A study conducted by the University of Toronto has found that actresses who win an Academy Award break up with their husbands, boyfriends or lovers just months after winning. And if the new research is to be believed, then actress Natalie Portman, who is the hot favorite for the top award for her performance in Black Swan, could end up being the next to feel the curse.

The study showed that Best Actress winners have 63% chance of ending up divorced and that winners were proven to be 1.68 times more likely to head to the divorce court than those who were nominated but didn’t take home gold. Betting agencies are already giving punters the chance to bet on the likelihood of the newly engaged and pregnant Portman, 29, succumbing to “the curse”.

A few other actresses already affected:

2010

Sandra Bullock: Her five year marriage to Jesse James ended after her Oscar win for ‘The Blind Side’ when she discovered he had been having an affair with a tattoo model.

2009

Kate Winslet: A year after winning the Best Actress award playing a concentration camp guard in ‘The Reader’, Winslet’s marriage to director Sam Mendes ended.

2006

Reese Witherspoon: Witherspoon accepted the Best Actress award for her role in ‘Walk the Line’. By the end of the year, she had left her husband and father of her two children, Ryan Philipe.

2001

Julia Roberts: Roberts took home the Oscar for ‘Erin Brockovich’ and thanked her boyfriend of four years Benjamin Bratt in her speech. Three months later they parted ways.

Does this mean better stay away from the Oscars??