celebrity

After Brooke Shields appeared in Friends, her husband Andre Agassi smashed all his trophies.

When it comes to celebrity couples from the '90s, you don't get much more iconic than Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi. 

Before Shields met her current husband and director Chris Henchy and Agassi met his match in future wife and tennis legend Steffi Graf, the two met in 1993 and were married from 1997 to 1999.

But away from the glamourous red carpets and tennis tournaments, their short marriage was far removed from a Hollywood love story. In a clip from The Blue Lagoon star's documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields that's resurfaced on TikTok, Shields described a moment from their marriage where she claims the tennis star threw a jealous tantrum on the set of Friends.

During her relationship with Agassi in 1996, Shields had a memorable guest stint on Friends, playing a deranged superfan of Matt LeBlanc's character, Joey, an actor on Days of Our Lives. In one scene, Shields licks and kisses Joey's hands — an act she claims triggered an explosive reaction from Agassi.

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Shields first detailed the moment in her 2014 memoir, There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me, sharing that after she filmed the scene, Agassi went home and smashed his tennis trophies in a jealous rage.

She further reflected on the moment last year. 

"It was petulant behavior," Shields told The New Yorker in March 2023.

"It co-opted it for me emotionally, because all of a sudden then my focus went to him."

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Shields described what happened in the scene. "I'm supposed to lick Joey's fingers, because they're the hands of a genius, and I want to devour them, and I'm a nut," she explained. "He was cute — he was, like, 'I've washed my hands and they're all clean.' I was, like, 'I had a mint!'"

Shields said that after she licked LeBlanc's fingers, Agassi "stormed out" of the studio. 

"He said, 'Everybody's making fun of me. You made a fool of me by that behaviour.' I'm, like, 'It's comedy! What is the matter with you?'" Shields said. Agassi then went home and "smashed all his trophies', she claimed. "Who wins for that? That's just — don't!" Shields said.

Despite Agassi's response, Shields attributes her hilarious Friends cameo as the reason she secured a starring role in the '90s comedy sitcom Suddenly Susan, as it showed off her comedic chops, especially the maniacal cackle she delivers in the scene.

"What was so affirming about it was that, in the first take, they didn't want me to do the crazy laugh and the licking of his fingers... they said, 'It's too crazy. Don't do it,'" she remembered.

"The next day, I was asked if I wanted to do my own television show."

Shields added that when the incident happened with Agassi, she claims he was under the influence of amphetamines at the time. "I learned later that he was addicted to crystal meth at that point, so that irrational behavior I'm sure had something to do with that," she told the NYT.

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Andre Agassi and Brooke Shields in 1996. Image: Getty. 

In Agassi's 2009 autobiography Open, he spoke about his crystal meth addiction after being introduced to the drug in 1997. 

In Shields' memoir, she wrote about when she first found out he had been hiding his addiction.

"He explained to me that for the first whole part of our relationship, he had been addicted to crystal meth," she wrote. 

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"I was the one who had supported him unconditionally when he told me (after we started dating) that he was basically bald and had been wearing hairpieces most of his adult life. Why would this have been any different? I would have been his biggest advocate and supporter."

In the book, Shields described their marriage as "a mistake" and admitted they didn't see each other much after their nuptials. "It hit me all of a sudden — I knew I had made a mistake. For the next two years, we saw very little of each other. I was working on my show Suddenly Susan, and he was playing at various tournaments," she wrote.

"He alienated me when he lost and was on to the next tournament after he won. We were drifting apart."

In a TV segment on the TODAY show in 2013, Shields claimed his final words to her were: "Be happy that we don't have children or I would not have made this easy for you."

Shields went on to have two children with her husband of more than 20 years — daughters Rowan and Grier.

In her 2023 documentary, the actress revealed she hasn't spoken to Agassi since their marriage ended. 

"I've never reconnected with him," she said, but added, "That was an important stage and relationship in my life and I don't regret it."

Feature image: NBC/Getty.

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