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Taliban says it will never hand over Bagram Air Base to US

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Former England rugby captain Lewis Moody reveals motor neurone disease diagnosis

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France’s prime minister resigns

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Entertainment

Nicolas Cage Divorced: His History of Marriage, Explained

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Nicolas Cage has been divorced and married multiple times during his lengthy career as an actor.

A couple of these marriages were … extremely brief.

Despite some bizarre red flags (beyond the timeline), Cage managed to remain friends with some of his exes.

Life is complicated. Especially so for Cage and his various ex-wives. Where do things stand today?

Nicolas Cage in March 2025.
Actor Nicolas Cage attends the premiere of “The Surfer” during the SXSW Conference & Festivals held at the Zach Theatre in Austin, Texas, March 10, 2025. (Photo Credit: SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images)

Before marrying, Nicolas Cage went on some pretty famous dates

Though Nicolas Cage has a dating history that goes back decades, his most famous girlfriend would have to be Brooke Shields.

The two dated in 1987. There was no formal announcement so much as a red carpet debut.

In 1988, Cage began dating Christina Fulton, also an actor.

Two years later, in 1990, they welcomed their son, Weston Coppola Cage.

Cage and Fulton never married, however. His first wife, however, is a well-known actress.

Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette in March of 1997.
Actor Nicolas Cage arrives at the 69th Academy Awards ceremony with his wife Patricia Arquette at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, 24 March, 1997. (Photo Credit: HECTOR MATA/AFP via Getty Images)

His first wife was Patricia Arquette (1995 – 2001)

According to Patricia Arquette, she was 18 years old when she first met Cage.

She told The Telegraph that Cage proposed to her on that very day.

Though they did get married, it was only a good nine years later. She was 27, and they reconnected.

In April of 1995, Cage and Arquette married.

The couple would end up spending time apart — mostly for work reasons, though occasionally due to disagreements. In 2001, Nicolas Cage and Patricia Arquette divorced.

Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley in August 2001.
Actor Nicolas Cage (L) arrives at the US premiere of his film “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” with his girlfriend Lisa Marie Presley (R), in Beverly Hills, CA, 13 August 2001. (Photo Credit: LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Nicolas Cage married and divorced Lisa Marie Presley (2002 – 2002)

Did you know that Nicolas Cage happens to be a huge Elvis fan? That’s a little relevant, here.

In August of 2002, he married Lisa Marie Presley.

Presley is a singer-songwriter. She also happens to be the daughter of Elvis Presley, of whom Cage was an outspoken fan.

If you’re thinking that being a big fan of someone’s controversial and late dad is not a guarantee of marital success, you’d be right.

Cage and Presley filed for divorce a mere 107 days after the wedding, in November 2002. They finalized their divorce in May 2004. Despite this, they remained friends until Lisa Marie Presley died in 2023.

Nicolas Cage and Alice Kim in July 2010.
Alice Kim and actor Nicolas Cage pose for a photo on the red carpet at the premiere of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” at the New Amsterdam Theatre on July 6, 2010. (Photo Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

His third wife was Alice Kim (2004 – 2016)

In July of 2004, Nicolas Cage and Alice Kim married. Theirs was yet another whirlwind romance.

Kim was working at a Los Angeles restaurant, and the two fell for each other right away. Like, right away.

They married in July 2004, a mere two months after meeting. Their marriage would last much longer than the courtship.

In 2005, Cage and Kim welcomed their son, whom they named Kal-El (that is Superman’s Kryptonian name. Cage is also a big Superman fan).

In January 2016, Nicolas Cage and Alice Kim divorced.

Nicolas Cage in May 2024.
Nicolas Cage attends “The Surfer” Photocall at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2024. (Photo Credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Blink-and-you-miss-it: his fourth wife, Erika Koike (2019 – 2019)

Cage’s fourth marriage was also his shortest. Which, considering the months that it took to go from nuptials to divorce court with Presley, is saying a lot.

In March of 2019, the actor married Erika Koike in Las Vegas. It took only four days for Cage to file for an annulment.

According to him, he was too intoxicated at the time of the marriage to fully understand what was happening.

Also, Koike allegedly did not disclose “the full nature and extent of her relationship with another person.”

As a result, Nicolas Cage never divorced Erika Koike. He didn’t have to. Three months later, he received an annulment.

Nicolas Cage and wife Riko Shibata in October 2024.
Riko Shibata and Nicolas Cage attend the 25th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival Honors & Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch at The Balboa Bay Club And Resort on October 20, 2024. (Photo Credit: Jerod Harris/Getty Images)

Wife #5 is Riko Shibata (2021 – ????)

On February 16, 2021, Nicolas Cage married Riko Shibata. Yes, that makes her his fifth wife.

These two had met through mutual friends. The engagement itself went down over Facetime.

In 2022, the year after their nuptials, they welcomed their daughter, August Francesca.

Cage admitted to The Los Angeles Times: “I know five is a lot, but I think I got it right this time.”

Well, they remain married to this day. Maybe he’s right.

Nicolas Cage Divorced: His History of Marriage, Explained was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.

​The Hollywood Gossip

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Politics

Hamas has run out of options – survival now rests on accepting Trump’s plan and political reform

Smoke billows following an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Oct. 2, 2025. Omar al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images

Weakened militarily and facing declining Palestinian support, particularly among Gazans, Hamas was already a shadow of the militant group it once was. And then came President Donald Trump’s peace plan.

On Oct. 3, 2025, Hamas said that it accepted some aspects of the 20-point proposal, including handing over administration of the Gaza Strip to a body of independent Palestinian technocrats and releasing all remaining Israeli hostages.

Those hostage are the last of the 252 taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack – an event that two years on looks to represent a high point, so to speak, of Hamas’ power. As an expert on Palestinian political attitudes, I believe the group now has few options to survive.

Like former resistance groups in past peace processes, it could renounce arms and transform itself into a purely political party. But to do so, it needs to overcome a series of hurdles: confronting other parts of Trump’s plan, its unpopularity at home and its rigid ideology being the three most prominent.

Campaign of assassination

It is worth taking stock of just how degraded Hamas has become as the result of two years of onslaught by Israel’s vastly superior military.

According to many intelligence reports, Hamas has lost most of its senior command in the Al-Qassam Brigades, its military wing. Izz al-Din al-Haddad, its current commander, survives, having presumably taken over from Mohammed Sinwar – the brother of Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of Oct. 7 attack – who was killed in May 2025. But he presides over a dwindling army.

President Trump may not have been exaggerating when he indicated on Truth Social on Oct. 3 that Hamas had lost 25,000 fighters. Estimates regarding the group’s losses vary, but it could represent more than half of the fighting force it had at the beginning of the war.

Hamas has succeeded in recruiting new fighters during that time. But many of these new recruits lack the competence and the experience of the dead ones. And the only motivations the new recruits have are hate and anger toward Israel.

Hamas’ political leadership has also been decimated. Chief political leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, Saleh al-Arouri and Yahya Sinwar, have all been killed.

people walk on street past large billboard depicting slain anti-israel leaders
Iranians walk past a billboard of the slain leaders of anti-Israeli groups, including former Hamas political chief Yahya Sinwar.
Mohammadali Najib/Middle East Images via AFP

And it could have been worse. Had the Israeli attack on Hamas’ political leadership in Doha, Qatar, succeeded in September 2025, it could have been a devastating loss for the movement. But the operation missed its primary targets there.

Falling support in Gaza

Palestinian public pressure on Hamas has risen as the miseries of war have mounted.

According to local heath officials, more than 67,000 have been killed, and more than 169,000 have been injured. Most of the Gaza Strip has been reduced to rubble, and more than 90% of the population has been displaced multiple times – with most Gazans now living in tents. International organizations have reported famine and starvation in some parts of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has lost its power and influence over many areas now under Israeli control. Israeli military and intelligence have encouraged some members of the local Palestinian clans and militia to offer services in militia-controlled areas.

In such areas, Hamas fighters have often clashed with other Palestinian groups, resulting in many deaths and growing resentment toward Hamas.

Hamas’ execution and torture of Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel has only worsened the situation, leading to chaos and lawlessness in many parts of Gaza.

It is little wonder, then, that half of Gazans in the latest poll of attitudes – taken in May 2025 – say they supported anti-Hamas demonstrations. Indeed support for the group in both Gaza and the West Bank have continued to decline as the war has progressed.

The push for peace

The ongoing war and the inhumane daily conditions that local Palestinians in Gaza are dealing with have led to exhaustion and fatigue among the public.

On social media, many Palestinians are asking Hamas publicly to endorse the Trump plan and put an end to their misery.

In deciding whether to accept all of the plan’s 20-points, Hamas will, from its perspective, have to weigh whether agreeing to a very bad outcome is better than the alternative. Trump has warned that a failure to get on board will cause Hamas to face “all hell.”

Hamas has already agreed to release all of the remaining Israeli hostages and to relinquish power in Gaza to a technocratic Palestinian committee. If endorsed in full, this would put an end to the war and see the gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and no expulsion of the Palestinians out of Gaza.

Egypt, Qatar and Turkey have been facilitating Hamas’ response to the plan. And there is huge regional and international pressure to get the deal over the line.

However it would force Hamas to disarm itself and allow the entry of an international and regional force into Gaza to oversee the destruction of military infrastructure, including tunnels, weapon manufacturing and the remaining rockets – points of the latest plan that Hamas appears more unwilling to accept.

What happens to the remaining Hamas fighters is a sticking point that might lead to the collapse of the whole plan.

And any rejection of the plan that can be blamed on Hamas will no doubt be welcomed by members of the Israeli extreme right. Hardline factions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have an alternative plan: to fully occupy Gaza, expel the Palestinians and reestablish Israeli settlements in Gaza.

Two men in suits stand with thumbs up gestures
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled peace plan at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025.
Win McNamee/Getty Images

Where next for Hamas?

Perhaps the most viable option for Hamas is to transform itself into a political party. But to do so, the group will need to reform not only its structures but also its ideology.

Political momentum is swinging back to a two-state solution. France and Saudi Arabia recently spearheaded a fresh push to that end at the United Nations, and a host of Western nations recognized Palestinian statehood for the first time. Hamas may feel the pressure to finally accept a two-state solution, something it has long resisted. For its part, Trump’s plan only makes vague assertions noting the Palestinian “aspiration” for a state.

If transforming into a purely political party is to be the fate of Hamas, it will need to play its cards shrewdly and swiftly. The Palestine Liberation Organization went through this process after their departure from Beirut in 1982, eventually putting politics and diplomacy over armed resistance. And Qatar, Turkey and Egypt can help Hamas moderate its stances, too.

The rigid ideology of Hamas remains a hurdle. Since it was formed in 1987, Hamas has tethered itself to a hardline Islamist ideology that does not allow fundamental compromises on issues such as recognition of Israel and the development of Palestine as a secular state.

But there is the recent example of Syria, where following the ouster of long-term dictator Bashar al-Assad, the main Islamist fighting group pivoted to politics, and was lauded in the international community for doing so.

Whether Hamas can succeed in such a transformation – should it attempt to – remains to be seen. And there is one final snag: Even if Hamas does accept the latest peace proposal, other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza might not – and could attempt to sabotage the whole process.

The Conversation

Mkhaimar Abusada is affiliated with, Member of the Board of Commissioners of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, Palestine

​Politics + Society – The Conversation