Top 10 Wild '90s Scandals You Forgot About

It sounds like the plot of a movie. A famous actress is about to marry a famous actor. The wedding is going to take place on a literal soundstage. It’s a Hollywood fairy tale come to life. Then, with the nuptials just days away, the whole thing was suddenly called off. “Pretty Woman” star Julia Roberts had not only left her fiancé, Kiefer Sutherland, but she was now with his best friend and “The Lost Boys” co-star Jason Patric. Roberts would later say the press exaggerated the timing of all the events, but the pile-on was almost immediate.

Shortly after their debut, R&B girl group TLC were hit with a bizarre controversy involving member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. After finding out her then-boyfriend, NFL player Andre Rison, was cheating on her, Lopes dumped several of his sneakers in a bathtub and set them on fire in an act of revenge. Unfortunately, the fire soon spread out of control and burned down Rison’s Atlanta mansion. Shockingly, the two stayed together. Rison even accompanied her to her sentencing for the crime. Lopes’ tragic and untimely death a few years later in a car accident may have overshadowed this regrettable episode of her life.

He was a petroleum tycoon worth over a billion dollars, and she was 1993’s Playmate of the Year. The headlines wrote themselves. When 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall married 26-year-old model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, everyone pretty much assumed the worst. What could this woman possibly want from this very, very rich man except the money she would presumably inherit upon his death? Marshall had actually pursued her for years before she agreed to the marriage. When he did pass away in 1995, a protracted legal battle saw Smith being excluded from her deceased husband’s fortune. Smith later became known for her reality TV antics, personal struggles, and premature death in 2007 at the age of 39.

In 1992, the Irish singer-songwriter, known for her activism, took her opportunity to stage a protest against the abuses of the Catholic Church right on the “SNL” stage. At the end of her musical number, she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II, to the stunned silence of the audience. This was by design, as the shocked executive producer Lorne Michaels ordered the standard applause sign not be lit. Public reaction was swift. She was condemned by everyone from the Catholic Church to her fellow artists to even the show’s next guest host, Joe Pesci. O’Connor said she never regretted the act, and many credit her with trying to sound the alarm on the church’s scandals years before they went mainstream.

Although he was already a star in the United Kingdom, in 1995, “Four Weddings and a Funeral” star Hugh Grant was at the beginning of crossing over to American stardom. Then, he and Los Angeles sex worker Divine Brown were arrested for lewd conduct. Grant was not only a star, he was also in a relationship with Elizabeth Hurley at the time. In a lot of ways, the reason this one doesn’t really live on is because of how well Grant handled it. He didn’t make apologies, excuses, or a big show of his reasons. He faced the music and went on to continue his career as the dashing British movie star we all know him to be.

Bill Clinton’s legacy is probably most notable for that one big scandal. You know the one. But he was dogged by misconduct rumors even before his impeachment proceedings. In fact, during his 1992 presidential campaign, former state of Arkansas employee Gennifer Flowers came forward about a long-standing affair with Clinton. He denied these accusations, with his team contesting that supposed recordings between the two had been doctored. Clinton wouldn’t confess to the affair until his 1998 impeachment scandal. However, he continued to deny 1994 sexual harassment accusations by another state employee, Paula Jones.

Many people forgot these two even dated. Sometime in the late 1990s, Jennifer Lopez began dating the rapper, then known as Puff Daddy and Puffy. The two were megastars, at or near the beginnings of megawatt careers. In December 1999, just days before the decade ended, the two were at the site of a shooting at a Times Square nightclub. Diddy’s involvement has been the subject of rumor and allegation ever since. He was charged with bribery and various weapons-related charges, but he was ultimately acquitted. The incident was largely forgotten by mainstream news until his 2024 arrest and the ever-sprawling web of alleged conspiracies, debauchery, and lies surrounding the music mogul.

Ellen DeGeneres was known as the lovable daytime talk show host who loved to dance and prank celebrities. Well, for a while, anyway. But DeGeneres’ fame was hard-won. Beginning in standup comedy, she earned her own sitcom in 1994, but her career almost came to a halt in 1997 when she made the brave decision to come out as a lesbian. This was especially unheard of because she was at the height of her fame at that point. But this was a two-fold announcement. Her hilarious Time Magazine cover was just the beginning. She faced even more blowback when her character on the show also came out, which also earned huge criticism for guest stars, actress Laura Dern and daytime superhost Oprah Winfrey.

Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, more commonly known as the duo Milli Vanilli, had been caught lip-syncing during a concert in 1989, but the biggest bombshell was yet to come. Even as the two were receiving the 1990 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, suspicion was mounting. Milli Vanilli were not just lip-syncing. They weren’t singing on their records at all. Their manager, record producer Frank Farian, confessed to this, right after firing them. The two became the targets of ridicule, although it took a lot of people, including Farian, to pull off such a big con. The Recording Academy revoked their award as a result of this deception, a Grammy first.

When a Long Island housewife opened her door on May 19, 1992, she had no idea her life was about to change. Standing there was a girl named Amy Fisher, who came with the devastating news that Mary Jo’s husband was having an inappropriate and illegal affair with her. Then Fisher shot her in the face. Mary Jo survived, but the entanglement of the auto shop owner, Joey Buttafuoco, and the teenager who became known in the media as “the Long Island Lolita” captured national headlines. The salacious details of the case are shocking even now. The case inspired films like “American Beauty” and generated a level of infamy that its major players were able to cash in on for a few years afterward.

Which of these blasts from the past did you remember? Tell us in the comments.