This news article was originally published in The Courier Mail and has been republished with permission.
It’s been a big week in Hollywood
It’s hard enough going through the motions of our own soul-crushing breakups, so why do we take celebrity splits to heart? Two experts weigh in.
First falling in love under the watchful gaze of the Mallorca sun (and roughly 5 million Love Island fans), Influencer Molly Mae Hague and Boxer Tommy Fury are a couple you’ve likely heard of.
Seemingly spending the last five years basking in their infatuation with each other and one-year-old daughter Bambi, their blossoming internet fame, and ever-increasing wealth, Hague and Fury were every bit the modern celebrity ‘it couple’.
Until last week, Love Island UK’s most coveted couple announced their shock split on social media, calling off their five-year relationship and engagement.
The shock, despair, and disappointment that the pair no doubt felt was quickly echoed by their millions of fans and followers, with heartfelt messages and responses flooding the couple’s social media platforms.
Then, proving mercury truly was retrograde, another devastating (yet slightly less unexpected) celebrity split rocked the internet.
After two slightly estranged years of marriage, Jennifer Lopez filed for divorce from Ben Affleck. Having recently rekindled their early noughties love affair, JLo and Affleck parted ways once again after months of media speculation.
Pathways to fame aside, the public interest and empathetic response to the respective Hague/Fury and Bennifer splits proves one thing to be true.
Simply put, while we’ve never met the celebrity couples we obsess over, we will take their breakups personally. Here’s why.
According to Catriona Davis-McCabe, President of the Australian Psychological Society, the deep sense of alignment we feel towards our favourite celebs and their personal life choices has become more common thanks to the changing landscape of fame.
"We can develop a sort of deep, emotional connection to celebrities," Dr Davis-McCabe tells the ABC. "They seem so available, so approachable, and on social media, they seem so relatable."
The result? A celebrity’s generic breakup announcement to millions feels like a personalised text from a close friend.
A-lister power couples and loved-up influencers alike, the relationships of famous duos also offer a welcome distraction from the mundane or difficult aspects of our lives – something this year appears to have no shortage of.
In the case of Bennifer, the later-in-life rekindling of Lopex and Affleck’s love not only gave us a much-needed dose of nostalgia but provided a beacon of hope for second chances.
And while keeping thorough tabs on the couple’s nuptials and red-carpet appearances certainly brought many people joy, their messy breakup over the past week also appears to be scratching a particular itch for some.
According to Denis Muller, from the University of Melbourne's Centre for Advancing Journalism, there’s usually an element of schadenfreude – deriving pleasure from others’ misfortune – involved in a surge of public interest in a celebrity’s breakup.
"When the great and good come crashing down we have a good deal of pleasure," he says.