The following article references drug misuse.
In the ’90s,Brooke Shieldsand Andre Agassi were a bona fide power couple.
“I kept shaking my head as if I had duct tape across my mouth.
It hit me all of a sudden I knew I had made a mistake,” she recounted.
“I did not want to be married …
I wanted to be a bride, but I shouldn’t have been married yet.”
And she wasn’t the only one with cold feet that day.
I wish I had a decoy groom to take my place."
Here is a look at their ill-fated relationship.
Despite their busy schedules and nonstop travel itineraries, they found time for love.
This allowed them to get to know each other better and connect.
Meeting Agassi was also good for Brooke because it put space between herself and her mother, Teri Shields.
While these changes worked out for the model, they created friction between the mother and daughter.
“He gave me my first taste of freedom from my mom.
He swept me away.”
The proposal happened one evening at sunset during a trip to Hawaii.
It sounds like the perfect time to get down on one knee, right?
On an episode of “E!
But rather than agree, Shields jokingly replied, “No, I’ve seen better.”
After she made her little quip, Agassi asked her to marry him and she accepted.
The bride wore a timeless sleeveless ivory gown made by New York fashion designer Heidi Weisel.
“The beauty of it was the lack of embellishment,” Weisel told theLos Angeles Times.
The dress was paired with a vintage veil.
“Both are the nicest, unassuming kind of people,” they said.
“They were very simple, straightforward and kind.”
When he did not win, his mood took a major nosedive and she caught the brunt of it.
“Somehow, I was made to feel it was my fault,” she wrote.
“I’d get the silent treatment or a projection of disdain that cut to my core.”
Agassi also addressed his addiction in his 2009 memoir, “Open.”
“I was so unbelievably clueless,” she wrote.
“To this day, I think to myself ‘My God, Brooke.
All you’ve seen in your life and you couldn’t pick this up?'”
Agassi began using meth in 1997, just before he and Shields got married.
I hated what I did.
I was in a marriage I didn’t want to be in,” he said.
In one particularly bizarre moment, her character licks Joey’s fingers in the middle of a restaurant.
And while Shields was clearly just acting, Andre Agassi took issue with the scene.
“Andre was in the audience supporting me, and he stormed out.
He said, ‘Everybody’s making fun of me.
“I’m, like, ‘It’s comedy!
What is the matter with you?'”
After the taping, Agassi took his anger out on his trophy case.
“Who wins for that?
That’s just don’t!”
Shields said of her then-husband’s actions in a 2023 interview with The New Yorker.
“I married a very controlling person.
I married an industry.
I married a conglomerate, you know.
I could disappear into it, and I loved it.
And I needed it.”
Shields wed hersecond husband, Chris Hency, in 2001.
That same year, Agassi married fellow tennis player Steffi Graf.
Both marriages are still going strong.
While Shields’ marriage to Agassi was rife with conflict, not all aspects of their relationship were negative.
As she told Maron, “Andre and I laughed a lot too, which was great.”
However, their conflicting schedules and work commitments proved to be tough on their relationship.
From 1996 to 2000, Shields played the titular role in the NBC sitcom “Suddenly Susan.”
Their relationship had been strained for years, but Shields and Agassi tried to push through.
Eventually, however, they accepted they simply were not right for one another.
“I always thought love was enough.
But the truth was we were growing past one another.
And I’m not sure if we individually enjoyed how the other liked to live.”
“I think at that time in my life I couldn’t be married to anyone.
I think timing is really important,” he said.
Despite this, they appeared to have been able to part ways without too much drama or animosity.
“I am divorced.
And mine was fairly quick and relatively easy,” Shields said on the show.
“That was an important stage and relationship in my life and I don’t regret it.”
“But I don’t know if he does that much reflection on things,” she said.
“People process things very, very differently, and I have come to respect that.”
“But that’s not the kind of person he is.
When you’re out, you’re out,” she said of her ex-husband’s mindset.
“Everything was just off,” she said.
Despite her efforts to amend his version of events, Shields told Maron that Agassi dismissed her suggestions.
“That’s not how I remember it, and it is my book,” he wrote.
Agassi’s actions left Shields with no recourse.
“I got duped in a big way,” she said.
“That’s not who he is.
He’s not an evil person.”
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available.
Visit theSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration websiteor contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
