This is Please Like Me, BuzzFeed News’ newsletter about how influencers are battling for your attention. You can sign up here.
How do you Instagram a divorce?
This weekend, actor turned lifestyle and mommy blogger Eva Amurri Martino and her husband, former pro soccer player Kyle Martino, announced they had “made the difficult decision to lovingly part ways as a couple.”
Eva, the daughter of Susan Sarandon, and Kyle announced their split with simultaneous posts on both their Instagram and Twitter accounts. In the photo, they are beautiful and laughing on their porch with their two adorable young children, despite the somber message.
Fans were totally stunned, considering Eva is 23 weeks pregnant with the couple’s third child. The couple also has been remodeling a home and both posted declarations of love on their anniversary less than a month ago. Followers immediately began speculating what happened on various internet forums (not confirming or denying I read them), and they have become tabloid fodder.
Celebrities break up all the time, and people gossip and speculate. This is nothing new (and yes, I do consider influencers celebrities, in a sense).
Eva and Kyle’s divorce, however, raises an interesting question for the purposes of this newsletter. When your brand is your life, what do you do when bad stuff happens? How do you Instagram a divorce? Influencers usually handle this in three ways: They ignore it and “keep it off the feed,” they offer an unfiltered look at their hardship, or they go dark until the storm passes.
Eva has chosen an interesting combo option. She has kept up her usual posts and aesthetic, but mixed in the harsh realities of her new situation. Her activity over the past week features her usual glam, well-lit Instagrams, but with divorce talk sprinkled in. For example, she hosted a “slumber party” for her girlfriends, complete with makeup, pearls, and matching silk pajamas.
She also has been posting sponcon family shots, now missing a member.
For his part, Kyle posted this absolutely heartbreaking post the other day. Something about how peppy and lovely it looks kind of kills me? But good for them if the divorce is amicable?
I don’t judge Eva for keeping up her grid, or sponcon, in the midst of this turmoil. After all, she is about to be a divorced mom to three young children. I don’t fault her for keeping up an advertising schedule to run her business to support herself.
But I do feel for her predicament. Eva has, of course, by her own choice, turned her family and lifestyle into a brand. It would go against her brand to post the raw realities of what I’m sure she is feeling. But is this sanitized version better? I’m not sure. But then, what is the answer here? Not to be all “like and subscribe,” but I’d love to hear what you guys think. Shoot me an email in response to this newsletter.
And also? Can we stop referring to women as “pregnant” like it’s a title? K thanks.
And now for your weekly dose of cringe…
I had to share this sad content. Just take a look...
Yiiiikes. Now, this post (since deleted, obvi) is actually from last Christmas but has been floating around on Reddit this week. A user there blocked out all the names to protect the people involved, and I thought it’d be best to keep it that way.
God, can you imagine? A lot of people are trashing this woman and her husband, but I feel pity. She got caught red-handed! And to get shamed like that so publicly — cringe.
This phenomenon of people coopting pretty stoops and homes is actually pretty common nowadays, despite the fact that it is a pretty weird and rude thing to do. In this rather hilarious article from the Evening Standard earlier this year, Notting Hill homeowners detailed how their homes have become unwitting Instagram fodder.
“They’ll just set themselves up for hours on your doorstep with a range of outfits. They make no effort to move when people come in and out of their houses. I’ve come across our doorstep on Instagram many times,” one disgruntled homeowner told the newspaper.
I’d like to imagine that if I had such a beautiful home that young people were stopping on the streets to pose with it, I’d open up my arms to them in a benevolent act of hospitality. But realistically, I can understand how annoying and intrusive it would be.
So here’s a lesson this holiday season. ‘Gram away, but stay off the lawn.
—Stephanie
Want more? Here are other stories we were following this week.
The Husband Of The Founder Of A Popular Mommy Convention Was Charged With Possession Of Child Porn. She Said She Was His Victim. Our Lauren Strapagiel tells Alexzandra Higgins’ side of this heartbreaking story.
In The Age Of So-Called Cancel Culture, Jeffree Star Is Doing Fine. Our Scaachi Koul has this great look at Star’s career and who he has become.
The Anonymous Beauty Insiders Stirring Up Drama. The Cut is currently doing a great series called “Follow Me” about all types of influencers.