Biggest showbiz stories of 2025: From Coldplay’s KissCam to Katy Perry in space

The past 12 months have seen a slew of entertainment stories dominate the news agenda.

From divorces to deaths, and some more Strictly Come Dancing drama, here is a round-up of the most memorable news stories:

In the summer, a viral clip taken at a Coldplay concert led to the resignation of a high-powered chief executive who worked at a tech company based in New York.

Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, who both worked at Astronomer, were caught by surprise when the band’s frontman, Chris Martin, asked the cameras to scan the crowd during a concert at Massachusetts, Boston in July.

“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” Martin, 48, joked when the couple appeared on screen and quickly tried to hide their faces.

The clip, which was shared widely online, resulted in a stream of memes and parody videos and was even spoofed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Strictly Come Dancing.

Through the power of social media the couple were quickly identified and they both resigned from their roles.

Later on, in an unexpected move, Astronomer hired US actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was married to Martin for 13 years, as a spokeswoman.

“Astronomer has got a lot of questions over the last few days and they wanted me to answer the most common ones,” Paltrow said in a video where she avoided mention of the KissCam drama.

In April, pop star Katy Perry embarked on an 11-minute trip to space as part of a six-woman crew who boarded Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket for the New Shepard mission.

The 41-year-old sang Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World as she and the crew, also made up of CBS Mornings presenter Gayle King, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, astronaut Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and Bezos’s wife Lauren Sanchez, entered space.

A video of the crew was shared by Blue Origin on X showing the six women as they reached zero gravity and were able to float around the spacecraft before looking at the camera and saying in unison, “taking up space”.

Perry was also seen holding a daisy which she later held to the air after emerging from the spacecraft to honour her daughter Daisy, before kissing the ground. Bezos then congratulated her to which she replied: “Thank you.”

The Fireworks singer said: “I feel super connected to love, so connected to love.

“I think this experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are until the day you launch.”

The singer has also been in the headlines this year following her split from the Pirates Of The Caribbean actor Orlando Bloom, whom she shares her daughter with.

Since then Perry has been romantically linked with former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and posted a photo of them to Instagram earlier in the month.

Some two weeks on from Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert in Birmingham, the Black Sabbath frontman died of a reported heart attack at the age of 76.

The news of Osbourne’s death rocked the nation and fans arrived in their droves to Birmingham city centre on July 30 to pay their respects while a hearse carrying the singer made its way past Broad Street and to the Black Sabbath bench and bridge.

Osbourne’s family emerged from the cortege when it arrived at the bench and bridge which was bursting with floral tributes, balloons and messages from fans.

Each family member carried a pink rose, wrapped in black paper tied with a purple ribbon, which they laid on top of the many other floral tributes that sat next to a poster of the star, which said “Birmingham will always love you”.

Musicians from Bostin Brass played Black Sabbath songs to accompany the cortege, and fans threw flowers at the hearse while it slowly passed through the city.

The heavy metal singer was known for his theatrical stage presence, including once biting off the head of a bat, and styling himself as the Prince of Darkness, which marked him out as a controversial figure.

Lily Allen’s fifth studio album, West End Girl, immediately garnered attention in October for its catchy melodies and frank lyrics, which are said to detail the alleged infidelity of the singer’s ex-husband, US actor David Harbour.

The record, which was her first for seven years, contains a mix of “truth” and “fantasy”, according to Allen, whose 14-track album goes into explicit detail about the breakdown of a marriage that was “opened” after the “husband went astray”.

In an appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in December the singer, 40, was joined by US actress Dakota Johnson, who portrayed the titular enigmatic mistress from her track Madeline, appearing behind a curtain for most of the song.

The Fifty Shades Of Grey star also delivered the song’s spoken-word outro, explaining her side of the story via texts to Allen, saying: “He told me that you were aware this was going on and that he had your full consent.”

A year on from Strictly Come Dancing’s 20th anniversary, hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly announced they would be leaving their roles following this year’s Christmas special.

Daly, 56, had co-hosted alongside the late Sir Bruce Forsyth since the series launch in 2004, while Winkleman, 53, fronted its weekday companion show, It Takes Two.

Winkleman, who is also known for presenting The Traitors, eventually moved on to host the Sunday night results show alongside Daly and joined the main show every Saturday from 2014, after Sir Bruce stepped down.

The duo picked up the entertainment programme gong at the Bafta TV Awards in 2024 and were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours for their services to broadcasting.

Following the announcement, they both shared separate posts on their Instagram pages with a string of photographs.

Winkleman said: “It’s very difficult to put into words exactly what Strictly has meant to me. It’s been the greatest relationship of my career.”

Daly added: “Thank you for the laughter, the friendship and the countless memories over all these years. You’ve filled my heart in ways I’ll never forget. I’ll miss you all so much.”

At the start of the year Charli XCX brought Brat to the Brit Awards when she scooped five awards following the success of her alternative pop album, released in June 2024.

She later hit the headlines when she married her long-term partner and drummer of The 1975, George Daniel, and celebrated with family and friends in both Hackney and Italy.

In another romantic turn pop star Taylor Swift got engaged to her NFL boyfriend Travis Kelce and shortly afterwards released another chart-topping album, The Life Of A Showgirl.

There was also a number of high-profile divorces, with TV presenter Cat Deeley and The Late Late Show presenter Patrick Kielty among the couples announcing their separation.

A happier story came in the form of an unlikely relationship that blossomed on ITV’s reboot of Celebrity Big Brother.

US dancer JoJo Siwa and reality TV star Chris Hughes batted away rumours they were in a romantic relationship before eventually confirming them to be true in a social media post more than a month after their stint on the reality TV show.

Popular TV show Strictly hit headlines in 2024 amid allegations of bullying during rehearsals and the drama continued into 2025 when The Apprentice star Thomas Skinner admitted to cheating on his wife just weeks after their wedding in an interview with the Sun on Sunday, having previously apologised for picking up a journalist’s phone and walking out of a press event for Strictly midway through.

He also claimed that his elimination on Strictly was rigged and suggested that he was kicked off the show because he had met US vice president JD Vance.