Kate Gosselin

May
In the Headlines

Weeks before their fifth-season premiere, reports surface linking Jon to 23-year-old Deanna Hummel. Although he says, “I did not cheat on Kate,” Jon does admit to showing “poor judgment.” But the public scandal rocks Kate’s world. “I don’t know that we’re in the same place anymore, that we want the same thing,” she says in her first PEOPLE cover story.

Kate Gosselin

June 22
Kate Plus 8

The Gosselins file for divorce. “Jon’s activities have left me no choice but to file legal procedures in order to protect myself and our children,” Kate says in a statement. The mom of eight adds in a telling PEOPLE interview, “I’ve never quit anything in my life. It feels like I’ve failed.” Weeks later, Jon moves on romantically and is eventually dropped from the show, which undergoes a name change, Kate Plus 8.

Kristen Stewart

August 21
The Saga Continues

Stewart lands her third EW cover, this time with her New Moon bestie-turned-crush Taylor Lautner. With darker and more complex plotlines, the second installment of the Twilight series proves to be a challenge for Stewart, who admits she often felt “overwhelmed” on set. “Before the [pivotal breakup scene], I was sitting in my car, like f—ing crying,” she tells the magazine. “Crying so hard you can’t breath.” Off-screen, reports swirl that Stewart and Pattinson are involved in a real-life romance.

Ashlee Simpson-Wentz

November 20
It’s a Boy Named Bronx!

Simpson-Wentz and Wentz welcome son Bronx Mowgli to the family. The newborn weighs in at 7lbs., 11 oz., and was 20 ½ inches long. Just days earlier Jessica gabbed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that her sister may have to induce labor. “I think she’s really just jumping around trying everything right now,” Jessica told Ellen.
2009

Ashlee Simpson-Wentz

September 08
No Shrinking Violet

Simpson-Wentz becomes the latest tenant of Melrose Place when she joins the CW’s rebooted franchise as new girl Violet Foster. “She comes off a bit innocent, but I think that as she starts to build, you see she’s a little manipulative,” the star dishes to PEOPLE.

Jessica Simpson

Spring
‘Can You Feel’ The Love?

“I love this guy,” Simpson tells Glamour. “Can you feel it?” The guy in question is Romo, her steady since Thanksgiving. Simpson, who recently fed the QB cake at his birthday bash and danced with him at her sister’s wedding, says, “What he’s done for me is irreplaceable. He reintroduced me to myself.” In 2009, Romo breaks up with Simpson the night before her 29th birthday.

Jessica Simpson

May 28
Country Music’s Next Blonde

Simpson returns to music with a new single, “Come On Over,” off of her country album, Do You Know. When the LP debuts in September, it hits No. 4 on the Billboard album chart, selling 65,000 copies. “She’s a singer from top to bottom,” Simpson’s father tells PEOPLE. “And everything in the music business, especially pop music, has moved away from singers. And I think country is the only pure, storytelling kind of genre left.”