Our favourite A-listers get very real about the complex feelings that accompany a divorce and the power that it can have in setting you free...
A common post-divorce feeling is a sense of failure and despite knowing deep down that you did everything that you could to make it work, having that niggling worry that you could have somehow done more.
It's easy to think that celebrities are immune to these feelings but as these 11 women prove, no amount of fame or success can spare you post-divorce pain.
Here are 11 quotes about divorce from some of our favourite females, who not only went through the heart-wrenching pain of separation but came out stronger because of it...
1) Olivia Wilde ‘The good thing about getting divorced young – if there is a good thing – is that it makes you realize there’s no schedule in life. It blasts you wide open and frees you to be honest with yourself.’
2) Jennifer Aniston ‘There are many stages of grief. It's sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open. When you try to avoid the pain, it creates greater pain. I'm a human being, having a human experience in front of the world. I try really hard to rise above it.’
3) Jennifer Lopez ‘There's no pain or failure like going through a divorce.’
4) Eva Longoria ‘I remember a friend of mine got a divorce right before me when it wasn’t even on my radar to be divorced, and I go, “How exciting! Aren’t you excited? You get to date people, you get to have a first kiss, a first date, a first sex with somebody. Isn’t that great? It’s gonna be fun!” When I got divorced, she was like, “Aren’t you excited?” And I was like, “No. Fuck you! Don’t give me my advice!”’
5) Heidi Klum ‘People say, “Oh, God, how devastating to go through a divorce.” Did I wish for this to happen to my family? No. But everyone is healthy; we’re moving on with our lives.’
6) Drew Barrymore ‘I put in my statement about divorce the word "failure" because it's so honest. Like, when you get divorced, you break up with somebody and you're like, "Yeah, that didn't work," and you get divorced, [but] when you get divorced you're like, "I'm the biggest failure. This is the biggest failure." It's so shameful and hard to actually go through that, even privately.’
7) Katy Perry ‘There are two ways you can go: You can either nurture yourself or go destructive. I have gone down the destructive path before, and that didn’t work for me. You dig deep beyond those scars and find that soft tissue again, and you massage and nurture it and bring it to life, little by little, through serving yourself well. I did it through hikes and vitamins and therapy and prayer and good friends.’
8) Kate Hudson ‘That process of discovering with somebody that you love that you don’t work is so painful.’
9) Gwyneth Paltrow ‘Of course, there are times when I think it would have been better if we had stayed married, which is always what your children want. But we have been able to solidify this friendship, so that we're really close. We've made a lot of mistakes, and we've had good days and bad days, but I have to say, I'm proud of us for working through so much stuff together, and not blaming and shaming.’
10) Scarlett Johansson
‘I feel I know now more of what I need in a relationship, what I want in a relationship. And I know I have more tools to communicate, not just with my partner, but with myself. That’s not necessarily any reflection of who I was married to or what was happening in my marriage, but really where I was in my life.’
11) Courteney Cox ‘In divorce you always have regrets. We were married for a long time, so it’s not like we didn't try.'
