What do Melinda Gates, Kim Kardashian West, and Zoe Kravitz all have in common? They’re rich, they’re powerful, and, maybe best of all, they’re single and ready to mingle. In the
past year, those three titans—along with a host of other influential women—have dipped out of their long-term relationships. Whether they’ve divorced, consciously uncoupled, or burned the last remnants of their relationship in an acid Twitter exchange, the results are the same. Like many Americans in the wake of the COVID pandemic, they’re leaving their partners for greener, freer pastures. Likely listed under the cause of divorce? Hot Girl Summer is approaching.
Celebrity breakups are merely an aperture through which to view a national phenomenon among non-famous folks: couples everywhere are reevaluating their relationships. “By April, the interest in divorce had already increased by 34% in the US, with newer couples being the most likely to file for divorce,” The National Law Review reported in the fall of 2020. “Some predict a continuation of this trend, anticipating that divorce rates will increase between 10% and 25% in the second half of the year.”
Add a new log to the fire of Hot Girl Summer with every set of served papers.
Currently, divorce rates are actually down nationwide in what some experts predict will be a temporary lull before courts are more accessible. But there's one notable exception. Gates’s situation is a perfect example of what’s known as a “grey divorce,” or a separation between people 50 and older. While divorce rates overall have slid over the past decade as people have chosen partners more carefully, grey divorces have actually gone up. In many cases, these are people who probably rushed into marriage before more free-wheeling dating attitudes were prevalent and found themselves stuck in a relationship that was no longer working.
According to Orange County-based Family Law and Divorce specialist attorney Wendy Fountain, cabin fever and lockdown conditions have also forced married couples to take a long hard look at their partner, and go a long way toward explaining these separations. But Fountain says there’s something bigger at play: women of all ages have done some fruitful soul-searching during the pandemic. “You see people coming out of it, particularly women who haven't necessarily thought out a career path and have come up with some plans for their future,” says Fountain. “Whether they're going into nursing or I have a young client who's going into beauty school. They're all picking up a path to be more specific and more driven.”
This is maybe not a coincidence. Fountain says that celebrity divorces that play out publicly—and sometimes messily—in the media go a long way towards defining how average Joes and Jills expect their own proceedings to play out. That strong, independent women are pressing the eject button on their own marriages and carving out their own path might explain at least in part why Fountain is seeing her clients do the same.
Anyone getting a divorce or leaving a long-term relationship will have a long list of breakup inspiration to graze from. These celebrities aren’t your typical downtrodden and heartbroken newly single caricatures; they are single and thriving. Add a new log to the fire of Hot Girl Summer with every set of served papers: Kardashian made Forbes's list as a billionaire while studying for the California State Bar exam, Kravitz resumed shooting her role as Catwoman for Batwoman, Saweetie left Quavo and has released three #1 songs over the past year, Jennifer Lopez booty-called Ben Affleck and launched her eponymous beauty line, Melinda Gates will still have a powerful stake in one of the most powerful philanthropic foundations in the world.
What’s emerging from these breakups is the strong female protagonist. What once was a system that held women back seems to be shifting, if ever so slightly. Women from Kardashian to your friend from high school who got married at 23 are now in control—the hottest of Hot Girl shit. In the word’s of Kim's latest Instagram selfie, “Main character.”