They’ve both hinted at facing troubles in their marriage in their past. And last week, those troubles apparently reached boiling point, as it was revealed that Jessica Alba and Cash Warren were splitting after 16 years of marriage – and potentially heading for a messy divorce. The longstanding couple, who met on in 2004, have apparently insisted to friends that they want to keep the split as amicable as possible, and follow Gwyneth Paltrow’s example by “consciously uncoupling” before things get spiteful, especially for the sake of their three children, Honor, 16, Haven, 13, and Hayes, seven. However, with Jessica’s $100m fortune on the line – and no sign of a prenup in sight – friends are worried that old wounds between the pair will resurface, and the gloves may come off as they split the life they’ve built together.

“Jessica has been very candid about things not being perfect between her and Cash,” says an insider close to the actress, who was pictured without her wedding ring earlier this month at the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, and failed to wish her husband a happy birthday on social media last week, despite the pair posing together days earlier to celebrate their son Hayes’ birthday. “Right now, they’re both saying they want this to be a conscious uncoupling, and they want to maintain their friendship, but once it comes down to dividing everything up, that may get a lot tougher because she is worth at least twice what he is, so figuring out what is a fair way to divvy up things is bound to get messy, especially with lawyers involved. They were so young when they got married, and Jessica’s business, The Honest Company, which is how she made the lion’s share of her fortune, wasn’t even an idea yet, so the odds of a prenup being sufficient to cover all the points that will need to be considered is unlikely. It’s not going to be easy or quick.”

Jessica, 43, and Cash, 46, originally met while she was filming Fantastic Four, where he was working as a production assistant. They got married four years later in 2008, while she was pregnant with Honor. But while they’ve both been successful in their respective showbiz fields since then, it’s Jessica’s entrepreneurial skills that have elevated her to the upper tier of Hollywood’s rich list. In 2011, she founded her natural baby products brand The Honest Company, overseeing the company’s expansion for 12 years as Chief Creative Officer, before finally stepping down last April, explaining at the time that she wanted to leave the business “in a good place”. She still serves as an advisor on the board, and is now worth over $100m as a result of her former leadership of the company. As for Cash, he’s believed to have a fortune of around $50m himself, but the fact that Jessica founded The Honest Company while they were married has led experts to speculate that he could be eligible for a big payday once they divorce, possibly amounting to $2m per year. Friends and family are hoping they keep things as simple and cordial as possible, but with a lot money on the line and assets to split, the concern is this could be a messy road ahead.

“Ultimately, it’s going to depend on whether Cash is willing to accept Jessica’s terms,” says our source. “She’s the one that’s earned most of the money, so she’s not going to want to just hand over a blank check, so to speak. One saving grace is that they’re both on the same page when it comes to the kids, so there won’t be some ugly custody battle to worry about. Still, it’s a very painful situation all around because they’re breaking up their family and saying goodbye to life as they know it. That’s a big part of why they stuck this out for so long – they didn’t want to put the kids through it.”

While 16 years is a long time to be married in Hollywood, it seems the writing has been on the wall for a while. In 2023, Cash admitted to struggling with Jessica’s success in the early stages of their relationship, and said that jealousy had got the better of him. “When we first started dating, I was really jealous of other guys and the attention she was getting from other guys, and it just wasn’t making me feel good,” he said while appearing on the Whine Down With Jana Kramer podcast. “I was always a pretty confident person, and next thing you know, I’m looking up and just feeling jealous all the time…I was turning into an asshole, and so, we broke up. And during that time apart, I was just, like, if we ever got back together — I, like, made a promise to myself to channel that in a different way, into a more productive way.”

The film producer has also been reported to have had a wondering eye in the past – and was even rumoured to have kissed Lindsay Lohan early on in his and Jessica’s marriage, though the latter later rubbished the story as “ridiculous” gossip. Jessica, for her part, has also spoken publicly on the challenges of marriage, saying recently that the pair had become more like “roommates” over the years, and that their relationship had ultimately been neglected.

“I would say it’s all rosy for two-and-a-half years, but then after that, you become roommates,” Jessica told Katherine Schwarzenegger on the BDA Baby podcast last April. “You’re just going through the motions, the responsibilities…We used to do every Wednesday – date night. No phones, just us, talking. But then that stopped for whatever reason, and we just weren’t. We have, obviously, the friendship, the comfort of like, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’ And sometimes you don’t treat those people the best. You don’t consider their feelings in the way you would consider other people’s feelings. That’s something that I think is a constant thing to work on.”

Now, as the pair face the reality of dividing the life they share together, friends are hoping they keep that friendship in mind – for the sake of everyone involved.