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IThe Gallagher brothers’ strained brotherly relationship has been thoroughly documented over the past three decades. But Liam and Noel’s romantic life has been equally turbulent, plagued by costly splits, reports of infidelity and estrangement, and song dedications that were later taken down. And after news broke that Oasis would embark on a reunion tour in 2025, seemingly ending a 15-year feud, cynics inevitably began to wonder: could a large divorce bill have provided an incentive for the band to get back together?
When Liam hooked up with actress Patsy Kensit at the height of Oasis's Britpop fame, the pair soon became the tabloids' hottest couple. They met in late 1995, when Kensit was filming in Manchester; the next day, according to Liam's version of events, he told friends: “Patsy, bloody hell Kensit! I've got her number. She's crazy about him!” Kensit, meanwhile, seemed to be wrapped up in the rock and roll of the whole affair. “Silly me,” she would later recall. “I thought it was Marianne Faithfull.” The couple were part of the infamous Primrose Hill clique, a group of British celebrities known for living it up in North London, including Kate Moss, Sadie Frost and Jude Law, along with Noel and his girlfriend Meg Mathews (she worked in music PR and had met the musician when he was dating her flatmate, “which made it all a bit difficult”, as she would later say. The Guardian).
Supernova Heights, Noel and Meg’s home in Belsize Park, became a notorious party spot. “A lot of stuff happened there,” Mathews recalled in an interview in 2008. “I can still see one of the Charlatans breaking his leg falling down the floating limestone staircase.” But Patsy and Liam’s status as king and queen of Cool Britannia seemed to be confirmed when they appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair in February 1997, lying on a Union Jack-print bedspread. Perhaps inevitably, though, one person didn't think the pair looked particularly “cool” – and that person was Noel. “Liam looked like a complete idiot with a nipple on his head, he looked like a f***ing baby bottle with his f***ing wife on a Union Jack bed, topless,” he said in 2020.
A few months later, Patsy and Liam were married at London’s Marylebone Town Hall (was it influenced by the fact that both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who make up one half of Liam’s all-time favourite band, had previously tied the knot at the historic venue?). However, the relationship was tumultuous, blighted by several temporary separations and rumours of Liam’s infidelity. It later emerged that he had fathered a child whilst on tour with Lisa Moorish, who had been in an on-off relationship with the singer before he met Kensit; their daughter Molly was born in 1998, and she would meet Liam for the first time 20 years later. After one particularly explosive row, Kensit was photographed kicking his BMW in anger.
Kensit, then an actor, had credits that included Lethal Weapon 2She even claimed that she turned down the role of Ross's British wife, Emily, in Friends to save the relationship, as she feared that filming would have put even more strain on the marriage.”Friends “It was an offer I couldn’t pass up,” she said. “But I couldn’t commit. I knew I needed to be home if I wanted my relationship with Liam to survive. It was already a struggle to keep things in order with his touring schedule. I was madly in love and chose my marriage over work.” The couple welcomed a son, Lennon, named after Liam’s musical hero, in 1999, but less than a year later, Kensit announced their separation.
Noel’s relationship with Mathews ended up following a similar timeline. They married in Las Vegas in the summer of 1997, sold Supernova Heights in 1999 to settle in the countryside, and then had a daughter, Anais, in 2000. But later that year, the couple confirmed their split. Noel was soon linked to publicist Sara MacDonald, whom he had met at an Ibiza club (although he denied there had been any overlap between the two relationships). Mathews, for his part, said he suffered from “terrible PTSD” after the breakup was exposed in the tabloids. And while Noel once claimed Mathews had been the inspiration behind “Wonderwall,” he later changed his mind. “How do you tell your wife it’s not about her once she’s read that it is?” he said. “It’s a song about an imaginary friend who will come and save you from yourself.”
In 2002, Liam claimed that this series of divorces made the brothers get along better. “It wasn't just those two [Kensit and Mathews]“It was his audience,” he complained. But the Gallaghers being the Gallaghers, this impasse would not last long. Shortly after his split from Kensit, Liam took up with All Saints singer Nicole Appleton; their son, Gene, was born in 2001. When they finally married on Valentine’s Day in 2008, media reports resorted to clichés about Appleton having “tamed” the singer.
However, the following year, Oasis broke up after an epic fight broke out between Liam and Noel backstage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris, in which the younger brother reportedly wielded his older brother's guitar “like an axe.” After that, it was safe to say that Liam did not top the guest list when Noel married Sara MacDonald in 2011 (by that time, the couple were already parents to two sons, Donovan, born in 2007, and Sonny, born in 2010). Russell Brand was Noel's best man at the ceremony in the New Forest.
In 2013, matters became even more complicated for Liam when it emerged that he had been having an affair with American journalist Liza Ghorbani, with whom he had a daughter, Gemma. He broke the news to Appleton over the phone shortly before the story broke, while she was on holiday. Their subsequent divorce was lengthy and very expensive, resulting in legal fees of over £800,000, an amount described by Judge Martin O'Dwyer as “manifestly excessive”. Since the split, Liam has been in a relationship with his current fiancée, Debbie Gwyther, who was previously his personal assistant.
Meanwhile, the fact that Oasis had seemingly split up for good didn't stop Liam from publicly criticising his brother and his wife. He had reportedly never seen eye to eye with MacDonald, but in 2018 relations between the two sides of the family seemed to hit a new low, with Liam claiming in an interview that he “didn't care” whether Noel, MacDonald or “his f***ing son” were together. [Anais]” were mocked on social media. The quotes led to MacDonald labelling him a “fucking deplorable”, which only seemed to spark further backlash from Liam. “She’s the reason Oasis doesn’t exist anymore,” he wrote on Twitter/X, in just one of many not-so-veiled jibes.
In 2023, Noel and MacDonald revealed they were splitting after 22 years together. “I know a lot of people who are in the same situation as me and Sara,” Noel explained in an interview. “Especially after the pandemic. It’s not uncommon for people who have been in long-term relationships to go their separate ways in their fifties.” Since then, reports have claimed MacDonald received around £20m in the divorce, as well as the couple’s £8m home. It wasn’t hard to detect more than a hint of bitterness when Noel discussed the split during an appearance on Matt Morgan’s podcast earlier this year, joking about cycling past his former home. “I can get on the bike […] and go up to the canal outside my wonderful ex-wife's house and give her a little wave and say, 'You didn't take this from me!'” he told Morgan.
Could a rumoured £50m payout have sweetened the deal for Oasis to reunite after that costly split? Who can say. But if the Gallaghers do decide to write new songs before their comeback, they will no doubt have plenty of material to work with.
