Nicolas Cage’s Turbulent Romantic History — His Shortest Marriage Lasted Only 4 Days

Mar 07, 2022

Nicolas Cage is an American actor and filmmaker. Cage was born Nicolas Kim Coppola on January 7, 1964, in Long Beach, California, and is a member of the famous Coppola family. His father was August Coppola, who is the brother of director Francis Ford Coppola. Cage didn’t appreciate the assumptions that came with his last name, especially while trying to find work in the entertainment industry, so he decided to go by Cage professionally instead. 

Cage is the winner of an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe Award for his acting talent. He is known for such films as “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Adaptation,” “Con Air” and the “National Treasure” franchise. The star has gained a cult following from appearing in such a wide variety of genres. He is considered a prolific actor for appearing in so many films. 

In his personal life, Cage has gone through five marriages, some of which were quite turbulent. It is common in Hollywood that relationships don't always last long and that stars have more than two or three marriages. Cage has even had one marriage that lasted only four days! 

His current marriage to Riko Shibata came with the happy news that he is expecting his first child with her. The announcement, which came on January 6, 2022, just one day before Cage's 58th birthday, and it is a truly happy one for the couple. 

Cage has been through a lot in his romantic relationships to get to where he is today, and we explore his five marriages below. 

In 1995, the actress Patricia Arquette proposed to Cage “dressed head to toe in black vinyl, carrying a big purple wedding cake.” Despite the clear passion in that relationship, the off-and-on couple divorced after six years in 2001. There are rumors that the couple split just nine months after marriage, only to officially divorce years later. But Arquette has denied those claims.

“There were times when we weren’t living together because we were fighting, but it wasn’t as reported and I didn’t feel that I needed to explain that,” Arquette told The Telegraph in 2015. “There were times when my mom was dying (from breast cancer in 1997) and I was living with her, taking care of her. There were times when he was away working on a movie.”

It didn’t take long for Cage to tie the knot again — this time marrying Lisa Marie Presley. But again, the relationship was short-lived, as the couple divorced two years later in 2004.

Cage has spoken openly about this first marriages, though he told The Guardian that he doesn’t think his first two marriages “belong on (his) record.”

“I think I felt a connection there (with Lisa), an understanding of the pressure of having a famous name. One of the things Lisa loved about me was that I changed my name — she thought that was the coolest thing. But I don’t really count those two marriages, I don’t think they belong on my record. The real marriage for me was the 14 years I had with Alice and the child we have together,” he told The Guardian.

Cage was referring to his third marriage to Alice Kim, which lasted between 2004 and 2016, the star’s longest marriage to date. According to The Guardian, Cage met Alice, who was working as a waitress, when she was 19 and he was 39. They share one son, Kal-El, who was born in 2005. 

Speaking about the marriage, he said, "I made a very clear decision to marry out of my own zip code. I mean, way out of my own zip code. I married into another culture, and it's interesting because in Korea they call me the Son-in-Law."

The couple separated in 2016, however, to which Cage said, "It was a shocker for me – I definitely didn’t see it coming..." He also said that he wanted to remain friends with Kim after their split and added, "She was quite young when I married her and I don’t really have any ill will towards what happened. That’s all I’ll say." 

Hollywood stars are known for their short lived marriages, and Cage has joined this exclusive group by having a marriage that reportedly lasted only 4 days with Erika Koike in 2019. PEOPLE reported that Koike is a makeup artist and that she and Cage dated for a year before tying the knot in Las Vegas. 

However, he filed for an annulment in 4 days, and claimed that both of them were intoxicated and he "lacked understanding of his actions in marrying [Koike] to the extent that he was incapable of agreeing to the marriage."

He also added that the marriage needed to be annulled because Koike didn’t inform him of her "criminal history," including "additional active criminal proceedings," and even went as far as to request that a judge grant him a divorce if an annulment was not possible. 

The age gap between Cage and his current wife, Riko Shibata, is quite large, as she is 31 years his junior. 

The movie star announced his engagement to Shibata on his brother Marc Coppola’s radio show in 2020, according to The Sun.

“She left New York and went back to Kyoto, Japan, and I went back to Nevada and I haven't seen her for six months," he said at the time.

“We're really happy together and we're really excited to spend that time together so I finally just said 'Look, I wanna marry you' and we got engaged on FaceTime."

The pair made their red carpet debut for Cage’s most recent film, “Pig.” In January 2022, he announced that he was expecting his first child with Shibata. 

And given that Cage shows no signs of slowing down — he’s slated to appear in four movies in 2022 — he’s sure to have a lot on his plate with his new wife and child. 

Did you know about Nicolas Cage's marriages? Tell us your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to others who may not know that Cage has been married five times.