Inside Madonna's tumultuous first marriage to actor Sean Penn as she celebrates birthday
Inside Madonna's tumultuous first marriage to actor Sean Penn as she celebrates birthday
Fran Winston & Hollie BealeSun, August 16, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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Madonna and Sean Penn are good friends these days. -Credit:Getty
Today marks both Madonna's 67th birthday and the 41st anniversary of her marriage to Sean Penn.
The former couple first crossed paths on the set of her Material Girl video back in January 1985, tying the knot just six months later on Madonna's 27th birthday, one day before Penn turned 25.
Before walking down the aisle, she gushed to People: "We have so much in common; he is almost like my brother. He's really smart, and he knows a lot... His temperament is also similar to mine."
The pair quickly earned themselves the notorious nickname the Poison Penns. In October 1985, Sean pleaded no contest to charges that he assaulted two journalists who attempted to photograph the couple in Nashville. He was fined $50 on each of the two misdemeanor charges of assault and battery, reports the Express.
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The following June, he faced further misdemeanor battery charges for attacking songwriter David Wolinski at Helena's nightclub in Los Angeles. Though he pleaded not guilty, he was handed a $1,000 fine and placed on one year's probation.
By April 1987, Penn had violated the terms of his probation after being arrested for punching an extra on the set of the movie Colors. He was subsequently sentenced to 60 days in jail for the assault and reckless driving in June 1987, ultimately serving 33 days behind bars.
That December, Madonna filed for divorce. "There was no one direct incident leading up to this. It was a series of cumulative pressures," her rep told People at the time.
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Sean Penn and Madonna were finally divorced in December 1989 -Credit:Getty
Throughout their marriage, the couple was persistently plagued by allegations that Sean had been abusive toward Madonna, but she definitively put those claims to rest in 2015.
However, she withdrew the papers two weeks later and they continued on until January 1989, when Madonna filed for divorce once more and this time saw it through.
Providing testimony on his behalf in a $10 million defamation case against the co-creator of the TV show Empire, her statement described Sean as "caring and compassionate" and directly addressed the longstanding rumors surrounding their marriage.
"I am aware of the allegations that have surfaced over the years accusing Sean of incidents of physical assault and abuse against me," she wrote.
Sean Penn and Madonna were married on her birthday in 1985 -Credit:Getty
"While we certainly had more than one heated argument during our marriage, Sean has never struck me, 'tied me up' or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely outrageous, malicious, reckless and false," she stated.
The former couple appears to remain on remarkably good terms to this day.
In 2016, Madonna publicly declared her affection for Sean at his annual Help Haiti Home gala.
"I want to say [to] Sean that I loved you from the moment that I laid eyes on you," she said on stage at the event. "And I still love you just the same."
For his part, Sean told Stephen Colbert, while appearing on The Late Show in 2018, that he still has lots of love for the pop star.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
