Black Monday has taken on a new meaning as fans everywhere are in mourning one day after Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced their separation.
In a joint statement, the actors said they were “disappointed” because they “tried hard for a long time” to save their marriage of eight years. That was news to many as Pratt, 38, and Faris, 40, seemed like one of the few rock-solid couples in Hollywood. However, in between their adorable social media posts and charming interview anecdotes, there were signs that Chris and Anna were having issues … we just missed them. (Or chose to look the other way).
In late July, Faris stepped out for the Emoji Movie premiere with their 4-year-old son, Jack. Both Chris and her upgraded engagement ring were noticeably absent. Still, she wore a band on her ring finger, and given Pratt’s hectic schedule it didn’t seem too odd.
Now, reexamining an interview Anna gave on the red carpet three weeks ago, it’s clear something was going on. The actress talked with People magazine about how being a celebrity power couple with Pratt has its challenges.
“I don’t think that’s something, when you’re an actor, that you’re prepared for,” she said, three weeks before announcing their split. “There are two different roles that you play — the one on-camera and the one in public. … That’s the tricky part.”
Faris added that she and Pratt have a secret emoji they use when they need a break from Hollywood. “I send the emoji of an eagle landing to say, ‘Let’s get away to the islands,'” Faris told the magazine. “We both grew up in Washington State, and we have a place up there.”
While that’s pretty cute, it also touches on what appears to be a big factor in their split: Hollywood.
Over the years, Anna and Chris have been candid about life in the spotlight and the challenges it brings. After all, everything that they loved about each other was about as non-Hollywood as you could get. Anna and Chris grew up 20 minutes away from each other — although they never met — and their Washington roots ended up being just one of the many things they had in common.
“Anna and I are meant to be together. Our relationship has made me believe in divine intervention and destiny, just as much as my crazy career and the way I fell into this life,” Pratt revealed in a 2015 Reddit AMA. “We both got our start in horror spoofs … we both made our careers playing guileless nitwits for laughs.”
Pratt and Faris met in 2007 on set of the film Take Me Home Tonight. They wed two years later.
“It was like magnets,” Pratt recalled to Elle in 2015. “Our personalities meshed, she was a goofball, she liked to have fun, it was impossible to offend her. I just remember thinking, Wow, in another life, that’s who I want to be with — we would be so good together, I just know it.”
At the time, Faris was married to actor Ben Indra. Anna and Ben wed in 2004, but as her career took off, his stalled. “That kind of destroyed my marriage,” she confessed to Marie Claire. “The divide became too great.”
Faris and Indra split in 2007, and soon after, she began dating Pratt. When they wed in 2009 the House Bunny actress was once again the bigger star in her marriage.
“I’ve had those moments where I was like the guy holding the purse at events and people just looked right through me. And, you know, actors come up and just blatantly hit on my wife in front of me and don’t even look at me,” Pratt recalled to GQ a few years ago. “I’m like, ‘What the f***, dude?'”
It didn’t stay that way for long. Pratt, who played Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation from 2009 to 2015, made the transition to movie star in 2014 with Guardians of the Galaxy. His film career hasn’t slowed down since with The Lego Movie, Jurassic World, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 under his belt. As for Faris, she gave birth to their son Jack in 2012 and went from film to TV. She’s been starring in the CBS sitcom Mom since 2013.
Pratt was asked by GQ whether it’s weird in a marriage like his how the fame balance keeps readjusting itself. “Mmm … I think it probably could affect … I think it’s something you have to manage,” he replied.
As Pratt’s star began to take off in 2015, so too did the cheating rumors. “I had always kind of believed that part of the rumors of celebrity couples were sort of true because they had never been part of my life,” Faris admitted to Us Weekly in August 2015. “This has been blindsiding to us. We have an incredible relationship. It has been weirdly stinging.”
Still, Faris attempted to brush them off, adding, “I am very lucky that I am with a man [who] values family.”
Apparently it was easier said than done to ignore the chatter. During an episode of her podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified, the actress said that time period was one of their first major challenges as a couple.
“We grapple with a lot of the ideas of being a public couple,” she said in November 2016. “We were in the public a little bit, there were some tabloid rumors about strain on our relationship. … I take pride in how great my relationship is with Chris, but having said that, of course, in this crazy world where he’s off doing movies and I’m in L.A. raising our child, of course I’m going to feel vulnerable, like any normal human would.” Even though she knew the rumors were false, Faris said, “It made me feel incredibly very insecure.”
Still, Faris was always up for playing the role of supportive wife. In December, she accompanied Pratt to the premiere of Passengers — with an upgraded six-carat diamond ring on her finger — and joined him on his worldwide press tour for Guardians 2 earlier this year.
The support didn’t go unappreciated by Pratt who thanked his wife on many occasions. Still, with the swoon-worthy love declarations came some sort of mention of challenges.
“With every challenge, with every day, week, month, decade, we become more bonded,” Pratt said this April at his Walk of Fame Ceremony. “You make me laugh like nobody else. You’re very caring, and thank you for your trust and your sacrifice — and for your dedication and your heart. I will do my best to protect it, and in return I will give you all of those things as well,” he said. “You have my heart, my dedication, my trust.”
When introducing her husband, Faris gushed, “I know that if our circumstances were different and we weren’t as fortunate to be standing here and living our Hollywood life, we would be happy in the woods together, I think.”
Unfortunately, living in the woods isn’t the route the two stars have chosen. Pratt immediately went back to filming Jurassic World 2 while Faris shot the Overboard reboot in Vancouver. In May, there were still sweet Instagram posts, but those have tapered off over the summer.
Not surprisingly, the working theory as to the cause of their split seems to be hectic schedules. A source tells People that Faris often seemed unhappy while Pratt was away filming and that the separation proved challenging.
In looking back at their quotes, clearly the signs were there that could be the case.
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