Breakups happen all the time. And yet, when a couple shares the news that their relationship has ended, they’re often met with shock and sadness from others. This is especially true if it’s ‘the couple’ that everybody thought would stay together forever. Alas, nobody is here to fulfil a fairytale narrative for their family members and friends. 

When it comes to celebrity couples, we can somehow feel even more invested. Just look at the world’s shock reaction to Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s conscious uncoupling. And, over 15 years later, not everybody is over Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt’s split. But it’s perhaps time to really understand that not all breakups are ‘bad’. 

Just ask Kate Bosworth…

Bosworth has been married to director Michael Polish for eight years, after they met on the film set of Big Sur. The pair have continued to work together, raise Polish’s teenage daughter and pretty much cement themselves as a Hollywood ‘golden couple’. But on Thursday (5 August), Bosworth announced their breakup in an Instagram post.

Publishing her news alongside a photo of the two kissing each other, it’s perhaps easy to see why some people would be shocked. But Bosworth wrote beautifully about the love they have shared and will always have for each other as they navigate the breakup. 

Following a quote from Big Sur, Bosworth wrote: “The beginning is often the best part of love. Fireworks, magnets, rebellion – the attraction. The onset signals a wide open expanse of possibility. Split a burger with someone when you are falling in love, and you can die happily knowing this is your last meal. Buy a bottle of whiskey and share shots, pour me a waterfall. Play that perfect song on the jukebox and dance with someone you have known your whole life, though you met minutes ago.

“Inherently we fear an ending. To lose what you have because you got what you wanted. To be attached to the expectation of the outcome. The great Unknown.”

She continued: “What if we chose not to fear but instead, to love? If that most delicate and vulnerable last flicker to the flame became another type of furnace entirely.

“Perhaps this will sound strange to some, romantic to others. To us: this is truth.

“Our hearts are full, as we have never been so enamoured and deeply grateful for one another as we do in this decision to separate. Together, over the last 10 years, Michael and I have chosen love, every time. We hold hands as tightly today as we entangled fingers on our wedding day. Our eyes look more deeply into one another, with more courage now. In the process of letting go, we have come to acknowledge that our love will never end. The connection does not simply disappear. The love deepens, the heart expands.”

“We know the 4 am calls are coming. Songs will be exchanged to communicate only what songs can do. We laugh as we plan for our next movie together and are excited to share our latest collaboration. We believe the most epic love stories are those which transcend expectation. Our greatest honour has been to experience love like this, and to continue to marvel at the beauty of love’s evolution. What happens when we reach the end of something and realise… we are just at the beginning.

“This is love.

“And we will drink that down.”

Images: Getty