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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Amber Raiken

Katy Perry reveals why she and Orlando Bloom split up for a year

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Louise Thomas

Louise Thomas

Editor

Katy Perry has revealed why she and fiancé Orlando Bloom split up for a year.

The 39-year-old singer spoke candidly about the ups and downs of her long-term relationship during Wednesday’s episode of Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast. While the pair got together in 2016, they split in 2017 for about a year before reconciling. According to Perry, that brief time apart was for the better, since she and Bloom were at different places in their lives.

“We weren’t really in it from day one,” she said. “He was because he had just done a huge time of celibacy and he had set intentions. I was fresh out of a relationship, and I was like, I can’t do this anymore. I need to swim in a different pond, but I had yet to do a lot of real work.”

She then recalled that at the time, Bloom had gone to a week-long retreat called The Hoffman Process, where he “rewired” the way he thought about himself and discussed some of his negative behaviors. Perry noted that when Bloom got back from the retreat, his approach to the relationship changed, which she wasn’t ready for.

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom arrive at Variety's Power of Women event in 2021
Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom arrive at Variety's Power of Women event in 2021 (Getty Images for Variety)

“He wasn’t playing that cat-mouse game anymore. And I was like, ‘This is boring. I’m moving on,’” the “Firework” singer admitted. “I was so used to this push-pull. Because once you have it. I was playing games.”

After acknowledging that she had “a really tough year” during her split from Bloom, she decided to go to The Hoffman Process herself. During the retreat, Perry “got the tools” and “learned the same language” as the Pirates of the Caribbean star, which “changed her life.”

“I would not be on this planet without that process, and meditation,” she said. “When Witness came out and things started to shift, and I thought I really loved myself. I thought I really had that center, but actually that core was created from outside validation. It just helped me rewire what I think about myself, and it helped me connect my head to my heart.”

Perry – who shares a four-year-old daughter, Daisy, with Bloom – then shared that she was the one who reached out to her now-fiancé before they got back together. Earlier in the episode, she opened up about the current dynamics of her and Bloom’s relationship, revealing that they’re in couple’s therapy.

“Orlando and I, we do a lot of couple’s therapy and we want to evolve,” she explained. “That’s why we’re in this relationship – to become better humans so that we can raise this amazing human being,” she said.

Perry added that one of her strongest love languages is “acts of service”, which involves doing things for a partner that make their life easier or more enjoyable.

She also shared that when she and Bloom went on a couple’s retreat, one of the leaders of the retreat asked them: “Which guy has more sex, the guy who drives the red Ferrari or the guy that helps out his wife every night in the kitchen?”

“In the kitchen was the answer,” Perry revealed. “Orlando knows all that and he hears me. He meets me there now. We’re fortunate enough to have a housekeeper but on the weekends, he knows that that’s important.

Perry added: “Relationships are just about growing. If you’ve stopped growing with the person or you’ve graduated, it’s time to go... We’re really just there to sharpen each other.”

After rekindling their relationship, Bloom proposed in front of Perry’s friends and family in 2019. The Lord of the Rings star also has a 13-year-old son, Flynn, who he shares with his ex-wife, Miranda Kerr.

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