Yes, Hot People Get Cheated On, Too

Though Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly were once touted as the It couple, it appears that things may be over for the two. And let's just say, the 36-year-old actress isn't holding back about the reason they allegedly split.

In a since-deleted Instagram post, Fox used some rather suggestive lyrics from Beyoncé's "Lemonade" album to caption a series of photos and video. She wrote, "You can taste the dishonesty. It's all over your breath," making many people think Fox cheated on her. She also unfollowed the singer and deleted all their Instagram photos together.

Of course, this has sparked major controversy on the internet. One Twitter user wrote, "MGK cheating on MEGAN FOX is absolutely insane levels of audacity." Another commented and said, "He fumbled the only good thing in his life."

If this sort of response to a "hot girl" being cheated on sounds familiar, that's because it is. When the world found out that soccer player Gerard Piqué had allegedly cheated on Shakira earlier this year, one TikTok content creator posted a video of Shakira dancing with the text, "I think Piqué just didn't know how to do with all that."

The same thing happened when news broke that Adam Levine had allegedly cheated on his wife, Behati Prinsloo in September 2022. One Twitter user wrote: "Adam Levine was dating a VS MODEL BRO. AND HE CHEATED ON HER." Another said, "BEHATI WAS DOING CHARITY WORK MARRING ADAM LEVINE."

Many people just couldn't comprehend how or why this would ever happen to Hollywood's "hot women" — not just because of their attractiveness, but also because of their success and the pedestal we, as a culture, have put them on. But honestly, it's pretty common. Think about Emily Ratajowski and Beyoncé — both "hot girls" who were allegedly cheated on by their partners.

And this situation isn't exclusive to celebs either. (Raise your hand if you've ever been cheated on and the first thing people tell you is some sort of iteration of, "You're too hot for them, anyway!")

So the question of the hour is: how can a person — and men, especially — cheat on someone many people consider to be of top-tier attractiveness? And why do we find it so shocking and discomforting when that happens?

Really, the reason people cheat often has less to do with the other partner and a lot more to do with the cheater's unresolved emotional issues, relationship expert Nicole Moore tells POPSUGAR. For example, someone may fear that if they make themselves "fully vulnerable" to their partner by truly committing and handing their heart over, their partner will use that control to hurt them in some way, Moore explains. "Without the space to properly face and handle these deep intimacy fears," Moore says, many people will "resort to protection mechanisms to distance themselves from the relationship, such as cheating."

In other cases, someone may cheat because they simply don't know how to communicate what their needs are and which of those aren't being met, she adds, and "instead of going deeper in intimacy with [their] partner and finding a way to come closer via communication, [they attempt] to feel better through someone else."

And if you really want to dig into the way perceived attractiveness affects the situation? Well, if someone is dating someone they feel is "out of their league," it could be because they "don't feel good enough about themselves [and] will sabotage a good relationship because they don't feel that they're worth it," licensed counselor Jason Fierstein explains to POPSUGAR. In other words, they're likely insecure.

In the end, Moore says cheating is never about the attractiveness of either person involved. "If a partner has cheating tendencies, their behavior has nothing to do with the attractiveness of their partner and everything to do with their own wounding within," she says. (Thanks to toxic masculinity and the way gender norms play out in our culture, many men don't feel comfortable or have the ability to express vulnerability or their emotions in the first place.)

That said, it's problematic to assume someone would or wouldn't get cheated on based on their appearance alone, Moore says. (Yes, this even includes Victoria's Secret models, global pop stars, and star-studded actresses.) While "attractiveness does attract people initially, it's not enough to stave off someone else's desire to cheat." It also plays into the idea that a more attractive person is less deserving of being cheated on and vice versa. Thinking this way perpetuates a harmful narrative that you are only capable of finding real, genuine love if you look the way societal norms want you to — and that's just not the truth.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that those norms have already influenced the way we think and react to news of infidelity. "Since we're bombarded with advertising, cultural, and media messages that tell us the secret to landing a mate is to be more attractive, we're collectively shocked when an attractive woman gets cheated on," Moore says. "We feel like attractiveness should be enough to keep a mate because we've been told that it is [enough] practically since birth."

This explains the bewilderment that happens when people like Piqué or Levine or Kelly are able to (allegedly) cheat on their partners. But the reality is, it's impossible to know what's going on in a relationship from the outside, so we really can't judge the situation from attractiveness alone (or anything else for that matter).

And as far as Prinsloo goes, she will be loved — with or without Levine — as will Shakira and Fox.