Break ups are a dime a dozen. Some happen below the radar, too insignificant to cause a stir, or trigger the curiosity of the public.
Some breakups are high profile. They burst out of the undercurrent of mainstream news, grabbing our attention for days, sometimes, weeks.
What makes a breakup news worthy though? It varies from whether the parties involved are celebrities or just well known, to what causes the split.
These breakups can begin small—a tiny column in a gossip magazine, to a colorful spot on the front page itself. And the very, very messy ones can stay in our faces for long periods of time.
This article presents 15 of the very messy ones that made their way into social media that you may have forgotten about.
15 Social Media Breakups That Got Really Really Messy
1. Gcinle Twala and Grootman Selahle
This couple were a hot item on social media—Twitter now X, Instagram and Facebook, they were everywhere. They splashed our screens with lovey dovey pictures of them living the life.
Twala, a makeup artist, is baby mama to Grootman, a forex trader.
Suddenly peace left paradise and these two went at each other which led to a breakup that blew up the internet for days. They could have kept things on the low but Grootman said, “Here, hold my beer.”
Grootman—allegedly—released a tape showing Twala masturbating and doing other stuff that was supposed to be private.
The internet was in flames and fans were split on who to support. Shortly after this, Grootman threatened to release another tape of her ex.
Twala responded by telling Grootman to lawyer up. She has since filed a lawsuit.
2. Tahnee Cook and Ollie Skelton
Fans of Married At First Sight were shocked in December 2023 when Tahnee Cook and Ollie Skelton broke up.
The couple seemed like a match made in heaven. Well you might say it always seems that way before the disaster happens.
After all that talk about “it was a journey filled with love”, what happened, really?
This couple didn’t say much about why they split. As many celebrities do, they simply said they enjoyed each other’s company and were going their separate ways.
Fans were broken. They cried, rolled on the floor of the internet, begging, asking, “Why??”
It didn’t take long before we got our answers—or what we think was the real reason for the split. Ollie was the one who began filling us in on post-relationship shenanigans.
Ollie said Tahnee was messaging his exes, hacked into his instagram, and sent photos of his diary to his exes.
Wild. There was uproar as some fans who were in support of Tahnee accused Ollie of lying. Those in support of Ollie asked why Tahnee would do such a nasty thing.
There was a subgroup on social media who thought Ollie shouldn’t have brought the accusation
3. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
First, you already know it’s going to be messy when it concerns Ye. He makes hit rap songs, but he can be extremely petty about folks he doesn’t like. Give him a podcast microphone and he’ll go off giving you all the tees.
Everyone thought he and his wife Kim were going for the power couple thing like Jay and Beyonce. And it looked that way for a while.
Fans on social media fawned over this couple. Young girls wanted to have a man like Kanye. Then the reports started trickling in about trouble in paradise.
In February 2021 Kim filed for divorce. Kanye went ballistic with threats which he posted on social media.
Some of the threats were meant for Pete Davidson who was seeing Kim at the time.
Fans on social media couldn’t get enough of the mess. The mess was turned up many notches when Kanye Kim wouldn’t let Kanye see their kids.
4. Joe Jonas and Taylor Swift
You know this one couldn’t have stayed off social media nor could it have stayed off the mess-o-meter.
Not with Swifties lurking around the net, stalking the life of young Taylor. This messy breakup happened in 2008 so this is an honorable mention.
Taylor got angry that Jonas broke up with her in a 27 second phone call after they dated for 4 months. So what did she do?
And here’s where the mess was—she got on Myspace and made a video to mock Jonas with a Camp Rock doll.
Swifties cheered as she released songs like Last Kiss and Better Than Revenge referencing the lost relationship.
5. Eden Harper and Jayden Eynaud
Eden and Jayden exchanged vows on Married At First Sight and then continued their relationship even after the show.
It was emotional when they exchanged those vows and fans became invested in their relationship, rooting for it to last the test of time. It didn’t.
And you know what, Eden even posted mushy videos of their life after the show on social media. So when the relationship eventually ended it was only appropriate that online inlaws be told all about.
Around April this year Eden posted on her instagram about their breakup. She told the world that the person—Jayden—she chose, didnt choose her.
She had hoped for a fairytale—why do ladies always hope for what’s impossible to have—but haven’t gotten it.
It can be all quiet on the western front but you know there’s always more. Eden mentioned in an interview that she wasn’t on talking terms with Jayden on account of his disrespectful behavior.
Hmm, I wonder what this disrespectful behavior is. She also never wants to get back with her ex again.
From what we can gather, it appears the disrespect refers to the manner in which Jayden broke up eden. According to her, it was one of their dinner nights.
It was going as planned until it wasn’t—they ate and he broke up with her right there. Fans on social media got the memo, they didn’t like it.
6. Michael Cartlidge and Charlotte Cox
Charlotte Cox and Micheal Cartlidge won the lotto while in a relationship. But soon after, Charlotte broke up with Micheal and was going to claim the whole money from the lottery for herself. Michael wasn’t going to let that happen.
Micheal said it was his idea to buy the scratch card and was even going to lend her the cash to buy it.
Charlotte on the other hand claimed that since she bought the card with her own money, and scratched it with her own hand, everything belongs to her.
This dispute soon made it to social media, especially Facebook, where the fans, split between men and women, quickly took sides.
Many women have hailed Charlotte for the win and encouraged her to go on and enjoy her prize money without her ex.
Many people agree that the money belongs to Charlotte, and she could only share it with her ex, if she truly loved him. But as you can see, for some folks, money is more important than love.
7. Francesco Totti and Ilary Blasi.
Totti once wore a T-shirt proclaiming his love for Ilary Blasi. A footballer for Italy, he was celebrating a goal he scored when he tore his jersey and the world saw that T-shirt that said ‘You’reThe One’ written on it. It was a reference to Ilary.
They even got married on national TV. 20 years later, the couple became embroiled in what Messaggero, an Italian newspaper called The War of The Wardrobe.
Totti seized Ilary’s expensive shoes after accusing her of stealing his Rolexes. The story made it to social media causing a stir.
As to what led to the breakup, there’s alleged infidelity on the part of Totti. After their divorce, the two started a new kind of feud. Totti had been seen with a new woman named Noemi Bocchi, a florist, house hunting.
Ilary was also spotted out for dinner with a real estate investor. Both Totti and Ilary’s attempt to make the other jealous made it to the tabloids.
All of this happened in 2022 in case you’re wondering. At the time, the two were at each other’s necks over who gets what after the divorce.
Ilary wanted Totti out of the house they both owned. She also wanted a large portion of the fortune he made from playing football.
She went on many vacations and posted thirsty photos and videos of it on Instagram where fans ooed and ahhed. Then she filmed herself in front of a Rolex shop, likely as a taunt to her husband.
8. Clare Crawley and Dale Moss
This couple met on a the set of the TV show, The Bachelorette in 2020. The left the show, engaged, sure about life together, that it would be everything they each dreamed about.
By September of 2021, the relationship had soured.
Before this, there was social media back and forth between the two, mostly messy Instagram posts.
It was an emotional time for Crawley who complained that Dale didn’t consider her important enough to have a sit-down and talk about what how things fell apart between them.
In July 2020, they even got engaged. They gushed over each other, confessing how they thought the other was perfect.
Dale got on his knees and asked Clare to marry him. There were critics who thought Crawley rushed the whole thing and she shut them up by saying “at the end of the day, this is all for love.”
By January 2021, they had broken up. Dale announced on Instagram that it was the healthiest decision for them both.
By February, the two were spotted together again and by May they were engaged. In July they celebrated a one year anniversary only to break up again by September of the same year.
9. Noah Cyrus and Lil Xan.
These two dated for a few months then broke up in September of 2018. It was a mix of very messy and public Instagram posts from the two. In his own post, Lil Xan said he believed he’s been cheated on.
Noah on her part posted that she never cheated on her boyfriend and that she has screenshot proof. She cried in an Instagram post about how she was confused by Lil Xan’s reaction.
She said she had only sent a photoshopped photo of Charlie Puth to him which made Lil Xan believe she was cheating.
Lil Xan doubled down with an Instagram post about how it hurts to be used, an obvious reference to Noah.
A few days after this, Noah Cyrus jumped on social media to advise her fans to avoid people who would crush and crumble you. Then she accused Lil Xan of cheating on her too.
Noah posted a slew of reflections on her Instagram story. Lil Xan continued to claim his girlfriend cheated and that he was used. It was all together a messy breakup for the two.
10. Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner
The relationship started well for these two. They got engaged a year after they met and fans rooted for them especially after they married a few years later.
But in September of 2023, Jonas filed for divorce requesting for joint custody of their two kids, per their prenup.
What followed was an arduous back and forth in court. By November of that year, Sophie was spotted kissing Peregrine Pearson, a British aristocrat.
Another source said she was open to a new relationship, and that she was casually dating a few people.
Apparently, Jonas didn’t care about what Sophie did with her time as he was busy focusing on his career and family.
11. Ariana Grande and Dalton Gomez
With Ariana, it was the same with every other popular star’s relationship—fans hoped she had found her forever-after love. Then one day she was spotted without her wedding ring.
Reports came that the couple would be separating amicably. These things never go as planned though. We heard that Ariana had been involved in an affair with co-star Ethan Slater on the set of the film Wicked.
Fans on social media took sides with some saying Ariana was allowed to find love outside of her marriage.
Others thought cheating on her husband like that was terrible behavior and the actual reason for the divorce proceedings that began September of that year.
12. Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix
This is one of the most insane break-up social media witnessed. In 2022 Sandoval was having an affair the whole time with co-star Raquel Leviss.
By the next Valentine’s day Tom broke up with Madix. Things started going downhill and towards the mess that will later shake social media.
Madix was deeply hurt by Tom’s actions. She reportedly railed at him, and when Tom asked what else she wanted from him, Madix said, “For you to die.”
13. Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth
Miley and Hemsworth’s relationship was a peculiar one. It was on and off for a while until they decided to get married in 2018, to the surprise of fans on social media.
The peculiarities of their relationship didn’t stop after that. The two split less than a year and Miley hooked up with Kaitlyn Carter, a reality TV star.
Hemsworth couldn’t bear it so he filed for divorce. Just when social media thought Miley was all to blame, reports surfaced that Liam was cheating on her throughout the relationship.
Miley Cyrus wrote the song Flowers to reference his cheating.
14. Avril Lavigne and Mod Sun
Avril got a lot of backlash for this one on social media in 2023. These two were engaged to be married. Avril called off the engagement. She started dating Mod Sun’s friend, Tyga a week after.
The two hooked up for a collaboration and started dating after that. The marriage that almost happened would have been Avril’s third one.
This couple got really close. Sun celebrated her birthday on Instagram showering her with beautiful accolades.
After she was spotted having dinner with rapper Tyga, another source said the meeting was nothing special because the two were friends. Sun released a song called Strangers as a tell-all.
15. Calvin Harris and Rita Ora.
This is one of the rockiest breakups Twitter witnessed. Dispensing with the more traditional mode of text message, Harris broke up with Ora through a tweet. Like an office memo, the tweet came with a terse, official tone.
Even Ora learned about the fate of her relationship from the tweet too. So Harris wasn’t just intimating the internet, he was letting her know too.
Final Thoughts
Breakups are painful. It doesn’t matter who initiated it, or why it happened. And the pain of it can linger for extended periods.
It can even take years to heal from. Many people bring their breakups to social media for many reasons. For some, it is for validation, and others want to be consoled by strangers.
The messier the breakup, the more publicity. And this may be another reason people update their breakups on social media.
