One of pop’s bad girls, Rihanna, rumoured to be dating Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, and it got us thinking – sports stars and celebrities don’t make the most obvious couples. After all to be a sportsman is a life of rigorous training and dedication, whereas the celebrity lifestyle is synonymous with parties, luxury and glamour. Over the years there have been some seriously odd celebrity sporting couples. From Andre Agassi dating Hollywood superstar Brooke Shields to Australian spinner Shane Warne wooing Liz Hurley there have been some strange love matches, and here are 10 of the oddest.
1. Rihanna and Karim Benzema
The Bajan singer and French forward have been spotted continually courting this week, as they’ve been seen going clubbing together and enjoying romantic meals. The pair are one of those couples where one wonders firstly how they met, and what they find to talk about. Rihanna has built a reputation as the ultimate party girl, jetting around the world performing, having fun and scandalising certain people. Benzema on the other hand is the least glamourous of Real’s ‘BBC’ strikeforce behind Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. Still, love conquers all.
Image source: celebwild.com
2. Sean St Ledger and Taylor Swift
If you thought Benzema and Rihanna was an odd sporting celebrity couple, then this one is even more so. St Ledger is a journeyman footballer – having carved out a career at Peterborough United, Ipswich, Preston North End and LEicester City. So it came as a shock when rumours began flying that the defender, now in the US with Orlando City, was dating pop megastar Taylor Swift. These were fuelled by a picture of Swift with St Ledger and a coy interview. However this one did prove too good to be true as the Blank Space singer is in fact dating DJ Calvin Harris.
Image source: mirror.co.uk
3. Hayden Panettierre and Wladimir Klitschko
These two make an odd couple for size reasons alone. The Heroes actress is only five feet tall, yet has been in a relationship with Klitschko since 2009, with the pair welcoming a daughter in 2014. Klitschko, for those who aren’t boxing fans, is the reigning World Heavyweight Champion and is six feet six inches tall. It makes for some very interesting photographs involving the pair, with Panettiere reaching Klitschko’s torso.
Image source: pinstopin.com
4. Andre Agassi And Barbara Streisand
Andre Agassi was tennis’s global superstar in the 1990s. Unlike rival Pete Sampras he courted controversy with shoulder length hair and outrageous outfits. Predictably his relationships also caught the eye and strangest of all was perhaps when he was found to be dating singer and actress Barbara Streisand – 28 years his senior at 51. In 1997 he married the actress Brooke Shields and reportedly smashed up his Wimbledon trophy after she kissed Matt LeBlanc in an episode of Friends.
Image source: ohmymag.com
5. Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian
This list couldn’t be complete without a Kardashian relationship, and here it’s Kim’s short lived marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries. This relationship was so odd because it played out in the public eye, on Kim’s reality show. Then after a huge wedding special, the couple split up amid recriminations after just 72 days of marriage. A really odd celebrity sportsman relationship, not least because if you’re a sportsman we’d have thought the last thing you wanted to do was join the Kardashian circus.
Image source: fanshare.com
6. Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra
In the early 1990s Dennis Rodman had a reputation as the baddest of Detroit’s Bad Boys – the team who foiled Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the late 1980s. By 1998 he’d won three NBA championships with Jordan and become known for his outlandish antics off the court. So it came as a bit of a shock when in November 1998 he married one of the most beautiful women in the world – Carmen Electra. The marriage only lasted until April 1999, but for a while they were an extremely odd couple with the nearly 40-year-old Rodman constantly in trouble yet dating one of America’s most glamourous young stars.
Image source: popsugar.com
7. Nick ‘Swaggy P’ Young and Iggy Azalea
In terms of performances Nick Young is far from an NBA superstar, struggling in a dud Lakers team which is one of the worst in the history of the famous team. Yet Nick Young is also ‘Swaggy P’ an alter ego that’s made him a fan favourite and celebrity off the court. That status was confirmed when he was found to be dating Australian rapper Iggy Azalea – one of the hottest pop stars on the planet. OK so this one isn’t that strange, LA basketball player dates pop star, but it’s slightly weird as ‘Swaggy P’s’ status on the A-List is seemingly entirely based on him acting the on court clown.
Image source: Justjared.com
8. Alex Rodriguez and Torrie Wilson
A-Rod was thought of as one of the best baseball players in the world until a drugs scandal tarnished his reputation, with the slugger being suspended for a year over allegations. His odd relationship was with Torrie Wilson, who some will remember as being a star of the WWE in the 2000s. For this couple the oddness stems from the fact that despite A-Rod being a top sportsman accused of having too much muscle, his girlfriend until they split in 2015 arguably could’ve beaten him in an arm wrestling match.
Image source: Mailonline.com
9. Shane Warne Liz Hurley
One of the world’s best ever cricketers, Shane Warne was always thought of as a man’s man who’d never see a BBQ or a beer that he’d walk past. So it was a huge shock when Warne began stepping out with Liz Hurley, actress, socialite and almost certainly a stranger to a can of Victoria Bitter. Liz and Shane courted very publicly on Twitter and looked to have become the perfect combination of English class and Australian bravado, before splitting in late 2013 due to the difficulties of conducting a long distance relationship.
Image source: Sheknows.com
10. Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias
Kournikova burst on to the tennis scene in the late 1990s like her rival Martina Hingis. However unlike Hingis, she was more famous for her looks than her success on the tennis court, as despite breaking into the world’s top ten, she never won a singles tournament. Enrique Iglesias made his name as the Latin heart throb singer you could probably take home to meet your mum. What’s odd about this celebrity sporting couple is both their longevity and privacy. Most celebrity relationships have a pretty short shelf life due to work commitments and the pressures of fame, however Iglesias and Kournikova have reportedly been dating since 2001. Remarkably they’ve kept their private lives away from prying eyes, despite Kournikova once being one of the most photographed women in the world.
Image source: EOnline.com
