IN these days of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and Celebrity Wife Swap, it is not unusual to find out more than you wanted to know about your favourite celebrity just by watching them on TV for half an hour.

You can see them sleeping, laughing, crying, fighting, getting married and . . . as the latest batch of minor celebs slug it out in the Australian jungle for another series of I'm A Celebrity . . . even eating kangaroos' testicles!

Former pop princess Myleene Klass is Down Under along with Jason Donovan and David Gest tackling the Bushtucker Trials and earning their supper. But the curse of the reality show has struck many stars who have chosen to live their lives on the small screen.

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, who filmed their own reality show Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, announced their split last week after two years of marriage, going the way of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, and Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro . . . who all allowed TV audiences into their lives.

The pressure of performing round the clock for the cameras as well as the publicity created by many real life programmes can be too much. Here are just some celebs who have found they couldn't cope with the cameras.

PARIS HILTON AND NICOLE RICHIE

Starred in: 'The Simple Life'
The curse: Falling out
Where it all went wrong: After starring together in the fish-out-of-water reality show, Paris and Nicole had a spectacular, very public falling out. Recent reports suggest a rapprochement, but who knows if it will last?

Their bust-up was so bitter that for the fourth series filming had to be arranged so the slender pair spent as little time together as possible.

"I brought Nicole on to The Simple Life, and all of a sudden she became this different person, " says Paris, who originally wanted pal Kimberly Stewart to co-star. "She dropped her old friends and she's someone else. That's not the girl I know.

"In series four we only actually did two episodes together. The other day I was looking back at old episodes from The Simple Life 1 and it made me almost cry to see how happy we were and how much fun we had.

"The Simple Life is a reality show and people might assume it's real. But it's fake. All reality shows are fake basically. When you have a camera on you, you are not going to act like yourself. Before I started the show I thought I'd make a character like the movies Legally Blonde and Clueless mixed together, with a rich girl all-in-one.

"Even my voice is different and the way I dress is different from me in real life. It's a character I like to play. I think it's carefree and happy. The public think they know me but they really don't."

"It's a character, " Nicole adds. "Paris plays the bombshell who doesn't know a lot of things, and I play the jokester. That's what the show's about."

JESSICA SIMPSON AND NICK LACHEY

Starred in: 'Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica'
The curse: Getting divorced
Where it all went wrong: When the clean-cut pair allowed a TV audience into their home and their private life, they were transformed from stars to superstars.

The interest has helped their careers to this day but the mismatch was obvious to everyone watching. He was neat, she was messy, he was trying to appear clever and she played up her 'Jessica moments' for the cameras. At its height, more than four million viewers tuned in each week to watch their fights over laundry, cuddle sessions on the couch and unintentionally hilarious conversations.

"Our house is a set, " said Jessica last year.

"People could walk in and know where the bathroom is, and that is weird. People still come up to the door and want to walk around. We're like, 'No'. We've had to put a gate up. It's private property. It got to the point where we had to schedule time to be at the house together when the cameras were there."

But the pressure was too much and, just as their married life was public property, so was their split and their divorce was finalised in July.

"I will never speak negatively about Nick or my marriage, " added the Dukes of Hazzard star after the marriage hit the rocks. "What has gone on between us has nothing to do with what is public and what is in the tabloids but it is difficult, yes."

And what does Nick have to say on the matter? "Newlywedswas among the dumber ideas I've ever seen executed in history, " is his view.

DAVE NAVARRO AND CARMEN ELECTRA
Starred in: 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen & Dave'
The curse: Splitting up
Where it all went wrong: The show followed the daily life of rocker Dave and Playboy model Carmen for two months right up to their actual wedding.

"A lot of people were telling us not to do it, " Carmen admits. "We wanted to get some feedback so we asked tons of friends and most said 'Don't do it!'

"MTV came back to us a few more times after we'd turned it down initially, and we just went, 'You know what? They'll only be there to shoot the wedding stuff and the bachelor party, and so we'll have a documentary to show our kids some day . . . and I'll get to see what he's doing the day of the wedding when I can't see him and he can't see me. Let's do it!'

"The first time it's really scary as you're letting everyone into your life, even though it's not the whole picture. You're still aware that all the cameras are there, so it's as much reality as it can be . . . but of course it's not the whole truth."

But it seems the pressure of letting the world in on their big day and the need to create a fairytale romance clearly got to these two, and Carmen filed for divorce in August after just two years of marriage.

"What's shocked most people when they've seen how we live is how normal we are, " she said on the show . . . though her next words came back to haunt her: "I really believe our marriage is going to last forever."

BRITNEY SPEARS AND KEVIN FEDERLINE

Starred in: 'Chaotic: Kevin and Britney'
The curse: Career collapse
Where it all went wrong: Letting the world in on her private life was the final nail in the coffin for Britney's image as a sugar-sweet darling of music videos or a pin-up for kids' bedroom walls.

The couple opted to mainly use private home videos that were shot by themselves during the courtship, engagement and surprise wedding. But the show was panned and revealed a lack of hidden depths to its two stars.

A recently-aired clip from the DVD's extras even showed a visibly 'tired and emotional' Britney burping and confessing how lonely she was to Kevin, probably a side to the pop princess she didn't want to share with the world.

"From the day that Kevin and I met, there have been constant rumours and inaccurate speculation about our lives together, " she said at the time the series first aired. "I feel that last year the tabloids ran my life and I am really excited about showing my fans what really happened. I am now going to be expressing my personal life through art. This series will show us falling in love and all the adventures that went on overseas during the European leg of my Onyx Hotel tour."

Since then, Federline's efforts to be taken seriously as a rapper have fallen flat, and although Britney is still a target for the paparazzi, the mum-of-two is more a figure of fun than a role model. Britney has now filed for divorce after two years of marriage and may face a custody battle over their two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James.

SHARON AND OZZY OSBOURNE

Starred in: 'The Osbournes'
The curse: Crazed kids
Where it all went wrong: Although the fly-on-the-wall style show was one of the most popular on TV, igniting an international wave of interest in the dysfunctional family, it had an impact on kids Kelly and Jack, who were forced to grow up in front of the world.

Their oldest daughter, Aimee, refused to take part in the show and moved out of the family home, although wild child Kelly revelled in the publicity. Both Kelly and Jack admit they turned to drink and drugs to cope with their new-found fame and the news that their mum had cancer . . . although she insisted the cameras keep rolling as she fought the disease.

"Before I knew it, it was happening, " recalls Jack. "We'd bought a new house in Beverly Hills which meant MTV could work their needs into the way the house was being rebuilt . . . cameras everywhere and a special control room. Whenever we said, 'Stop filming', they had to stop.

"At all times we had two full camera teams on site, a minimum of 16 other people in the house at any one time. And I was 15 years old with hormones going through the roof and experimenting with drugs, alcohol and girls.

"No matter how comfortable you are in front of the camera, there are going to be moments when you suddenly feel a sense of paranoia and wish it all wasn't happening."