Views of marriage are changing, although Hollywood has been presenting us with some terrible movie wives for quite a while now. While it’s not nice for women to be portrayed in such a light, these wives can make us feel better about our own flaws and relationship troubles, so here are some terrible movie wives who give marriage a bad name.
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Everyone who has seen this movie must have been secretly willing them to get together, but childhood friendship did not blossom into romance. Jenny makes the list of terrible movie wives, despite the fact that she spends very little time as a wife, because she drifts in and out of Forrest’s life for many years. After constantly rejecting him for strings of useless and thuggish men, she comes crawling back when Forrest has made his fortune, she’s destroyed her life, and has a son to take care of (that she conveniently claims is Forrest’s). Then, shortly after their marriage, she leaves him forever, dying of what we assume to be AIDS. (There’s a very subtle sub plot that her father may have abused Jenny but we’re not really sure.)
Jenny in Forrest Gump is a prime example of a terrible movie wife. She is a childhood friend of Forrest's but their friendship never blossoms into romance. Jenny spends little time as a wife to Forrest, constantly rejecting him for other men. When Forrest has made his fortune, she comes back to him and they get married, only for her to leave him shortly after and die of what is assumed to be AIDS. There is a subtle suggestion that her father may have abused her, but this is never confirmed. Overall, Jenny is a classic example of a terrible movie wife who gives marriage a bad name.
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Cheating on your husband is bad enough, but doing it with an underage pupil at the school where you teach is a hundred times worse. Not to mention the fact that her poor husband is left to care for two children, one of whom is disabled, all on his own. You could argue that she is misguided rather than one of the worst wives in the movies, especially compared to the nasty piece of work Judy Dench’s character turns out to be.
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Sharon Stone’s superb performance earned Ginger the reputation of one of the worst movie wives. Not only is Ginger a gambler addicted to drugs, but she has an affair with her husband’s closest business associate and steals from her husband. Even worse, she ties her own daughter to her bed so she can go clubbing in Las Vegas. Disgraceful!
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This is a tale of an ambitious wife and a husband who wants normal things, like a family. But rather than just accepting the marriage isn’t working and leaving her husband to pursue her career, Suzanne goes to the extreme lengths of hiring a gang to kill him. What a delightful woman.
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Jane Smith is not one of the most famous terrible movie wives because her husband’s dinner was not ready for him on the table when he got home from work, but because his marriage to her puts him at risk of being attacked and even murdered by the woman he chose to spend his life with. It’s not a marriage that would make you look forward to getting home in the evening.
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This is another marriage in which you’d have reason to fear for your life, and yet again it’s Sharon Stone playing a terrible wife. Poor Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) discovers that his wife works for an organization intent on killing him, and she may beat him up but he gets his own back before the end, putting a bullet in her head.
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Diana is guilty of something that many of these other terrible movie wives would succumb to if they were only given half a chance. He may have been played by Robert Redford, and she may have been offered a million dollars, but sleeping with someone for money still makes you a prostitute. And nobody wants to be married to a prostitute.
These terrible movie wives may give marriage, and women, a bad name, but they can certainly help us all to stop feeling guilty if we moan too much, don’t spend much time on our appearance or don’t always leave the house looking perfect! Who are your nominations for the worst wives in the movies?