Top 5 Celebrity Confessions of 2012

Dec. 14, 2012— -- intro: This year brought new revelations from the stars, including the latest by Sean Penn.

In the January 2013 issue of Esquire, Penn admits that despite his past high-profile relationships with the likes of Madonna, Robin Wright and Scarlett Johansson, no woman has ever really loved him.

The 52-year-old Oscar winning actor mused to the magazine: "There is no shame in saying that we all want to be loved by someone. As I look back over my life in romance, I don't feel I've ever had that."

"I have been the only one that was unaware of the fraud in a few of these circumstances blindly," he said.

Penn was married to Madonna from 1985 to 1989. He married actress Robin Wright in 1996 and they had two children. But their relationship grew tumultuous, with the couple filing in 2007 and reconciling shortly after. Two years later, Penn filed for legal separation, withdrawing it once again in May 2009. Their relationship finally ended in August 2009 when Wright filed for divorce and their split was made official in July 2010.

Following his divorce from Wright, Penn began a brief relationship with Johansson despite their 24 year age difference.

Divorce, Penn said, is what made him realize what was missing in his relationships.

"When you get divorced, all the truths that come out, you sit there and you go, 'What the f*** was I doing? What was I doing believing that this person was invested in this way?' Which is a fantastically strong humiliation in the best sense," he told Esquire.

Penn is not the only star to make a public confession this year. Click through for four more celebrity confessions.

quicklist: 1title: Hugh Jackmantext: In a "60 Minutes" interview last Sunday, "Les Miserables" star Hugh Jackman opened up about his mother Grace leaving the family when he was 8.

The 44-year-old actor revealed the day his mother said goodbye before leaving his dad Chris alone to care of Jackman and his four older siblings.

"I remember her being in a towel around her head and saying goodbye, must have been the way she said goodbye. As I went off to school, when I came back, there was no one there in the house," he told interviewer Scott Pelley. "The next day there was a telegram from England, Mum was there. And then that was it."

"I don't think she thought for a second it would be forever. I think she thought it was 'I just need to get away, and I'll come back,'" Jackman added.

But she didn't, despite Chris Jackman's prayers every night for her return. Instead, the actor's dad became his "rock."

"It's where I learned everything about loyalty, dependability, being there day in, day out, no matter what," he said.

The "Wolverine" star grew teary as he thought about the lesson his father has passed on to him from that experience: "It's always about the family. .... In his gentle way, he always reminds me this the most important thing."

As a result, Jackman told Pelley that he never spends more than two weeks apart from his wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their two adopted children, Oscar, 12, and Eva, 7.media: 17965421

quicklist: 2title: Frank Oceantext: R&B singer Frank Ocean set off a tsunami in the music industry when he revealed this past summer that his first love was a man.

"4 summers ago, I met somebody," the singer wrote on his Tumblr in July. "I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Every day almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I'd see him, and his smile.

"Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiating to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and thought I was in love with," he wrote.

The confession not only freed Ocean from any secrets but it brought him public praise and earned him the musical guest spot on the season opener of "SNL." Earlier this month, he was nominated for six Grammys.media: 17965325

quicklist: 3title: Kristen Stewarttext: It was the confession heard round the world. "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart publicly apologized in July for cheating on her boyfriend of three years, co-star Robert Pattinson, with her "Snow White and the Huntsman" director, Rupert Sanders.

"I'm deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I've caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected," she said in a statement to People. "This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I'm so sorry."

Fans stuck by her and, so it seems, did Pattinson. Though he moved out of their Los Angeles home, he was back by her side in time for the premieres of the final "Twilight" installment.media: 17967180

quicklist: 3title: Jack Osbourne text: Jack Osbourne, the son of rocker Ozzy and "The Talk" co-host Sharon Osbourne, revealed in June that he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier this spring.

Osbourne told People magazine that he was diagnosed only two weeks after his daughter, Pearl Clementine, was born.

"I was just angry and frustrated and kept thinking, 'Why now?'" Osbourne told People in June. "I've got a family and that's what's supposed to be the most important thing."

Osbourne exchanged vows with Pearl's mother, Lisa Stelly, during an intimate ceremony in Hawaii on Oct. 7.media: 17965368

quicklist: 4title: Steven Spielbergtext: Famed director Steven Spielberg confessed to having dyslexia earlier this year, in September.

Spielberg said he wasn't diagnosed with the language-based learning disability that can make reading, pronunciation and comprehension difficult, until five years ago, but that he dealt with the problem by making movies.

"Making movies was my great escape, it was how I could get away from all that," he said in a video posted on the website Friends of Quinn in September. "Movies really helped me, kind of saved me from shame, from guilt, from putting it on myself...when it wasn't my burden."

Lucky for us Spielberg chose movies. The Oscar-winning director was just nominated for a Golden Globe for his latest film, "Lincoln."media: 17965380