34 Fictional Couples Who 100% Broke Up After The Credits Rolled
“The whole series is them getting together and then breaking up again. Then we’re meant to believe that somehow, THIS TIME, they’ll make it work? GTFO.”
Recently, Reddit user Th3mberchaud asked, “Which fictional ‘happily ever after’ couple definitely breaks up, and why?” and people had some hot takes. Here are 34 TV and movie couples who people do NOT think went the distance.
1. “[Dan and Serena from] Gossip Girl. Serena is definitely going to have multiple divorces just like her mother.”
The CW
“Dan was a horrible person, too.”
“Dan sucks. His whole ‘I’m an edgy poor dude and let’s eat the rich, but oh wait I want to be the rich’ schtick is eye roll-worthy.
And his parents have a kickass loft in Brooklyn and they’re able to send their kids to private school. He’s not poor — he’s solidly on the edge of the middle class/upper middle class. He resents the upper class because he wants to be them (and has a weird obsession with Serena), not for the legitimate reasons that we should resent them.”
2. “[Edward and Vivian] in Pretty Woman.”
Touchstone Pictures
3. Although I love the movie, Jerry Maguire and Dorothy [from Jerry Maguire] definitely drift apart again. Not only was the chemistry just not there (what was that weird kiss scene on the porch?), but he definitely still needed to do more personal growth before he went back to Dorothy.”
TriStar Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
4. “Ted and Robin, from How I Met Your Mother, for many obvious reasons.”
Ron P. Jaffe / CBS / Courtesy Everett Collection
“The whole series is them getting together and then breaking up again. Then we’re meant to believe that somehow, THIS TIME, they’ll make it work? GTFO.”
“I think he would forever idolize her, and that just…doesn’t work.”
“Robin and Barney always struck me as just being able to hang out together and chill as friends on top of being in a relationship with one another. They shared hobbies and likes, they gave each other shit in a friendly way, and it made their being together way more believable and stable because they could just kick back and relax together.
It never felt like she had that sort of dynamic with Ted to me. Certainly not with Ted somehow managing to be even more self-absorbed than Barney, which is a feat in and of itself.”
6. “Penny and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory. I don’t care what the spinoffs show; those two were the poster couple for future resentment.”
Sonja Flemming / CBS / courtesy Everett Collection
“Oh my god, Leonard is the worst. I didn’t realize until I rewatched the sitcom now that I’m older. He is a total control freak. She should have never gotten back with him. … He refused to let Penny’s brother sleep over because he’s a recovering addict. Like, what a dick. And she still lets him have his way like she always does. She lets him run her life but doesn’t have a say in the relationship whatsoever.”
“I NEVER liked their relationship. I get the whole ‘opposites attract’ thing, but couples need SOMETHING in common, and they literally had nothing. In my opinion, she never really had a character arc that made her more interested in his interests and vice versa. Plus, they fought more than they got along.
It almost ruined the show for me. I liked all the other couples, but that one just made no sense. There’s very little likelihood it would have happened or lasted in real life.”
7. “Ross and Rachel [from Friends].”
NBC
“One of the things that make me dislike him so much is that when they started dating, their first date was at the museum he worked at because he had to fix some things on display or whatever. When they have the discussion about taking a break, it is because he can’t accept that Rachel’s job is reducing the time they spend together, even if it is important for Rachel’s professional and personal growth. Also, his anti-gayness.”
“They tried multiple times over the course of the series and always brought out the worst in each other. Why should the last time be any different? Especially after the career sacrifice getting off the plane implies she made; that’s sure to lead to resentment as soon as they have problems again.”
“I have never understood that relationship. I may be one of the few people who didn’t think they had chemistry, and it all seemed forced. Ross just had a weird obsession, and I feel like Rachel liked being with someone who was obsessed with her but would move on at some point for someone better.”
8. “Hugh Grant’s and Andie MacDowell’s characters in Four Weddings and a Funeral. They barely know each other and go months at a time with zero contact; he struggles with commitment and opening up to people, and it’s a big part of her character that she struggles with exclusivity. She sleeps with his character when she’s engaged. There’s also no chemistry, although that might have something to do with Andie’s acting in the film, which is hilariously bad.”
Gramercy Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
9. “Bella and Edward…eternity just seems way too long.”
Temple Hill Entertainment
“I agree. He’s obsessed with her humanity and the fact he can’t hear her thoughts. She’s obsessed with his otherness. After her transition to vampire, they’ll get bored of each other immediately.”
“Bella will eventually grow older and more independent, and Edward will remain frozen in time.”
10. “Ferris and Sloane from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.“
Paramount / Courtesy Everett Collection
“Yeah. That’s a high school fling. They’ll probably break up sometime during her senior year.”
“He made Sloan think her grandmother was dead to get her out of school. Granted, she realizes that it’s just an act but that’s still messed up. Oddly, I don’t think we ever see her give him shit for this.”
11. “Troy and Gabriela from the High School Musical movies. They broke up in every movie; I never saw them lasting, even as a kid watching.”
Disney Channel
“The fact that Troy jumped through hoops to go to college close to her was also nutty. A nice happily-ever-after for us teeny-boppers at the time, but realizing the reality later down the line is somewhat sobering.”
12. “Joel and Clementine from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The original script even indicates that they continue the cycle of wiping each other from their memories for decades.”
©Focus Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Yeah, when I watched that movie, it was pretty clear to me that they were doomed to repeat that cycle pretty much endlessly and that the lesson of the movie is we remember our pain for a reason (that reason being so we don’t repeat it).”
13. “I refuse to believe that the relationship between Tessa and Hardin in the After movies ends in anything less than a murder-suicide.”
Voltage Pictures
“I read these stories back when it was Harry Styles/One Direction fanfiction, and even then, as a 14-year-old, I thought the relationship was an absolute mess, and he seemed irredeemable. If I were Harry Styles, I would be downright insulted by the portrayal.”
14. “Lydia Bennett and George Wickham [from Pride and Prejudice].”
Focus Films/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Oh, he definitely just tolerated her, and I was praying to get the moment when she regretted her actions because she was so silly. In the long run, I feel they would never work out. Hmmm, although on second thought, if Lydia kept being so ridiculous and never changed (like her mother), she possibly could’ve stayed somewhat happy In the marriage…but I don’t think he could; he would just get used to it.”
15. “Hermione and Ron [from Harry Potter].”
Warner Bros.
“They didn’t even seem happy in the books or movies, to be honest. Like they just kinda got together. Super awkward. No chemistry. She deserves a smart husband.”
“It’s not even just that she’s way smarter than him. It’s that he abandoned the Harry-Ron-Hermione alliance at a critical juncture. In Deathly Hallows, Hermione finally proves why she was correctly Sorted as a Gryffindor and not a Ravenclaw, and meanwhile Ron chumps out.”
“Ron was always very jealous of the attention that Harry got, and Hermione was very ambitious and wanted to be Minister for Magic. There’s no way he’d support her in that role or like the attention that she’d get. Also, there’s the fact that he was quite lazy and was looking for a new mum.”
16. “Robin and Quinn (Anne Heche and Harrison Ford) from Six Days, Seven Nights. I loved the movie and recently rewatched it. … They only knew each other for a week??? He seems to be stubborn for her and much older, too. What about her big career in New York? How would it even work??”
Bruce McBroom / Buena Vista Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
17. “Jacob and Renesme [from Twilight.] She will realize around 24 that she was groomed by her mom’s ex-stalker crush since the moment she was born. … She’s going to be depressed from growing up too fast and feel repulsed by him. He’s clingy, old, obsessive, and overly emotional. I hope Edward gets a good laugh when she leaves and goes to explore the world to find another halfling or even a human.”
Temple Hill Entertainment
18. “Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves at the end of Speed. That was a relationship built on adrenaline and PTSD.” [Editor’s note: They were, in fact, broken up in the sequel.]
20th Century Fox/Courtesy Everett Collection / Via 20th Century Fox
19. “Sandy and Danny in Grease. They had to change personalities to please the other.”
Allan Carr Enterprises/Stigwood Group
20. “The main couple from My Best Friend’s Wedding.“
TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
“They have nothing in common, and she’s 20 while he’s mid-late thirties? [Editor’s note: he’s 28, but still.] She’s definitely going to grow up a bit and realize she gave up her fun twenties for some middle-aged dude that she’s emotionally outgrown.”
21. “Belle and the Beast [from Beauty and the Beast] 100% break up. At first, everything’s great — romantic castle vibes, enchanted furniture, the whole fairytale deal. But once the magic wears off and the Beast is just some regular dude, reality sets in. Belle, who literally sang an entire song about wanting adventure and a life beyond a ‘provincial town,’ realizes she’s now stuck in a castle with a guy who, let’s be honest, might still have some anger issues.”
Disney
22. “Kate and Leopold [from Kate & Leopold]. Living in 1876 is gonna suck for someone from the 2000’s.”
Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Electricity, plumbing, hygiene, food, medicine – it’s all going to be incredibly shit in comparison to what Kate is used to. She’s going to be entirely reliant on Leopold to navigate this new world; he’s the only one who will understand where she is from and why she doesn’t know anything. He was poor as shit in the film, and it’s implied he’ll invent the elevator, so that might bring in the money, but even then, being rich in the 1800s is still going to feel like living like a caveman compared to being just your average schmoe in the 2000s even if you have butlers and maids because you will still have no modern conveniences. Oooh here’s your fancy food that a rat probably chewed on in the larder, oh you cut your finger, too bad the tetanus shot hasn’t been invented yet. She’s going to be jumping off that cliff hoping the time portal is back after about 3 weeks.
This goes for any film where someone decides to stay in the past for love (unless they are coming from an apocalyptic future).”
23. “Jim and Pam [from The Office]. They break up because Jim keeps making big decisions behind Pam’s back, and Pam feels like she is not an equal partner in their relationship.”
NBC
“Jim was never going to be content with the life Pam wanted to live. Either he would have prolonged it and ended up leaving out of resentment, or she would have left because she wasn’t ‘equal’ to him.”
“He’s ‘too cool’ to be a serious father or partner, and she would rather cheat than be assertive. Maybe they’d stay together, but it definitely wouldn’t be in a way that’s functional or fair to their kids.”
“100% this. Jim was waaayyy too selfish for the life he was leading. He clearly resented Pam and his kids and was absolutely going to go out for a gallon of milk and then just never come back. Pam would have reconnected with someone from high school who also never left, and that would have been that.”
24. “Happy Gilmore and Virginia [from Happy Gilmore]. She’d leave his ass in a week after coming to terms with the fact that he is, in fact, a child in an adult’s body.”
Joseph Lederer / Universal Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection
25. “Aria and Ezra [from Pretty Little Liars].”
Freeform
“Aria will realize in a couple of years just how fucked it was that Ezra knew everything about her and her friends when they hooked up when she was at the ripe age of…16 
”
26. “Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt in As Good As It Gets. He’s not easy to be around, and she’s way too hot and nice to settle for him.”
Sony Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
27. “[Lisa and Akeem from] Coming To America. Lisa wouldn’t have liked the reality of being Princess/Queen: the lack of independence and the ability to do anything of substance, the limitations that would have been put on her by her title. It would have been like Princess Diana, but at least Di was born into that world, so she kind of knew what she was getting into.”
Eddie Murphy Productions
“Plus, her husband smashing the ‘bathers’ on the regular.”
“I’ve always hated the end of the movie. Akeem basically says. ‘Are you sure? We can leave this and go live your dreams.’
Her ‘hell no, I’ve always wanted to be a princess’ type of response is the exact opposite of her character. Lisa spends the whole movie getting out of a relationship where he wants her to be a pretty housewife/have no career of her own. Why would she run towards the same thing? Because he’s rich? She had actual goals.'”
28. “[Diane and Lloyd] from Say Anything. Diane is going to be busy at university, and she’ll finally meet other people who aren’t intimidated by her intelligence and beauty. Lloyd is going to get jealous for sure.”
20th Century Fox/ Courtesy: Everett Collection
29. “Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal. She was the worst, and he wasn’t much better.”
Touchstone Pictures
“I didn’t sense a lick of chemistry or love between them throughout the movie. So your boss is mean to you your entire life, and then you invite her to Alaska for a weekend, and poof! Now they are in love and want to marry?”
“I am still confused about how he fell in love with her in the first place. It’s established that he hates her with a burning passion and that she is incredibly demanding and difficult to work with. I don’t imagine them getting together in the first place.”
30. “Lelaina and Troy in Reality Bites. They were so awful for each other. Troy treated her like shit for half the movie and handled her relationship with Michael about as poorly as he could. He was whiny, needy, and just an all-around jackass. Michael, on the other hand, adored Lelaina, actively supported her ambitions, and was a stable, loving partner. I will never get over what a bad decision Lelaina made.”
Van Redin / Universal / courtesy Everett Collection
31. “Kat Stratford and Patrick Verona from 10 Things I Hate About You. She definitely goes to college on the other side of the country and there’s no way they did long-distance.”
Touchstone Pictures
32. “Cady and Aaron from Mean Girls.“
Paramount / courtesy Everett Collection
“Yeah, it’s rare for a high school romance to survive, but even more so when one leaves for college before the other one does.”
33. “[Henry and Lucy] in 50 First Dates. Ho lord, they really romanticized that ending, but there’s no way that situation doesn’t deteriorate FAST. How are you going to start explaining it when she wakes up from her car accident, or on the day of her wedding, or just in an older body that she doesn’t recognize? And how does he ever get a reprieve from this? What if he needs to travel or leave for an emergency? Is she just not his partner that day? Does he video call her and say, ‘Hey, just so you know, we’re married, but I’m not there today, also don’t forget to feed our dog.’ Absolute nightmare shit.”
Columbia Pictures
34. And finally…”Everyone in Love Actually but the porn extras.”
Universal / courtesy Everett Collection
What fictional couple do you think broke up after the show or movie ended? Let us know in the comments!
Submissions have been edited for length/clarity.