”
It’s all for the best, though, because Sophie is now engaged to Joe Jonas and is currently shooting the final season of Game of Thrones.
3 The Friendzone Incident Heard Around The World – Drake And Rihanna
Sure, Drake has had his fair share of rejections from, well, pretty much everyone. But the one that seems to hit home the most was the infamous Rihanna rejection. The thing is, this live rejection was necessary, especially in the era of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. During the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards, Drake stayed relevantly quiet most of the night, until it came time to present Rihanna with her Video Vanguard award.
And that’s when things got awkward.
According to Teen Vogue, “She is someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22-years-old. She’s one of my best friends in the world. All my adult life I’ve looked up to her,” the rapper gushed as Rihanna stood by forcing a smile.
Before he handed off her award to her, he went in for a kiss on the lips, but the singer just turned her head and planted him firmly in the Friend Zone by making him place one on her cheek instead and hugged the rapper.
We all know they’ve had an on-and-off relationship-slash-friendship for years, but we all know that sometimes the attraction appears to be more one-sided for the most part. Poor Drake can never seem to catch a break with the women in his life.
2 Sometimes, Even Harry Styles Gets Rejected
Actress Lindsey Lohan has had her share of rough times these days. She appears to be in the process of attempting to get her acting career back on track, but she has one thing going for her: She once turned down Harry Styles. Now THAT’S something a lot of young women can’t say. Apparently, the pop singer knocked on her hotel room door in the middle of the night and she simply turned him away.
According to Refinery 29, Lohana said, “I didn’t know it was him,” saying that Styles, then 22-years-old, had shown up on her hotel doorstep at 2 am. “He was in a suit. I said, ‘Well, you’re very good-looking – can I help you?’ That was it.”
Lohan, who was 29 at the time, said that she didn’t recognize the popular singer. “He was like, ‘I’m Harry. Gavin and Michael sent me here.’ I was in bed. I was like, ‘I’m going to bed it was nice to meet you.’” she then added, “It was 2 am, I had just come back from an AA meeting. I looked [not myseld], too. I was wearing a big hotel robe, I had a slip under it. It was not a good look.”
Her sister was the one who had to explain what exactly Lindsey did and who she sent away. “It didn’t click at the time,” the actress said. “I told my sister the next day and she was like, ‘Wait, are you kidding me? Do you understand? Do you have his number? Can I have it?’”
1 “I’m Thinking You’re Rude” D’Angelo Once Dissed Madonna Herself
It has to be a massive deal when you end up not only turning down one of the biggest pop stars in the world — but when that pop star happens to be the one and only, Madonna, it's a BIG deal! Not only that, but if you managed to call her “rude” in the process, you're really making a statement. Years ago, when singer D’Angelo was working his way up the ladder, Madonna asked him to sing at her 39th birthday party. The music goddess was apparently into D’Angelo and wanted to get to know him better, but did it in a weird, diva-y way.
According to iloveoldschoolmusic.com, during an afterparty, Madonna walked over to D’Angelo’s table and said to the woman who was sitting next to the singer “I think you’re in my seat.”
The woman politely moved without argument and Madonna took her seat. She then turned to D'Angelo and asked: “I’d like to know what you’re thinking.”
D’Angelo’s response? “I’m thinking you’re rude.”
We’re pretty sure that Madonna has NEVER heard that before from a man she was clearly interested in, but that night, she did and D’Angelo managed to put her in her place. If only we were all present to get a peek at her reaction to his line. One can wish, we suppose.
References: elle.com, people.com, huffingtonpost.com, usmagazine.com, perezhilton.com, seventeen.com, mirror.co.uk, eonline.com, oceanup.com,
