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Heartbreak has a way of cracking you wide open, creating a chasm so deep it can swallow you whole. In 2023, Lupita Nyong’o found herself diving headfirst into the abyss when she announced her split from boyfriend Selema Masekela. In an Instagram post, she opened up about her “season of heartbreak” caused by “a love suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception.” It was a rare display of vulnerability from Nyong’o, who is notoriously private about her personal life.
During an interview for Glamour magazine, the Mexican-Kenyan actress said she took to social media to share her sad story to challenge Instagram’s “flex zone” of curated moments.
“I wanted to be honest,” she explains to the publication. “Honestly, the thought of having to update people one at a time was going to be harrowing. I had made the choice to share the relationship with the world, and I wanted to make the choice to share the end of it with the world.”
It was a challenging decision. Nyong’o wrestled with the idea and wanted to give herself the space and time to grieve. “I knew that announcing it or sharing it with the world would mean there would be a reverb and I would have to deal with the onset of that,” she says.
“There is a time to be open and there’s a time not to be, and I chose that time to be open,” she says. “I’m very happy with what I did, and I don’t want to do it anymore. I don’t want to share that part of myself anymore.”
After warning the world that she doesn’t want to talk about her ex anymore, Nyong’o revealed that she credits her cat Yoyo for pulling her out of what she describes as a “super-low” point in her breakup.
With her heart “severely broken,” she found solace in her mother, who reportedly rushed to her side from Kenya. “I was really having a hard time believing in joy,” she says. “I was flirting with depression. I wasn’t there yet, but I was flirting with it. And I had a voice say in my head, ‘Get a cat.’”
As informed by the publication, Nyong’o had fallen in love with the cat she worked with for “A Quiet Place: Day One.” She mentioned this to her friend, who made appointments at shelters and adoption centers the next day. At first, Nyong’o wasn’t sold on the idea, but when she arrived at Best Friends Animal Society, she saw a sign. “There was a poster that said something like, ‘Not over your ex? Foster a cat,’” she says. “It was spot-on.”
The shelter paired her with Yoyo, and after two days of fostering, she knew: “This cat isn’t going anywhere,” she says. “I guess the best anecdote for when you feel poorly taken care of is to take care of something. And I took care of Yoyo and he pried my heart open.”
Nyong’o’s openness about her breakup and subsequent healing process is a poignant reminder of the human capacity for resilience. Her story illuminates the often-hidden struggles behind the public personas of celebrities. It shows how even those who seem to have it all can face profound emotional challenges.