In Hollywood, affairs tend to get tons of coverage, and it isn’t easy for all parties involved.

Stanley Tucci’s affair caused damage, as did Jean-Claude Van Damme’s affair.

These stories are often focused on the people doing the cheating, and sometimes leave the hurt parties behind.

Jurassic Park veteran, Laura Dern, was previously engaged to Billy Bob Thornton.

The problem, however, was that Thornton up and left to marry Angelina Jolie, all while Dern was out of town for work.

Let’s take a look back at this infamous affair, and how Laura Dern was left alone and betrayed, all while Thornton and Angelina Jolie were the new power couple in Hollywood.

Billy Bob Thornton And Angelina Jolie Had An Infamous Marriage

In what was a legitimately shocking and confusing romance, Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton took the media by storm when they linked up and got married years back. It was something that no one saw coming, and at one point, it seemed like these two were featured in every publication known to man.

According to Ranker, “Would the world have had its manic three years of Thornjelina if it weren’t for the air traffic control dramedy Pushing Tin? At the time, the stars were each involved with someone else – Thornton with his fiancée Laura Dern and Jolie with fellow actor Timothy Hutton. At the time, Jolie was freshly out of her marriage with actor Johnny Lee Miller.”

The following year, the pair ran off together and got married in Las Vegas.

“According to the reverend who presided over the Vegas nuptials, the couple went casual for their ceremony. Jolie pulled her hair back, didn’t worry about getting too made up, and said “yes” without too much pomp and circumstance,” Ranker wrote.

Jaws hit the floor, tabloids were working overtime, and in the blink of an eye, a brand new celebrity couple was all the rage in the media.

Of course, while all the attention was on the pair, there were still a few eyes that were focused on Laura Dern.

Laura Dern Was Left Picking Up The Pieces

At the time of Jolie and Thornton’s marriage, Billy Bob was still engaged to Laura Dern. Instead of ending things and moving on, the actor up and decided to just go and marry someone else.

Said Dern, “I left our home to work on a movie, and while I was away, my boyfriend got married, and I’ve never heard from him again.”

She continued, saying, “It’s like a sudden death. For no one has there been any closure or clarity.”

Being cheated on is bad enough, but having your fiance marry someone else while you’re away on work is an entirely different level of pain. To make things worse, Dern was forced to see the shiny new couple being covered by the media every place she went. At the time, there was simply no escaping it.

Prior to this, the pair had been together for several years after meeting on the set of Ellen. Both performers were coming out of relationships, and eventually began dating, eventually getting engaged.

Years after this major fiasco took place, the pair had an awkward encounter.

According to FandomWire, “In 2017, during an award event, Dern and the Bad Santa actor came across each other once again after their messy breakup. During the Golden Globe Awards, Thornton walked right past Dern but she looked away. The moment was captured on camera and for many days that moment caused a stir on the internet.”

Time heals all, but we can’t really fault Dern for wanting nothing to do with the man who caused her an immense amount of pain in the most public way possible.

Thankfully, all parties have since moved on.

All Parties Have Since Moved On

Jolie and Thornton eventually split, and as Thornton points out, the two had very different lifestyles.

“I remember our time together as really being great. We just had different lifestyles. Hers is a global lifestyle and mine is an agoraphobic lifestyle. So, that’s really—that’s the only reason we’re probably not still together, maybe, because of a different path in life we wanted to take,” he said, per E! Online.

Jolie would go on to fracture Brad Pitt’s marriage to Jennifer Aniston, eventually marrying and splitting from the movie star.

Thornton, meanwhile, remarried in 2014.

Dern would eventually marry musician, Ben Harper, though the pair have since split after having children together.

This infamous affair left Laura Dern in one of the most difficult positions imaginable, and it’s amazing to see how far she has come since then.