It’s Time Celebrities Get (Love Life) Privacy

Sometimes it’s not when your friend first breaks up with her ex that they need the most consolidation. It’s when they relapse.

We are human, and the process isn’t always linear when it comes to moving on. We fumble, fall down and sometimes we text the same person our friends begged us not to. It doesn’t make you a weak person, but it usually ends up in more tears than the first time you said you were done.

Looking at pop culture, it’s kind of comical how hypocritical human beings can be. We, average Joes, go back to our exes all the time and make mistakes that we are humiliated to tell our friends, but at the end of the day, we are human, humans that expect celebrities to be superhuman.

Exes having a one-time reunion like Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes at Coachella or Harry Styles and Emily Ratajkowski having a spicy, heat-of-the-moment kiss in front of cameras; celebrities are not afforded the privacy we are.

It comes with fame, and they know that, but fans are just as much the problem as the paparazzi. We take these moments of “weakness” and create a whole buzz out of it (even if it ends up true). We turn what was meant to be a moment between two people and turn it into the next day’s news.

Celebrities’ lives are public for good reason. They provide entertainment, joy or some form of purpose to their audiences who adore and cherish them. In return, they get famous and get a fat paycheck. But using celebrities to fuel gossip and scrutiny doesn’t do anything but generate hate and an unhealthy obsession with people who mostly don’t even know on a personal level.

The public lifestyle isn’t for the fainthearted, and many of the most adored and well-known celebrities express their disdain for the limelight. Billie Eilish said being famous is trash, Robert Pattinson said fame takes away your normal life, Megan Fox said being a celebrity is like being bullied on a global scale, Gigi Hadid said she lost friends, etc.

To us, these kinds of complaints deserve only tiny violins. But to celebrities – still humans – these problems create real mental health issues and affect their personal lives.

Most famously, the made-up rumors regarding Selena Gomez and her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber have caused real damage. Both Gomez and Hailey Bieber took to Instagram practically begging their fans to knock off the gossip as it caused real pain in their lives.

So what is the solution to this kind of gossip? There might not be one. The internet and drama sites thrive off making up rumors based on small bits of information. What we can do as fans and as humans try to take a step back before disseminating information around to our friends. Ask first, “How would I feel if this information was about me?”

What do you think about celebrity gossip, particularly celebs getting with their exes? Let us know by tweeting us @VALLEYmag.

Related