--- title: Why Are So Many Notable Celebrity Couples Breaking Up? description: In 2023, we learned that some of the most famous long-term couples like had called it quits. canonical: https://time.com/6344177/celebrity-breakups-divorce-2023/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-12-26T12:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:41.511Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Are So Many Notable Celebrity Couples Breaking Up? og:description: In 2023, we learned that some of the most famous long-term couples like had called it quits. og:url: https://time.com/6344177/celebrity-breakups-divorce-2023/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0c31da313949a9f/698a42e4b3fce3785c0cb15b/231225BRRelationships-illo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1731 og:image:height: 974 og:image:alt: 231225BRRelationships-illo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Are So Many Notable Celebrity Couples Breaking Up? twitter:description: In 2023, we learned that some of the most famous long-term couples like had called it quits. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte0c31da313949a9f/698a42e4b3fce3785c0cb15b/231225BRRelationships-illo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Are So Many Notable Celebrity Couples Breaking Up? > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=392f7ec8-0e0a-4af8-9d99-19d801ede1e9&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Parasocial Relationships: How Admiring a Celeb Might Be Healthy [Watch (HLS stream): Parasocial Relationships: How Admiring a Celeb Might Be Healthy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YQnKt3Qu.m3u8) (5:52)  _Published 2023-07-13. There’s a good chance that you—yes, even you—have had a parasocial experience. Ever yell at the football player on your TV who just fumbled the ball, even though you knew he couldn’t hear you? That’s an example of a parasocial interaction, which can progress into a parasocial relationship—typically defined as a one-sided social and emotional connection developed with fictional characters or celebrities._  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Dec 26, 2023 12:00 PM UTC  Illustration by Nate Kitch for TIME; Getty Images (6)  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Dec 26, 2023 12:00 PM UTC The conventional view of marriage holds that its satisfaction levels are U-shaped. There’s a crazy hyped-up romantic part at the start, and then a decline as people come to terms with the fact that life with another person is only sometimes an escalator to the upper reaches of happiness and often more of an Iditarod to a less hostile locale. And then, slowly, satisfaction returns, either because people have made peace with their lot or, even better, because they have negotiated their way to a more perfect union. But if 2023’s catalog of prominent marital events suggests anything, it’s that a long marriage is not always a forever marriage. Especially if it’s between two famous and driven people. This year saw some newsworthy clearcutting in what had been considered the old-growth forest of celebrity couples, as unions oft-cited as #couplesgoals crashed to the earth. **Read More:** [_The Case Against Engagement Rings_](https://time.com/6286965/engagement-rings-reasons-not-to-buy/) In September, [Hugh Jackman](https://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217554/hugh-jackman/) and Deborra-lee Furness, one of VIP coupledom’s sturdiest trees, announced that after 27 years, they were separating. Surprising as that was, it was overshadowed in October, when [Jada Pinkett Smith ](https://time.com/6323242/jada-pinkett-smith-will-smith-separation-divorce/)revealed in [her memoir](https://time.com/collection/time100-voices/6325391/jada-pinkett-smith-worthy-tupac-friendship/) that she and Will Smith had been separated for seven years, a full quarter of their marriage. Shortly after that [Meryl Streep](https://time.com/5920026/meryl-streep-comedy/)’s PR person let it drop that Streep and her husband, the sculptor Don Gummer, married 45 years, had been living apart for six. And let’s not forget that this was the year [Kellyanne and George Conway called it quits](https://time.com/6260764/george-kellyanne-conway-divorce-couples-therapists/) after more than two decades—although what shocked most people about that split was how long it took. Leaving a spouse after a quarter-century seems like madness to some people, like taking the trouble to learn Chinese and then moving to Mexico, or ironing a stack of laundry and then throwing it all in the wash again. To others it’s a sure sign that somebody found somebody else. (Despite the complicated Will-and-Jada [“entanglements”](https://time.com/5919615/words-that-defined-2020/) scenario, there have been no public accusations that infidelity was a predicating cause of any of these splits. Then again, there rarely is.) ### More From TIME Other folks point to more prosaic reasoning. With no children to raise, there’s less of a joint project with which to engage. After 25 years, spouses find it hard to surprise each other, and their stories and habits and chewing noises can wear thin. Some couples have mutually exclusive views of what retirement means. And what with food-delivery apps, [Wordle](https://time.com/6143715/wordle-sale-josh-wardle-interview/), [OnlyFans](https://time.com/6202306/onlyfans-ceo-ami-gan-interview/), long-life light bulbs, fancy home-security systems, Medicare, Uber, and so much content to watch online, the benefits of growing old together, in many people’s judgment, no longer outweigh the drawbacks. **Read More:** [_Why Don't More Women Propose?_](https://time.com/6314262/why-women-should-propose/) It’s also possible to see these sundown splits as a sign of hope. They demonstrate an unwillingness to settle for what life offers, a refusal to make the best of whatever career, health situation, or life partner rolled your way. Exiting a marriage after so many years could be a sign to the great cosmic busboy that no, you are not done yet. Change is still possible. You could manage another course. This has been another underlying theme of 2023\. [Madonna](https://time.com/6253977/madonna-face-grammys-2023/), 65, is on tour. [Barbra Streisand](https://time.com/6331950/barbra-streisand-book-broadway-debut/), 81, and [Martha Stewart](https://swimsuit.si.com/swimsuit/model/martha-stewart), 82, are on glossy magazine covers, the latter showing off a rack of the non-culinary kind. Annette Bening, 65, is starring in a biopic about Diana Nyad, [who swam 110 miles from Cuba to Miami at 64](https://time.com/6330894/nyad-movie-true-story-netflix/). The current frontrunners for the next U.S. presidency are 77 and 81\. And _The_ [_Golden Bachelor_](https://time.com/6318687/golden-bachelor-dating-aging-desireability-essay/), about a widower looking for a new spouse in his 70s, was [a ratings success](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/golden-bachelor-streaming-audience-1235615317/). The elders are not going quietly into the good night. They’re raging against the dying of their cultural force—and their romantic dreams. Or, at least, the rich ones are. In the same way that the past 20 years [have seen an increasing income gap](https://time.com/5434949/divorce-rate-children-marriage-benefits/) between those who decide to marry and those who don’t, the late-life split and its sequel, the search for senior love, are feats best attempted by high-net-worth individuals. The secret split, which necessitates people operating two discrete but desirable residences, is particularly expensive. For a start it means both partners are wealthy enough to pay the bills without any public tussling over assets. One of the main reasons Kevin Costner’s divorce (after 18 years) came to light is that his wife, Christine Baumgartner, decided to challenge the prenuptial agreement. The search for new love is an eternally compelling fantasy. But as the golden bachelor, Gerry Turner, discovered, even when you have potential candidates literally being deposited at your doorstep, finding a new mate can also be a nightmare. Turning over a new leaf with someone whose flaws you already know will probably not lead to a dazzling springtime of new experiences, but there’s something to be said for a spectacular autumn. So it may be time to send positive thoughts the way of your favorite celebrity couple, especially the more venerable ones. How are Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon doing? Anyone heard from [Angela Bassett](https://time.com/6259168/angela-bassett-2/) and Courtney B. Vance recently? Could someone send Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks a Groupon for a date night? If 2023 is any guide, you can never be too careful. ## Transcript Really my whole career has been a series of case studies, the fans and some Bruce, Springsteen Madonna Prince Paul McCartney. After you've done your 15th case study you start to say well you know the case studies is a generalizable but well. Okay there's some commonalities here. Parasocial is defined as non reciprocated. I know you, you don't know me back, a pair of social, interaction is what happens while you're consuming media, think of yourself at home, watching a sporting event and the guy just dropped the ball, and you're sitting there yelling at him, for being an idiot for dropping the ball. That's a social interaction. That's watching Stephen Colbert, and he's talking to me and I'm talking back. I know he can't hear me, but I feel like, because he's talking to the audience somehow I should respond. Now, the pair of social interactions during media consumption, if I walk away from the media and I'm still thinking about the person I'm talking about what I would have done. If I'd been that character in that movie or maybe I'm thinking about what I would have said that person that would have been better than what they said. Her social attachment is when I derive Comfort from that person most often through their work. They interviewed once Josh Groban fan who had stage 4 cancer, and she said, I don't go to my chemotherapy without my iPod with my Josh Groban. Music, it makes me feel better being in the time were born or sort of metaphorically, hardwired to be attracted to the familiar faces and voices of other people. And if you look particularly what happens in digital media, and internet media, there's a Tennessee when you find someone whose work you like to sort of do this immersion in their work, so that you're looking at them, their face during their voice over and over and over and over. And when you think about that much exposure to the station voice of a person, This is what is the foundation for what we call attachment? Back in the 1980s, when they began to study this, the two main kinds of parasocial relationships and so poppers and intended to be a middle-aged to elderly population. Were forming those attachments. And what the research has shown, is that one of the things of her social relationship can do is to mitigate loneliness. So that person who's may be socially isolated because they're elderly and their family, never meet visits them have formed a social Shoes that are meaningful and it helps them feel less isolated. And then if they have access to the internet, then they can do all these other things we've already talked about, which is not only reach out to the celebrity, but more commonly, reach out to other fans. Besides the lack of reciprocity, I know them, they don't know any back, there's usually a difference in status. So they're at a higher status than you are. And you heard of the pair of social thing can be that you aspire to that their state is the convention. She was the first woman in space and she got on stage with Michelle Nichols from Star Trek. The Original Series and said, I saw the shell Nichols is Lieutenant Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise. And I thought I could be there in space. There, I am. I represent it. I met so many young people during the Michael Jackson study, who told me that they realized, they could become an Entertainer. After they saw the Jackson 5 on Ed Sullivan, I had fans that interview. Where is the business who were in Hollywood working and entertainment? Who said this is where I realized I could do that. I had these models of these five young men who are doing it very well and it was meaningful to me because they look like me. Listen to development and lessons in general. 10 to number one become focused and intense about things and also did not always show the best judgment. The upside of that is that if they're developmentally not ready for a real relationship, there in a social relationships, have sex with them or whatever, there's no danger that if you're a teenager and you know that I have a crush on this person and it's not going to get complicated. I actually followed some Michael Jackson Bad Tour 1988 and I saw them again twenty years later and every one of these people have gone on to have a positive normal life and they were among the people that were Maybe they were following him around, maybe they were really, really into him but that it's for the temperature, warm feeling they had about, I haven't been a fan and what those experiences represented. So I do think that that, you know, there is the potential if kids get, you know, in over their heads. 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