Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel likened US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow during his show on Wednesday night.
The two world leaders met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in California on Wednesday on what marked the Chinese president’s first trip to the US in six years.
Since his 2017 visit, relations have frayed between the two nations – exacerbated by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August 2022 visit to Taiwan and the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon which flew over the continental US this February.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Mr Biden and Mr Jinping agreed to resume lines of communication between their respective countries’ defence departments, marking a step forwards towards normalising relations between the US and China.
Ahead of the meeting, Mr Biden said in a statement: “We’re not trying to decouple from China. What we’re trying to do is change the relationship for the better.”
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel likened US president Joe Biden and Chinese president Xi Jinping to Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow— (ABC)
Mr Kimmel had an interesting interpretation of Mr Biden’s choice of words.
“In other words, we are Chris Martin and China is Gwyneth Paltrow,” he joked.
Mr Kimmel added: “Things are shaky right now between the US and China. This is the diplomatic version of a married couple dropping the kids at the in-laws to spend the night at a hotel so they can get things back on track.”
Mr Martin and Ms Paltrow divorced in 2014. At the time, Ms Paltrow used the term “conscious uncoupling” to describe their parting of ways.
The unusual choice of words prompted backlash and mockery around the world.
Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow— (Getty Images)
The phrase, first coined by Katherine Woodward Thomas, is used to describe an amicable divorce where both partners accept responsibility for the separation and look to create a healthy relationship in the future, according to experts.
Ms Paltrow said that, by using the term, the former couple were able to “circumvent” the pain and anger of divorce and focus on their children Apple and Moses.
Since their divorce, Ms Paltrow has described her ex-husband as a “good friend”.
