Imagine being among the most popular celebrities in the world. All of your fans admire you and want to follow your every move. You're involved with a project which resonates with millions of people, and your performance in the project means more to people than you could possibly understand, and then before you know it, your life is suddenly changed forever. You live through an experience impacting you in ways no one around you could possibly understand. Suddenly, your massive amount of fame doesn't matter anymore.
The sudden change in your life, which happened in a blink of an eye, takes precedent as the most important event on your personal radar. The saddest aspect of the situation? Your fans have no idea how much sadness is happening behind-the-scenes. All of a sudden, fame can have no meaning to you.
The sad description above may ring true to both Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey. Both actors were massive stars during a point in time in the mid-1980s, both experiencing a massive amount of fame after they starred together in a film that would go on to be one of the most popular films of the era, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. On top of the future classic the duo had just completed, they would both go on to have success separately in respective box-office hits; Grey was on the cusp of the release of her film Dirty Dancing, which would go on to be one of the most successful films of all-time. In 1987, though, both Broderick and Grey, who were also romantically involved at the time, experienced an incident that would impact them personally to an immeasurable level, while trying very hard to keep the incident quiet and out of the spotlight.
Fame Comes To A Crashing Halt
If the feelings of elation caused by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and a massive amount of fame are to be believed, Jennifer Grey and Matthew Broderick should have been on top of the world. The couple was in the prime of their fame, and they had found love on the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. What more could they ask for? Whatever their answer could have been, it suddenly took a backseat when the duo suddenly found themselves in a situation that would go on to affect them for the rest of their lives.
The former couple was taking some much-needed time off from their busy schedules, choosing to go on vacation to a top-secret location, away from the spotlight. They chose Northern Ireland for their getaway and were banking on some rest and relaxation when they got sidetracked while Broderick was behind the wheel. According to Mamamia.com, the couple was "80 miles west of Belfast," and "Less than a mile" from the gas station they had just left, the couple suddenly found themselves in a sudden car crash, driven by a woman one year older than Grey at the time, with her mother in the passenger's seat.
The Tricky Aftermath
The next few moments would have a lasting impact not only on Broderick and Grey's lives but would also impact their respective careers forever. The couple was suddenly faced with the reality of the sudden death of both passengers in the car Broderick had hit. According to Mamamia, Broderick's injuries had been worse than his fiancee's, he had "Suffered a badly broken leg" while Grey "Obtained superficial bruising" from the collusion.
While the couple never made an official statement about their breakup or gave any specific reasons as to why the couple broke their engagement, it is incredibly obvious that the aftermath of the accident had a lasting impact on both Grey and Broderick. Both parties have been vocal in the years following the accident after they parted ways for good in 1988.
Coming to terms with the aftermath in Broderick's case took many years, and was quite a public affair. According to The New York Post, Broderick finally met with the family of the deceased in 2002, nearly twenty years after the accident. At the time, he had "No ill will- not any sort of anger," giving the reason for the exchange as "The family seeking some sort of closure" regarding the incident.
Grey took a much more private approach to come to terms with what had happened; Coming to a point of peace over the car crash was made harder by the fact she suddenly found herself in the middle of the promotion and sudden mania inspired by the upcoming release of her famous film, Dirty Dancing. She did not speak about the situation publicly until many years after the fact.
According to People Magazine, Grey believed "The juxtaposition of that deep sorrow, the survivor’s guilt, and then being celebrated as the new big thing just didn’t jibe. It didn’t feel good to be the toast of the town." She also experienced great physical pain from the accident and had to undergo a period of recovery.
While Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey were two of the most famous celebrities of the Eighties and both experienced a period of great success, the immense sadness the duo faced behind-the-scenes in the wake of their life-changing experience. Sometimes, a difficult situation gone untold can lift the veil of the so-called lense of celebrities, and what they can experience at the peak of their fame, a period of time many of us believe to be perfect and an experience beyond reality, this glimpse of reality showing celebrities are really just like us, going through collective and extremely humanizing experiences.