Lupita Nyong’o is returning to keeping her love life private
The actress opened up about experiencing her first public relationship.
As rumors prevail about her dating Joshua Jackson amid his divorce from Jodie Turner-Smith, actress Lupita Nyong’o is no longer inviting the public into her love life.
The “A Quiet Place: Day One” star is reflecting on the last decade of her life, from her whirlwind rise in Hollywood to her first public relationship with Selema Masekela — which ended in October 2023 — as Porter’s digital cover star.
Nyong’o told the publication keeping her personal life private up until her relationship with Masekela had been “very, very sage of me.”
She added: “I’m going back to those days, by the way.”
When Nyong’o “hard-launched,” or publicly revealed, that she was dating Masekela in December 2022 on social media, she said, “It was because I felt sure about it.”
In October, after their relationship was “devastatingly extinguished by deception,” Nyong’o was moved to post about it to keep it real.
“I was living in a lot of pain and heartbreak. I looked at the environment of my social media and thought, I don’t want to be a part of this illusion that everything is always coming up roses,” she said. “Surely, there is a lesson for me to learn in this, and I just want to be real about it.”
According to her, she was nervous about announcing the split up until she shared news of it. Then, she felt relief — and less alone.
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“I knew how it could be interpreted; I knew it would have a life of its own,” Nyong’o admitted. “But then I started to see the comments, and people were being so loving and supportive. The ones that moved me the most were other people sharing their pain and their heartbreak.”
At the time of her breakup, the Academy Award winner thanked her fans for voicing their support and for sharing their own stories of heartache. According to People magazine, in posts on her Instagram story, she said, “Thank you for all the kindness I have received from sharing my heartbreak news. The words of encouragement mean more to me than I anticipated. They are a balm.”
“And it feels comforting,” she said, “to have a little corner online for the romantically heartbroken to gather.”
Speaking with Porter, Nyong’o expressed that despite having a lot to look forward to, she’s finding joy in the simple things and merely being “still alive.”
“I don’t need an extreme to be happy,” she said. “For me, right now, when I wake up, and I don’t feel a bout of tears well up, I rejoice.”
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