While we’re still reeling from the emotional roller coaster that was the premiere of The Favourite on Sunday night, there’s other big TV news that’s still sinking in. The biggest, in fact, is that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s breakup was front-page news for much of the week. And while their professional breakup has certainly dominated headlines, the personal side of the split has been just as significant. After eight years of marriage, the Breaking Dawn actors finally decided to call it quits – and it was all over social media. Here, we’ll examine the fascinating back-and-forth between these two mega-celebrities as our social media landscape was illuminated by their public displays of affection and rancour.
From Apology To Accusation
On Tuesday, the international breakaway star and her actor husband-to-be each expressed their anguish at the breaking of their engagement. In a joint statement, the couple apologised to their fans for the pain they’ve caused. And for the first time, we were privy to some details of their private lives that had gone unreported for so long. For example, while Stewart had previously admitted to cheating on Pattinson with actor Alex Coba, the details of their affair had never been made public. So for all the world to see, Pattinson and Stewart went public with their reconciliation and vowed to never break up again. On Wednesday, as their fans continued to show their support, the couple took to Instagram to add some context to their original statement. “We are both deeply grateful for all the love and support that our relationship has been blessed with,” they wrote. “Even though this may be hard for us to believe, we are stronger than ever and look forward to continuing down this road together.”
What emerged, however, was that while Stewart had initially said she was “sorry” for cheating on Pattinson with Coba, the apology wasn’t genuine. “She was actually very angry with him, and she wanted him to feel guilty,” a source close to the actress told People. “She wanted to teach him a lesson.” But teaching lessons never seemed to be one of Stewart’s strong suits, and it was clear she felt Coba had done nothing wrong. She also, apparently, felt that Pattinson had done nothing to harm her marriage, either. Even though the pair had spent almost a decade as a couple, Stewart had apparently harboured serious doubts about their relationship from the very beginning. According to the same source, she once confided in a friend that she had been “terrified” of getting married, worried that it would hurt her acting career. As if to prove her point, she ended up cheating on Pattinson with the very person she was supposed to be marrying. Even though their statement attempted to paper over these cracks in their otherwise perfect Hollywood union, it was clear that the cheating had never really stopped even after they got engaged. In fact, it had just gone into overdrive.
The Beginning Of The End
On Thursday, as the dust began to settle following the premiere of The Favourite, fans woke up to the reality that Stewart and Pattinson’s fairy-tale wedding had, in fact, been a sham. The wedding date had, in fact, been selected to purposely leave just enough time for Stewart to hide the pregnancy of her third child. And while some might find the revelation that their favourite movie actor is not, in fact, the man they thought they were marrying funny, it wasn’t. For many, the discovery that Stewart was essentially marrying an imposter brought back painful memories of their own marriage controversies. In the case of Stewart, it was the revelation that she had been having an affair with film director Ryan Gosling that sparked the end of their engagement. In the case of Pattinson, it was the media scrutiny of his sex life, which became a running theme during his marriage to Stewart. Both of these revelations, coupled with the fact that neither actor nor director has ever been shy about their sexuality, brought into focus the sham nature of their “wedding day”. While it was certainly an attempt at a private happy ending for the two actors, it was, in fact, a public display meant to shock and impress their adoring fanbases. Even though Stewart and Pattinson both appear to have genuinely loved each other, it was never going to be enough. Ultimately, their need to “prove” their commitment to each other and their fans proved fatal. There’s a reason why this week’s breaking news was so much bigger than anything that usually makes the headlines – the reality that our beloved celebs aren’t, in fact, who we think they are is often just as shocking as the drama that ensues when their sham marriages are exposed. When it comes to love and marriage, appearances can be deceiving, and the truth will always come out sooner or later.