8 Celebs Who Admit Their Relationships Were For Publicity

Find out the truth about these romances…

Back in 2019, rumors surfaced that Rachel Bilson and former Bachelor star Nick Viall were dating. They were spotted out to dinner with friends and even left flirty comments for each other on Instagram. But it turns out that the whole thing was a stunt as the pair were planning to start a Bachelor podcast together. When Rachel decided not to go through with it, they ended their fake romance. 

“No, Nick and I never dated. We were messing around, not with each other, but with the internet…it was literally to get attention for the podcast,” Rachel later shared on Nick’s podcast, The Viall Files, while he added that they were “trolling” everyone.

Nick Lachey may have believed his short-lived romance with Kim Kardashian was real, but it sounds like she had other ideas. According to Nick, the pair went on a date to the movies together — and by the time they left, paparazzi were outside waiting for them. 

“We went on one date…We went and saw Da Vinci Code together. She left about halfway through and went to the restroom and then shockingly there were 25 paparazzi when we left the theater. I think there were other things in play on our little rendezvous…Couldn’t be a nicer girl, had a great time, but no we don’t keep in touch anymore,” Nick said on Watch What Happens Live.

In the early 2000s, when Rihanna was just a rising star, rumors swirled that she was dating her mentor Jay-Z, who signed her to his record label. The story made headlines and may have even caused trouble in Jay-Z’s relationship with Beyoncé — but Rihanna’s former publicist Jonathan Hay says it was all a PR stunt to promote her song “Pon de Replay.” He now admits he was “young and stupid” at the time for making up the relationship. 

“It was all a publicity stunt…I was desperate at the time because I wanted to have a hit record,” he told Inside Edition. 

Long before Nicole Richie was married with children, she was at the center of dating rumors with Steve-O from Jackass — but it turns out it was all a ruse. Nicole had just broken off an engagement and the media was super focused on her appearance so she decided to do something wild that the public would focus on.  

“The truth is, what she wanted, was to get some media coverage that wasn’t about her being fucking skinny,” Steve-O later said on The Howard Stern Show. “It was a ridiculous publicity stunt…‘[I’ll] run around with f–king Steve-O, and they won’t be talking about how skinny I am. They’ll say I’ve lost my goddamn mind.’”

Nicole Richie was also linked to Brody Jenner for a time, but she says that he was just looking for publicity. After a few months of dating, Nicole took to MySpace to share that it wasn’t ever a full-fledged relationship. Brody’s then-manager, Spencer Pratt, later claimed that it was all a scheme to make Brody more famous. 

“The truth is, we were never really together. We hung out, and he’s a nice guy, but my heart was never in it. Anything further is just a cry for publicity,” Nicole wrote on the platform. 

Brody Jenner was in a PR relationship more than once in the early 2000s. Back when he was appearing on The Hills, Brody allegedly dated Lauren Conrad, but years later it was revealed that much of what happened on the MTV show was fabricated. 

“We never actually dated. In the beginning, we had a little kind of chemistry, and we hung out, and I think it played pretty well on screen. I think that they, the producers, really wanted us to keep that going, even though we just wanted to be friends,” Brody told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. 

He continued, “But she’s great. We had a great time. It was so easy to work with her. It was so easy to film scenes with her and do stuff and act like we were [together], because we really did enjoy each other’s company. We really liked each other, just not in that romantic way.”

DJ Khaled and Nicki Minaj may not have ever dated, but back in 2013, they almost got engaged as part of a publicity stunt. In a video for MTV News, DJ Khaled publicly proposed to Nicki, sharing that he wanted to marry her. Nicki later revealed it was a stunt to promote his song “Take It to The Head,” on which she was featured. 

“Khaled is my brother, and Khaled was not serious with that damn proposal, y’all. Please let it go. He was kidding. He’s not attracted to me, he doesn’t like me. We’re brother and sister,” Nicki said on Hot 97’s Funkmaster Flex. 

She continued, “I was shocked just like the rest of the world. I was cracking up laughing with the rest of the world ’cause Khaled is a master at what he does…It was just another way for him to kinda give the world a glimpse on the feeling of this record. Nobody in my real life took it seriously. Everybody just hit me like, ‘LOL. Yo, Khaled is crazy.’”

In 2016, Tara Reid appeared on Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars with Dean May where fans watched as they worked through relationship issues. It turns out that the pair weren’t actually in a relationship, and Tara had only agreed to do the show because Dean owed money in taxes and she was trying to help him out. Meanwhile, Dean says that wasn’t the case. 

“He owes money in taxes, and he could use the money, and he wouldn’t mind the fame. So I wound up doing the show for him, so he could get out of trouble,” Tara said in a confessional. 

Dean later added that he had a real girlfriend, saying, “She told me she did the show because I needed the money. That’s the most bullshit thing in the whole world. I did the show as a favor to her.”