Sent you a private message… are you really going to leave me on read? 🥺💕 Tap to open.
Celebrity couple splits are often salacious or scandalous, but sometimes, they’re just really, really sad. Here are 14 celeb couples who divorced or broke up for heartbreaking reasons:
1. Jesy Nelson and Zion Foster were together from 2022 to 2026. They got engaged in 2025, but they ended things after their twin daughters, Ocean and Story, were both diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Type 1.
The couple met on a night with their close friends, who were dating at the time. They went on to welcome their daughters in May 2025. Eight months later, Jesy shared their diagnosis in an Instagram video, saying, “After the most grueling three, four months, and endless appointments, the girls have now been diagnosed with a severe muscular disease called SMA type 1. We were told that they’re probably never gonna be able to walk, they probably will never regain their neck strength, so they will be disabled. And so the best thing we can do right now is to get them treatment and then just hope for the best. … I have to be grateful because, at the end of the day, they’re still here and that’s the main thing, and they’ve had the treatment. And I truly believe that my girls will defy all the odds and, with the right help, they will fight this.”
In February 2026, Jesy shared the news of her split from Zion, telling the Daily Mail, “We have been through such a traumatic experience, and for us, our girls are our main priority and our main focus. We want to give them the most positive, happy, and uplifting time and energy, and because we have both been through such a traumatic experience, the energy wasn’t right between us, which is understandable. We are still friends, and we are still united in co-parenting our daughters. They are our main focus; that’s all we can do, be the best possible parents we can right now.”
Jesy also continued speaking out about SMA and campaigning for all babies to be checked for SMA after birth. Her petition reached 100,000 in a little over a day, triggering a debate in the UK’s House of Commons. Previously, in a January TikTok post, she shared, “Yesterday I met with Health Secretary Wes Streeting to discuss my campaign for all babies in the UK to be tested for Spinal Muscular Atrophy at birth, a cause that has become deeply personal after my girls were diagnosed with this life-changing condition. My hope is that no family has to wait for answers, and that every child can access treatment as early as possible. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far and to all the families that have been fighting for this for years, your voices are helping us push for real change.”
2. Pete Davidson and Ariana Grande’s 2018 whirlwind engagement ended after the death of her longtime friend and ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller, by accidental overdose. Ariana and Mac were friends for four years before they started dating in 2016. They broke up in May 2018.
On Twitter in a since-deleted post, Ariana called her relationship with Mac “toxic,” adding, “I have cared for him and tried to support his sobriety for years (and always will, of course). But shaming / blaming women for a man’s inability to keep his shit together is a very major problem. Let’s please stop doing that. Of course I didn’t share about how hard or scary it was while it was happening but it was. I will pray from the bottom of my heart that he figures it all out and that any other woman in this position does as well.” Reports that she was dating Pete emerged a few weeks after news of her breakup with Mac hit the press. Around a month into their relationship, they announced their engagement. She told the Zach Sang Show, “We were just hanging out, and he had a ring, and he just asked me. It was really sweet. He didn’t get on a knee or anything, thank God…oh my God, that would’ve been so googly. I’m not like a very traditional person, so the fact that I’m even getting married is something I never even saw coming…like, I never wanted that. I was like, ‘Fuck that, there’s no point…what’s the point?’ And then I kinda understood it when it was, like, with the right person.”
