50 Unfiltered Celebrity Quotes About Their Divorces
"Imagine spreading everything you care about on a blanket and then tossing the whole thing up in the air."
In lieu of continuing to mourn the loss of our favorite celebrity relationships (R.I.P. Anna and Chris), we've decided it's time for some healing. We rounded up 50 raw, unfiltered celebrity quotes about divorce for a heartbreaking, but inspiring, lesson in moving on.
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Anna Faris
"Life is too short to be in relationships where you feel this isn't fully right or somebody doesn't have your back, or somebody doesn't fully value you. Don't be afraid to feel your independence if things aren't right." – Anna Faris on divorce from Chris Pratt
Reese Witherspoon
"There are things in my life that are hard to reconcile, like divorce. Sometimes it is very difficult to make sense of how it could possibly happen. Laying blame is so easy. I don't have time for hate or negativity in my life. There's no room for it." – Reese Witherspoon on divorce from Ryan Phillippe
Elisabeth Moss
"Looking back, I feel like I was really young, and at the time I didn't think that I was that young. It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible. At the same time, it turned out for the best. I'm glad that I'm not there. I'm glad that it didn't happen when I was 50. I'm glad I didn't have kids. And I got that out of the way. Hopefully. Like, that's probably not going to happen again." – Elisabeth Moss on divorce from Fred Armisen
Jennifer Lopez
"There's no pain or failure like going through a divorce." – Jennifer Lopez on divorce from Marc Anthony
Olivia Wilde
"You don't want to break up with someone, you don't want to end a marriage, especially if you really like the person; you just know that something's off so you try to change everything else." – Olivia Wilde on divorce from Tao Ruspoli
Kaley Cuoco
"You know what, I'm not ashamed of anything that happened. I fall in love really hard, I do. I go deep. That person is it for me. And I love hard, and when it's over, it's over, and some people make mistakes. [I] wouldn't call it a mistake, it just is what happened in my life, so I'm excited to see what the future holds. It happened, and now I have to say I'm happier than I've ever been." – Kaley Cuoco on divorce from Ryan Sweeting
Christina Aguilera
"I knew there would be a negative reaction in the press to my divorce, but I am not going to live my life because of something someone might say." – Christina Aguilera on divorce from Jordan Bratman
Angelina Jolie
"I was very worried about my mother, growing up—a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me. I think it's very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything's going to be all right even when you're not sure it is." – Angelina Jolie on divorce from Brad Pitt
Katy Perry
"[Divorce] was emotionally traumatic for me. It was the death of a dream. I was in fairytale land, and the reality of it wasn't so. But I don't really like talking about it anymore, because it feels like a thousand lifetimes ago, and also it makes me look desperate, like I need it for attention." – Katy Perry on divorce from Russell Brand
Jennifer Garner
"It's one of the pains in my life that something I believe in so strongly I've completely failed at twice. You have to have two people to dance a marriage. My heart's a little on the tender side right now, and it's always easier to focus on the ways that you feel hurt, but I know that, with time and some perspective, I'll have a clearer sense of where I let the system down, because there's no way I get off in this." – Jennifer Garner on divorce from Ben Affleck
Amy Poehler
"Imagine spreading everything you care about on a blanket and then tossing the whole thing up in the air. The process of divorce is about loading that blanket, throwing it up, watching it all spin, and worrying what stuff will break when it lands." – Amy Poehler on divorce from Will Arnett
Khloé Kardashian
" I miss what we had—things we got to do together are just memories. I like looking back and holding on to that stuff. I definitely miss it, and there's times I'll get so sentimental and so sad, but this had to happen for some reason. I'll figure it out over time. Someone will give me that answer eventually." – Khloé Kardashian on divorce from Lamar Odom
Nicole Kidman
"I think that divorce is hard for anyone. It's a nightmare, it just is, and you can pretend you're fine. And days you're great [and] days you're not great." – Nicole Kidman on divorce from Tom Cruise
Jessica Simpson
"It was like a death in the family: You go through the mourning stage, then the rebellion, and then all of a sudden you have to find life by yourself." – Jessica Simpson on divorce from Nick Lachey
Danica McKellar
"The end of a marriage has got to be one of the saddest events one can experience. I've heard that the pain [of divorce] is second only to an actual death in the family, and that sounds about right." – Danica McKellar on divorce from Mike Verta
Kevin Hart
"In my divorce, I stood up and said to my ex-wife, 'Hey, I messed up. This had nothing to do with you. I didn't understand what marriage was. I cheated. I was wrong.' We couldn't fix it; it got worse. I stepped away because I didn't want it to get any worse. 'You're the mother of my kids — I don't want to hate you.'" – Kevin Hart on divorce from Torrei Hart
Heidi Klum
"People say, 'Oh, God, how devastating to go through a divorce.' Did I wish for this to happen to my family? No. But everyone is healthy; we're moving on with our lives." – Heidi Klum on divorce from Seal
Ryan Reynolds
"Anyone who gets divorced goes through a lot of pain, but you come out of it." – Ryan Reynolds on divorce from Scarlett Johansson
Jennifer Aniston
"There are many stages of grief. It's sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open, in a way—cracks you open to feeling. When you try to avoid the pain, it creates greater pain. I'm a human being, having a human experience in front of the world. I wish it weren't in front of the world. I try really hard to rise above it." – Jennifer Aniston on divorce from Brad Pitt
Kate Hudson
"The process of discovering with somebody that you love that you don't work is so painful." – Kate Hudson on divorce from Chris Robinson
Scarlett Johansson
"I feel I know now more of what I need in a relationship, what I want in a relationship. And I know I have more tools to communicate, not just with my partner, but with myself. That's not necessarily any reflection of who I was married to or what was happening in my marriage, but really where I was in my life." – Scarlett Johansson on divorce from Ryan Reynolds
Miranda Lambert
"Every record I've ever made has been a reflection of where I am right then in my life, however old I am. And I've never held back at all. But this time with what I happened to be going through in my life, being honest was never really a choice. Everybody knew anyway. So I just said, I'm gonna journal it, and—good days and bad days—use it for my art." – Miranda Lambert on divorce from Blake Shelton
Gwen Stefani
"During that time period, I felt like I was down all the way, like, you don't go down lower than that. It was rock bottom. I was so embarrassed, you know what I mean?" – Gwen Stefani on divorce from Gavin Rossdale
Gwyneth Paltrow
"It was very challenging for me in terms of having to re-assess what that said about me, ideas that I had about that kind of failure." – Gwyneth Paltrow on divorce from Chris Martin
Kim Kardashian
"I've always been the type to fall in love fast and, with every boyfriend, I plan out my wedding in my head. It's taught me to take things slow. Anyone would want to move on and take the lesson learned from it. I loved this person, it just wasn't the right situation for me. I try to hold my head up high and live my life." – Kim Kardashian on divorce from Kris Humphries
Ryan Phillippe
"[Divorce was] the darkest, saddest place I had ever been. It was a struggle — there were a good four or five months of not being able to get out of bed. It was the worst time in my life. You get through it. It's a process that's not easy, but I get less and less sad about it every day." – Ryan Phillippe on divorce from Reese Witherspoon
Madonna
"I'm very grateful that I had work to do. I may have thrown myself off a building." – Madonna on divorce from Guy Ritchie
Brad Pitt
"I heard one lawyer say, 'No one wins in court—it's just a matter of who gets hurt worse.' And it seems to be true, you spend a year just focused on building a case to prove your point and why you're right and why they're wrong, and it's just an investment in vitriolic hatred. I just refuse. And fortunately, my partner in this agrees. It's just very, very jarring for the kids, to suddenly have their family ripped apart." – Brad Pitt on divorce from Angelina Jolie
Naomi Watts
"I feel, whether you're famous or not, transitions are scary for anybody. I feel like change is always scary, but that's only because transition for anyone is new and you wonder how things are going to go." – Naomi Watts on separation from Liev Schreiber
Wiz Khalifa
"I learned how to be present where I need to be present. I'd been present in the relationship, but at that age and with what was going on, it just wasn't right for me. It helps to walk away sometimes, even though it was super hard." – Wiz Khalifa on divorce from Amber Rose
Jenny Slate
"A divorce moves at the speed of complete deadening silence, or that's how it feels." – Jenny Slate on her divorce from Dean Fleischer-Camp
Mary J. Blige
"You start to realize that this man doesn't want you and he's just gone all the time and you're by yourself in the relationship." — Mary J. Blige on separation from Kendu Isaacs
Drew Barrymore
"When you break up with somebody, you're like, 'Yeah, that didn't work.' When you get divorced, you're like, 'I'm the biggest failure. This is the biggest failure.' It's so shameful and hard to actually go through that, even privately." — Drew Barrymore on divorce from Will Kopelman
Russel Brand
"I have come away from that experience and I still feel very warm towards her...When I hear about her or see her, I think 'Ah, there's that person, that person in the world.'" – Russel Brand on divorce from Katy Perry
Chris Martin
"You can come at it very aggressively and blame and blame. Or you can put yourself in the garage, so to speak. Take yourself apart and clean off the bits. Reassemble." – Chris Martin on divorce from Gwyneth Paltrow
Mandy Moore
"I think I spent a good portion of the last years of my life really pouring all of my energy into my life and relationship, and now that that's sort of not part of my life any more. It's just not a coincidence to me that things sort of opened back up, and I'm able to focus back on myself again." – Mandy Moore on divorce from Ryan Adams
Gavin Rossdale
"Apart from death, I think divorce is one of the hardest, most painful things to go through." – Gavin Rossdale on divorce from Gwen Stefani
Katie Holmes
"I don't have any fear now, I don't have a lot of rules for myself, and I don't take myself that seriously."— Katie Holmes on divorce from Tom Cruise
Yolanda Hadid
"I try to make light of it and joke that he married a lemon. It's sad but true. I went from being the funny girlfriend who was up for anything and had endless energy to the wife who is too sick to be by his side." – Yolanda Hadid on divorce from David Foster
Courteney Cox
"I think you really need to work in a relationship, and I think that we tried. We're just really different, too. I'm the polar opposite of him. That can be great for a lot of things, but I need this kind of real, one-on-one connection." – Courteney Cox on divorce from David Arquette
Tony Parker
"It's not easy to leave a relationship, because when I get involved in something, I want to do well." – Tony Parker on divorce from Eva Longoria
Denise Richards
"I was surprised how much that affected me work wise…I was perceived as being a lunatic and crazy. There are people that have [since] come up to me and apologized for drinking the Kool-Aid…It was hard." – Denise Richards on divorce from Charlie Sheen
Ashton Kutcher
"Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes they fail."— Ashton Kutcher on divorce from Demi Moore
Blake Shelton
"When you have a broken heart—at least, when I do—you got to get it out of your system. You want people to sympathize with you. I was at rock bottom, in the middle of hell." – Blake Shelton on divorce from Miranda Lambert
Eva Longoria
"[People] kept saying, 'You look amazing. Divorce agrees with you.' And I was like, 'I don't feel good. I have no energy.' I didn't know I was depressed. I mean, I knew it was a sad moment in my life, but I wouldn't categorize myself as depressed." – Eva Longoria on divorce from Tony Parker
Mariah Carey
"I never thought I would have babies with someone and then get divorced. Like, 'Oh, great job. Repeat your past.' But life happens. And it was supposed to happen." – Mariah Carey on divorce from Nick Cannon
Guy Ritchie
"Our marriage was a three-ring circus in the end. We started as a normal family and tried to live a normal family life, but she wanted something else."— Guy Ritchie on divorce from Madonna
Kris Jenner
"We work together to make sure that we're both happy. We are well-rounded human beings that are going through a tough time…You just do the best that you can." – Kris Jenner on divorce from Caitlyn Jenner
Zsa Zsa Gabor
"Conrad Hilton was very generous to me in the divorce settlement. He gave me 5,000 Gideon Bibles." – Zsa Zsa Gabor on divorce from Conrad Hilton
Sharon Stone
"I don't think anybody who's ever been divorced can tell you divorce is easy or fun or feels like anything other than a tremendous failure." – Sharon Stone on divorce from Phil Bronstein
Ruby was the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covered beauty across print and digital. Her work has appeared on The Zoe Report, Fashionista, and StyleCaster. Follow her on Instagram.
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