“How dignified is it to fool fans who sympathize with you for seven years?”
Journalist and society watcher Ella Vermeulen comments on the world of Hollywood and its surroundings. This time she focuses on the so-called ‘Silent Divorce’, which we got to know extensively this year.
Big secrets
Celebrities, dependent on publicity for their livelihood, who deliberately keep things secret? It feels a bit unnatural. And yet it is becoming increasingly common for people to get married and give birth in silence. It’s great that they succeed, usually a happy message goes out within a few weeks. Not so with the Silent Divorce, which has become a Hollywood trend this year.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett appear to have been living apart for almost seven years. Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Jackman had also been separated for quite some time before officially announcing their divorce earlier this year after 24 years of marriage. And Meryl Streep and Don Gummer, who celebrated 45 years of marriage on September 30, “ended the romantic nature of their relationship” six years ago, as Meryl casually admitted.
Shine
You can say this is a private matter, but personally I feel quite lied to. So sometimes what I have written about these people in recent years was simply not true, because I relied in good faith on the information they themselves provided. Meryl and Don were considered a celebrity monument to a long and fun marriage. Hugh Jackman liked to make it seem as if Deb (“My rock! My anchor!”) and he had an ideal relationship. And all that time, Will and Jada could talk in interviews and talk shows about virtually nothing other than their special relationship in which love for each other always won.
Jada says they called it a day because they were “exhausted from trying to make something out of it.” Human, familiar and recognizable to many people. We fully understand that you will each go your own way. But then to keep up the appearance for seven years (!) that you are a special set, tormented here and there, but always devoted to each other? Then you are very much under the spell of self-interest.
Will who threw a punch at the Academy Awards last year because ‘his wife’ had been insulted and he wanted to defend her honor? He should have gotten an Oscar for it. All those pretentious interviews in which Jada gushed about their special relationship? Fake. The fact that Jada suddenly can’t stop talking about the truth may have something to do with the promotion of her memoir Worthy, which in this case is the most cynical title ever.
What on earth can we believe about what she writes there for 416 pages? How dignified is it to fool fans who sympathize with you for seven years? I suspect that the reputational damage to Smith and Pinkett from this unworldly nonsense is many times greater than a normal breakup would have been.
Silent divorce? From now on, just send out a modest statement and don’t wait years to do it.
This article comes from the latest Glamial. In every edition, journalist and society watcher Ella Vermeulen gives her unvarnished opinion about the stars and shenanigans of Hollywood. In our December edition you will also find an extensive interview with Real Housewives Tamara Elbaz and Maria Tailor, we speak to various celebrities about their turbulent 2023, and we ask actor Ferri Somogyi the proverbial question. Now in stores!
