There’s a sad reason we shouldn’t trust celebrity relationships

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I have never trusted anyone that constantly brags about their relationship, so why do I still fall for celebrity romances?

Jada Pinkett Smith shocked the world when she revealed that she and her husband Will Smith have been living separately for seven years.

“By the time we got to 2016, we were just exhausted with trying,” she said.

Although the pair are no longer prepared to be housemates, she declared they weren’t heading for divorce.

“I made a promise that there will never be a reason for us to get a divorce,” she added.

Jada’s admission came as a shock because the two regularly appear on red carpets together and their seemingly honest relationship has long been seen as the pinnacle of romantic success.

Not to mention, Will famously slapped Chris Rock for making a joke at Jada’s expense at the 2022 Oscars.

“Get my wife’s name out of your mouth,” he screamed.
 

I mean … clearly, not great behaviour but he did seem like a very invested husband, not someone sleeping in a separate bed.

Will has previously declared that he has never met another person that he connects with more “blissfully” than Jada.

Yet the two aren’t prepared to live under the same roof anymore.

It is always blindsiding to hear the truth about celebrity relationships, that away from all the glitz, glamour and grand gestures, there are issues and problems, and nothing looks as perfect as we think it is.

It is easy to get invested in famous relationships because they seem so... nice.
 

There’s always gorgeous photos, loving quotes and it feels like you’re watching a romantic movie play out before your eyes.

You don’t see anyone fighting over laundry or see anyone having to force a smile when they discover their partner owns a truly ugly television stand.

It looks perfect.

Yet, it is wild how blindly we trust them, because if I was meeting up with a mate for a wine and she said she had a “blissful” connection I’d roll my eyes and assume her boyfriend had a secret Snapchat account.
 

Why?

Well, because I know the people involved and I can see up close that no relationship is perfect, but celebrities, well, it is easy to fall for it.
 

Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness left Australia in tatters last month when they announced they’d called it quits after almost thirty years together.

In 2016, Hugh told Ellen DeGeneres that Deborra was the “greatest thing” ever to happen to him, and so their break-up feels like the worst news ever.

Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas have also recently called it quits after being married for four years.

They were one of those celebrity couples that seemed shockingly happy together.

They posted about each other on Instagram, Joe shared he’d written a song for her and Sophie was constantly spotted supporting the singer at his shows.

Now, the two have had to call in the lawyers to negotiate what country they want their two young daughters to live in.
 

Are you seeing a pattern here?
 

The celebrity couples we tend to worship or hold up as an example of what a relationship should be aren’t what they are cracked up to be.

Psychologist Carly Dober said that is easy to get caught up in a celebrity romance because we “identify” with the image celebrities project.

Dober pointed out that what the public sees of these relationships is “heavily” curated and “performative”, therefore, you shouldn’t try and emulate these relationships.

“If we look to these relationships that we might only get images, sound bites, and released stories about, it can be an unhelpful model to compare our own relationships too.”

So what is the lesson here?

Well, we need to start treating celebrities with the same cynicism we treat our friends’ relationships and then we’d all be way less heartbroken.