“My Wife Is Not The Woman I Used To Know. She Let The Fame Get To Her”

"Money and success don't change people. They merely amplify what is already there," Will Smith, the slappy actor of The Pursuit of Happiness, once said. And while Smith's resistance to an overly opulent lifestyle is impressive, even admirable, there are unfortunately countless stories where fame consumes people entirely, turning people most dear to us into unrecognizable, Gucci-obsessed ghouls.

Which is the exact case of u/PassengerTraining913, who recently dumped it off his chest what a painful transformation he had to endure of his wife, dazzled by career highs and a lifestyle that once seemed only possible in movies. Not recognizing the person he fell in love with in the first place, the author shared what it's like to see your soulmate drift farther and farther away from you, one extravagant step at a time.

Fame is a dangerous drug. Whether from the flash of a camera or the thrill of endless Instagram likes, it can either help a person reach their full potential or ruin them entirely. In some cases, it does both, leaving celebrities mourning for the simple life their former selves used to lead. Billie Eilish, one of the highest-paid pop singers of her age, said that fame is "trash." Kristen Stewart described fame as ​“the worst thing in the world”. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, although desperate for fame, as his wife Courtney Love claimed, had lost everything in pursuit of it, including his life and marriage.

As fame has always held allure for many, the quest for celebrity status has become intertwined with our lives, especially with the advent of social media, which keeps us fixated on well-known personas. A study conducted in 2012 discovered a strong association between the desire for fame and expressing a wish for social acknowledgment, financial prosperity, an appealing appearance, and a desire to participate in reality television. A 2013 survey revealed that individuals may aspire to attain fame in order to be recognized and appreciated, even by unknown individuals, to enjoy a prestigious and high-ranking lifestyle, or to have the ability to positively impact others as a role model.

One of the more well-known examples of how notoriety can ruin beautiful relationships is documented by Jane Hawking, the first wife of Stephen Hawking, the iconic scientist, who she divorced in 1990 after 25 years together. “[We] were engulfed and then swept away by a wave of fame and fortune. It got rather too much for me to cope with,” she is known to have said. Even Hawking admitted that his newfound fame did not do any good in his first marriage.