Zooey Deschanel and Jacob Pechenik have split, the couple confirms to Us Weekly in a joint statement. Their separation comes after four years of marriage.
“After much discussion and a long period of contemplation we have decided we are better off as friends, business partners and co-parents rather than life partners,” Deschanel, 39, and Pechenik, 47, told Us on Friday, September 6. “We remain committed to our business, our values and most of all our children. Thank you for respecting our privacy at this time.”
Deschanel and Pechenik first stepped out together in August 2014, shortly after she called it quits with screenwriter Jamie Linden. Pechenik proposed to a then-pregnant Deschanel in January 2015, only one week after announcing that they were expecting their first child together, Elsie. The date of their engagement proved to be all the more special as it fell on her birthday.
The New Girl alum and film producer secretly tied the knot in August 2015. A source told Us in November 2015 that Deschanel “converted” to Judaism for Pechenik.
In addition to their 4-year-old daughter Elsie, the former pair also share a son, Charlie, 2. She previously spoke with Us about how becoming a mother has “changed” her.
“Nothing can really prepare you for it because you never again have a day where you don’t think of your kids first,” she told Us in September 2017. “At least for me, that’s what I think of first thing. Like, ‘How are the kids doing? What do they need?’ That’s my first thought when I wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. I’m always thinking of them.”
Deschanel also noted that “you don’t realize what a sort of selfish existence you live in until you have kids.”
Deschanel was previously married to Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard from 2009 to 2012.
