Inside Gene Simmons' Long Dating History before His Marriage to Shannon Tweed

Gene Simmons' dating history is littered with famous women. The singer has celebrated over a decade of marriage with his partner of over three decades; however, before that, he was romantically involved with multiple Hollywood stars, from Diana Ross to Cher.

Gene Simmons is the frontman of the iconic heavy rock band Kiss, and in 2011, he and his partner of nearly 30 years, Shannon Tweed, said "I do" in front of 400 of their closest friends and family.

However, Gene Simmons' relationship timeline before becoming a married man includes on-again-off-again romances with actresses and female singers. The band member's dating history has also come back to haunt him, as one of his exes took him to court.

Liv Ullmann

Liv Ullmann is an actress of Norwegian origin but was born in Tokyo, Japan. Due to the nature of her father's work, Ullmann lived around the world but found fame on stage in the mid-1950s before making her film debut in 1957.

Ullmann was attending a dinner party in the 1970s when she met Simmons, who disguised himself as a lecturer. The actress recalled how well he spoke, and after falling for his "lovely" personality, she agreed to go on a date with the Kiss frontman.

However, when Simmons went to pick Ullmann up for their date, the actress's daughter blew his cover as she recognized him from his band. Ullmann shared:

"'Now you have to come and see me perform,' he said after we had dated a few times. I did it...and then it was over."

Connie Hamzy

Connie Hamzy, also known as "Sweet Connie," had an infamous reputation for her sexual relationships with multiple rock stars over the years. According to Hamzy, she's been intimate with many well-known stars like Vanilla Ice and Rick Springfield.

During an interview, Hamzy revealed she was not only intimate with Simmons but was also familiar with his bandmate, Peter Criss. Hamzy was very open about her past and revealed many details about her past intimacies.

Star Stowe

Star Stowe is another of Simmons' past lovers, commonly known for posing on the cover of Playboy, a gentlemen's magazine. She met Simmons at the elevator of a Las Vegas hotel; however, the singer was without his signature white face paint.

Instead, Stowe revealed she had fallen for Simmons' relaxed demeanor. The exes' love affair saw Stowe hang out with Kiss and party with Elton John. However, their relationship was short-lived, and the details around their parting of ways remain unknown.

Georgeann Walsh Ward is a New Yorker who claimed to have been one of Simmons' ex-girlfriends and sued him for slander in 2005.

Katey Sagal

Katey Sagal is widely known for playing Peggy Bundy in the hit '80s/'90s sitcom, "Married with Children." However, before finding fame in Hollywood, she was a college drop-out in the mid-1970s, working as an actress in a touring musical and then a singing waitress in a restaurant, where she met Simmons. Sagal revealed:

"At first, I thought Gene was really weird. I took him home with me that night because he was quite persuasive, and I like men."

Their on-again-off-again relationship lasted years until Sagal gave the singer an ultimatum to either marry her or she would marry bassist Freddie Beckmeier. When Simmons laughed at her proposition, Sagal followed through with her plan to marry Beckmeier.

Georgeann Walsh Ward

Georgeann Walsh Ward is a New Yorker who claimed to have been one of Simmons' ex-girlfriends and sued him for slander in 2005. According to reports, Ward was unhappy with how a documentary about Kiss portrayed her as a "sex-addicted nymphomaniac."

Court papers revealed a picture of Ward was shown 11 times in the documentary, and at the time, Ward was a mother to a 21-year-old son. Ward thought she was in "an exclusive, monogamous, romantic relationship" with Simmons when they allegedly dated.

Simmons opened up about how his relationship with Cher had ended because he had started something new with one of her closest friends, Diana Ross.

The former couple reportedly met when Ward was 21, and the lawsuit stated she was seeking unspecified damages from Simmons for the alleged defamation and invasion of privacy.

Cher

Following her separation from her second husband, Gregg Allman, Cher revealed she was in "a very liberated phase" and struck up an unlikely romance with Simmons, who was a few years her junior. The iconic singer revealed she didn't mind Simmons seeing other women.

In fact, she was also seeing other men, but Simmons was the only one she was crazy about. According to Simmons, his romance with Cher was his first serious relationship, and the former couple even spoke about getting married. Simmons revealed:

"I've always been afraid to talk about the relationship before. I thought it would be the death knell of Kiss. [...] I'm crazy about Cher, nuts about her. She's my first love. Cher's an untainted soul who has never done anything bad to anybody."

Diana Ross

During an interview, Simmons opened up about how his relationship with Cher had ended because he had started something new with one of her closest friends, Diana Ross. The pair met on what was meant to be a Christmas shopping trip for Cher and ended up seeing each other and living together from around 1990 to 1993.

However, Simmons revealed he kept in contact with both women but avoided going out publicly as "that would be a field day for everyone's minds." Simmons said of his relationship with Cher, "We'll know each other forever."

Shannon Tweed

In October 2011, Simmons and his wife, Shannon Tweed, said "I do" during a ceremony attended by 400 guests at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The couple had been together for 28 years, and their daughter served as maid of honor while their son was a groomsman.

"I look at my wedding band and think, 'What was I afraid of all this time?'" Simmons said. However, his and Tweed's relationship has not always been smooth sailing, as in 2018, the rock star opened up about the years he made many mistakes.

Simmons did not elaborate on what his mistakes were. However, he admitted to not being a good man during their nearly 30-year relationship before getting married. The singer added that he spent those years doing "a lot of wacky stuff for an awfully long time," which Tweed forgave.