For Better or For Worse: Celebrity Couples Who Weather the Storms

After all, the world celebrities inhabit is a little like an episode of 'Temptation Island.' They're constantly traveling to romantic settings in exotic places (movie sets) for months on end, having eye candy thrown at them (costars) and being told to work with/kiss/do sex scenes with said eye candy. Relationship pitfalls are tossed in their path at every turn. It takes a superhuman strength not to stray.

But some have risen to the challenge with gusto, even coping with far more grave problems like addiction, financial hardship, debilitating illness and death in the process.

Here are a few of our favorite star couples who have defied the odds:

Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan
The couple met on the set of 'Family Ties' and got married in 1988. They've made their relationship work through Fox's numerous roles, their four children together and most importantly, his struggle with Parkinson's disease, which he was diagnosed with in the early 1990s.

Fox, 49, and Pollan, 50, say their marriage has lasted in part because they were raised by parents who set a good example.

"For us, it has been normal to stay together through difficulties," Pollan said in 2002. "We grew up witnessing that firsthand."

And early on, they made up their minds to keep their relationship intact.

"When we married, we married -- and that was it," Fox told O magazine. "We were in love then, as we are now, and we planned to stay married."


Ozzie Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne
Sharon Osbourne was only 17 years old when she met Ozzy Osbourne, whose band Black Sabbath was being managed by her father. She ultimately took over the role and the couple married in 1982.

Now 61 (Ozzy) and 57 (Sharon), the eccentric pair have survived nearly every adversity imaginable: Ozzy's drug and alcohol addiction, his drunken strangling of Sharon and subsequent arrest, a serious quad bike accident, lawsuits over fans' suicides and even the filming of their reality show 'The Osbournes.'

The former heavy metal rocker joked to PEOPLE that the couple's secret to staying married is protective gear. When they have a fight, he says, he gets "a good crash helmet on my head. When she gets pissed off, I really go up in the air."


Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffin
Married for 15 years, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffin have long been held up as a role-model Hollywood couple who have weathered the storms. Then last year, Griffin -- who has battled drug and alcohol addiction throughout her life -- relapsed for the first time in a decade. She checked herself into rehab for painkillers she was taking after a skiing accident.

In the midst of the chaos, the famous husband and wife also had to fight rumors that they were getting a divorce.

But still the pair prevailed. Banderas, 50, said they did it together, along with their daughter and Griffin's children from her previous marriages. The Spanish actor told PEOPLE magazine that passion was one of the "virtues" keeping his marriage intact. Passion -- and patience.

"We have been in crisis sometimes and we knew that if just waited to cross that tunnel that we were just in, at the end we were going to be stronger," he said. "We believed, very much, in each other."

Banderas said the family rallied around Griffin, 53, during her darkest hours and didn't leave her side, even though she was in rehab.

"The whole family, we have been around her, and it is a good message," he told Ellen DeGeneres. "There is nothing in the world that cannot be cured by love."


Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick
When you're Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and you're in one of the most famous examples of a solid Hollywood marriage, there's nothing like a Ponzi scheme run by Bernie Madoff to shake things up a bit.

'The Closer' actress, 45, said she and Bacon, 52, had been hurt but not "destroyed" by Madoff's far-reaching scam, according to the Associated Press. They'd invested money with the notorious, jailed financier, who pleaded guilty last year to bilking clients out of billions.

"We lost hard-earned money that we worked very hard for that we thought [was] in a safe place," said Sedgwick.
"It's painful but a lot of people lost a lot more."

She said the pair persevered by remembering how lucky they were in other ways and staying optimistic.

"We have a lot of things to be grateful for in our life, and we never, ever forget that," Sedgwick said.

Besides, they were due for a good controversy anyway. If anything, it may have made their marriage stronger.

"I think the interesting thing about it was that I always thought, 'We're so boring. We should be in the tabloids more. C'mon honey, let's have a scandal,' " the star joked.

John Travolta and Kelly Preston
This Hollywood husband and wife have long been legendary because of their nearly 20 years of marriage. But their relationship was tested like it never had been when tragedy struck their family in early 2009.

Their 16-year-old son Jett, who was autistic and reportedly suffered from an autoimmune disorder, had a seizure while they were away on holiday in the Bahamas and died.

The couple was devastated, but did their best to grieve in private -- in spite of nearly constant news emerging about Jett's death and an extortion case involving two Bahamian men who tried to get $25 million from Travolta, 56.

And their marriage only seems to have grown more solid. Earlier this year, the stars announced that they're expecting a baby. The 47-year-old Preston is pregnant with a boy.

"We tried for several years and we didn't think it was going to happen for us," the pair told PEOPLE. "This is a miracle, and we feel blessed."

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