Lupita Nyong’o is reflecting on her recent split from former boyfriend Selema Masekela.
“I was living in a lot of pain and heartbreak,” Nyong’o, 40, told Net-A-Porter in a cover story published on Monday, February 26. “I looked at the environment of my social media and thought I don’t want to be a part of this illusion that everything is always coming up roses. Surely there is a lesson for me to learn in this, and I just want to be real about it.”
Nyong’o revealed in October that she and Masekela, 52, had called it quits.
“At this moment, it is necessary for me to share a personal truth and publicly dissociate myself from someone I can no longer trust. I find myself in a season of heartbreak because of a love suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception,” Nyong’o posted on Instagram at the time.
“I am tempted to run into the shadows and hide, only to return to the light when I have regained my strength enough for me to say, Whatever, my life is better this way,” she continued. “But I am reminded that the magnitude of the pain I am feeling is equal to the measure of my capacity for love. And so, I am choosing to face the pain, cultivating the courage to meet my life exactly as it is, and trusting that this too shall pass.”
“The promise, they say, is that a tender heart is what gives birth to fearlessness. I hope it’s true… I share this to keep it 💯, and hoping that the knowledge of my experience might be useful to someone else out there experiencing the grip of heartbreak who is poised to try and escape from the pain and miss out on the wisdom that comes from it. #Breakup. Let’s face our pain so we don’t spread it,” Nyong’o ended her post.
The Black Panther actress previously confirmed her relationship with Masekela in a December 2022 Instagram video.
In her Net-A-Porter interview, Nyong’o explained why she decided to publicly announce her breakup, noting: “It was because I felt sure about it.”
It was one of the first times Nyong’o had been public about a relationship in her career. “That was very, very sage of me,” she said of keeping her love life under wraps in the past. “I’m going back to those days, by the way.”
Four months after splitting from Masekela, Nyong’o said she is optimistic about finding love again.
“Our purpose in life is to love,” she said. “And so you have to get back in it.”
After breaking up with Masekela, a source told Us Weekly exclusively in December 2023 that Nyong’o was dating Canadian actor Joshua Jackson.
“They’re focusing on keeping their relationship under the radar as much as possible,” the source said about the pair’s “very normal” relationship, noting they’ve only been going out for a short period of time.
The insider added: “Although it’s only been a few weeks, they were friends before dating so they have a really solid foundation for a relationship. Things are very new but going really well so far.”
“[They] enjoy doing typical things like shopping together, hanging out at home and watching movies, listening to music and just enjoying each other’s company,” the insider explained
Two months prior, in October 2023, Nyong’o and Jackson, 45, were spotted attending Janelle Monáe’s concert in California with a group of friends. Weeks earlier, they had each ended their long-term relationships.
Jodie Turner-Smith filed for divorce from Jackson after four years of marriage last fall. Both Jackson and Turner-Smith, 37, cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for their split and have requested to share joint legal and physical custody of their daughter, 3.
