Madonna and Sean Penn, a toxic love story
Although today they have a great affection for each other, Madonna and Sean Penn's relationship was a complete disaster full of rumors about violence... This is the story!
The wedding is supposed to be one of the happiest moments for a couple, but Madonna and Sean Penn's, on August 16, 1985, ended with the groom brandishing a gun and shooting at the paparazzi who, aboard helicopters, They were trying to get a picture of the event.
Later the actor clarified that he would never shoot other human beings, but that those photographers "were not people", so at that time he wanted the helicopters to crash into the ground.
It seems that their wedding day is just a small reflection of the torment that Madonna and Sean Penn's relationship became. Here at De10.mx we tell you the details…
How did Madonna and Sean Penn meet?
In the 1980s, Sean Penn had been billed as "the new James Dean" and had become the best actor of his generation. On her part, Madonna became a music icon, a transgressive figure wrapped in a halo of sexuality.
When Sean Penn saw Madonna on MTV he decided he wanted to meet her. So, out of nowhere, he appeared with her during the filming of the Material Girl video, in February 1985. His bad manners made the singer uncomfortable, leaving her with a bad impression of the actor, but at the end of the day, she agreed to go out with him.
Surprisingly, they became boyfriends and a month later they arrived at the altar. He was 24 years old, she was 27.
The controversial wedding of Madonna and Sean Penn
The character they both had was explosive and it seemed that they were provoking each other all the time. Madonna enjoyed the attention and publicity, so she called the paparazzi when she went out with Penn. He, for her part, faced blows with the photographers so that they would leave them alone.
In 1985, Madonna described her still boyfriend as a wild guy who would probably die young. She tried to get him to seek psychiatric help, but not even the arrests for violence made Sean see reason.
The couple married on August 16, 1985, gossips say that it was the singer who warned the press that her and Penn's birthday celebration would actually be a secret wedding, and that's why the paparazzi came to the event.
Shortly before the ceremony, Penn had promised to give his partner a quiet and beautiful wedding, but everything turned into a circus. The actor received his guests with the phrase "welcome to the new version of Apocalypse now".
Noticing helicopters hovering over their chosen wedding venue in Malibu, Penn went outside and wrote "Fuck Off" on the beach. Then, enraged, he grabbed a gun and started shooting into the sky, trying to aim at the photographers.
A myth began to be built around this couple, whose union lasted four years and was full of rumors about infidelity and violence.
The day Sean Penn tied up Madonna and beat her for eight hours
Madonna's sexual freedom made her a "desirable" person for men. Some of them were with her only for the personal challenge of being recognized as "the man who could control the singer." But she wasn't about to let herself be manipulated. Penn's solution to calm the Like a Virgin singer down a bit was to tie up his wife, yes, literally.
In late 1987, Penn disappeared for four days, then showed up at her New York apartment asking Madonna to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving. She responded with the divorce papers, but after 12 days, they canceled the paperwork.
The tension between the couple rose when Penn accused Madonna of being more affectionate with her friend, bisexual actress Sandra Bernhard, than with him, so the singer decided to move alone to her mansion in Malibu.
On December 28, 1988, she broke into her residence and after an argument, Penn gagged her and tied her to a chair, where she spent eight hours. During that time, he was drinking from her and hitting her, when she ran out of vodka she went out to buy more of her. Madonna took this opportunity to untie herself, go to her car and call the police.
According to the agent who attended her, the singer had a broken lip and, although she filed charges against Sean Penn, she withdrew the complaint the next day. Maybe she didn't want to go through legal trouble or attract negative publicity, or as Penn pointed out, it never happened and it was all her invention.
Madonna and Sean Penn divorce
The media covered the note as a simple marital dispute. On January 25, 1989 they were divorced. The couple could not sustain their terrible marriage and both understood that it was best to go their separate ways. Madonna kept the New York apartment and Sean Penn the Malibu mansion.
After this process, she achieved great success with the album Like a Prayer and filmed the most expensive video in history at that time, Express Yourself.
Belonging to the artistic medium, Madonna and Sean Penn have crossed paths several times. Even in 1991, she claimed that he was the love of her life, but that she could never be the wife he needed. She even denied that he had been a violent person.
