This Is Us’ Kate and Toby’s Future Divorce: Everything We Know So Far

Credit: Joe Pugliese/NBC

This Is Us’ Kate and Toby’s Future Divorce: Everything We Know So Far

They’re not endgame. This Is Us fans have followed Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) and Toby Damon’s (Chris Sullivan) relationship since the show’s beginning, but before season 6 ends, their marital issues will lead to divorce. Viewers long suspected that Kate and Toby would not get their happily ever after due to clues from the NBC drama’s famous flash-forwards. However, the final nail in the coffin was the season 5 finale revelation that Kate was preparing to marry her coworker Phillip (Chris Geere). “We hinted at, many times in the deeper future, that something was not normal between Kate and Toby, and here we are,” creator Dan Fogelman told reporters in May 2021. “Kate’s second wedding is a plot point we’ve had coming for some time, so we had Chris Geere meet with Chrissy Metz earlier in the season under severe COVID testing protocols so we could put them together. We’re big fans of his.” The showrunner teased at the time that the final season would include “some really meaty stuff” for Metz and Sullivan. “I think, like everything on our show, we’ll be able to find something difficult and find something beautiful inside,” he said. “The honest truth is really loving, great marriages don’t always survive. And marriage is not for everybody.” [sendtonews type="float" key="t8ORFMCXXF-2834147-14453"] Metz, for her part, divulged how she felt when she discovered the ending of Kate’s story. “[I was content] because I think that she will be happy,” the actress exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2021. “I think there’ll be contentment. I think they’ll feel that bittersweet feeling that I think a lot of the episodes leave you with. I think there will feel like a sense of closure and some bittersweet memories.” While Metz was on board with the story line, she noted that it initially felt like a betrayal for Kate to be with Phillip instead of Toby. “It does feel like she’s doing something she shouldn’t do,” she confessed. “Who is this guy? Like, I really like you and you’re really nice and you’re English and whatever and charming, but, like, this feels wrong!” As for her onset dynamic with Sullivan amid the breakdown of their characters’ marriage, the singer told Us that her costar has always made “life better and work better.” “It is weird!” she added. “I’m, like, [telling him], ‘I don’t really like [Phillip]! It’s just written in the script.” Scroll through the gallery below for everything we know so far about Kate and Toby’s divorce:

Credit: Joe Pugliese/NBC

This Is Us’ Kate and Toby’s Future Divorce: Everything We Know So Far

They’re not endgame. This Is Us fans have followed Kate Pearson (Chrissy Metz) and Toby Damon’s (Chris Sullivan) relationship since the show’s beginning, but before season 6 ends, their marital issues will lead to divorce. Viewers long suspected that Kate and Toby would not get their happily ever after due to clues from the NBC drama’s famous flash-forwards. However, the final nail in the coffin was the season 5 finale revelation that Kate was preparing to marry her coworker Phillip (Chris Geere). “We hinted at, many times in the deeper future, that something was not normal between Kate and Toby, and here we are,” creator Dan Fogelman told reporters in May 2021. “Kate’s second wedding is a plot point we’ve had coming for some time, so we had Chris Geere meet with Chrissy Metz earlier in the season under severe COVID testing protocols so we could put them together. We’re big fans of his.” The showrunner teased at the time that the final season would include “some really meaty stuff” for Metz and Sullivan. “I think, like everything on our show, we’ll be able to find something difficult and find something beautiful inside,” he said. “The honest truth is really loving, great marriages don’t always survive. And marriage is not for everybody.” [sendtonews type="float" key="t8ORFMCXXF-2834147-14453"] Metz, for her part, divulged how she felt when she discovered the ending of Kate’s story. “[I was content] because I think that she will be happy,” the actress exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2021. “I think there’ll be contentment. I think they’ll feel that bittersweet feeling that I think a lot of the episodes leave you with. I think there will feel like a sense of closure and some bittersweet memories.” While Metz was on board with the story line, she noted that it initially felt like a betrayal for Kate to be with Phillip instead of Toby. “It does feel like she’s doing something she shouldn’t do,” she confessed. “Who is this guy? Like, I really like you and you’re really nice and you’re English and whatever and charming, but, like, this feels wrong!” As for her onset dynamic with Sullivan amid the breakdown of their characters’ marriage, the singer told Us that her costar has always made “life better and work better.” “It is weird!” she added. “I’m, like, [telling him], ‘I don’t really like [Phillip]! It’s just written in the script.” Scroll through the gallery below for everything we know so far about Kate and Toby’s divorce:

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

The Beginning of the End

"This is one of the hardest episodes that I've ever shot. There were a couple scenes where I was like, 'Chris, I'm, like, physically ill.' And I think it was just the beginning of the end, of course of the series, but the beginning of the end of their relationship too,” Metz said on E!’s Daily Pop ahead of the March 22 episode. "We spent six years loving each other, so it's a bummer to go out like this. But it's also an honor to address this as well as our writing staff is."  

The actress continued: “We talk about it, we go back and forth all the time about whose 'fault' this is. And it is no one's fault. And it is everyone's fault. Everyone plays their part in a relationship and everyone makes their mistakes and everyone tries. Or they don't."

Credit: NBC

They’re Divorced in the Future

In the mysterious flash-forward at Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) house, Toby did not have on his wedding ring. Kate has not been seen in the future scenes, but Toby hinted at one point that “they” were on their way, seemingly referring to Kate and their kids or Kate and Phillip. 

In the present, Kate and Toby are still married, but their relationship is strained by his long-distance job.

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Kate Marries Phillip Shortly After Her Divorce

Kate and Phillip prepared for their wedding day in a flash-forward set approximately five years after the events of the season 5 finale. Phillip referred to himself as Kevin’s “future brother-in-law” in the scene, while Kate — dressed in a wedding gown — told her family, “This is the last time I’m doing this.” 

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

The Accident

In a flash-forward during a January episode, Kate and Toby’s adult son, Jack (Blake Stadnik), and his wife, Lucy (Auden Thornton), revealed that the family’s Big Green Egg was a reminder of the day his parents’ marriage blew up. Lucy brushed back Jack’s hair to expose a scar and remarked that the cooker nearly deformed him. 

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

They Grew Apart

Metz teased the cause of Toby and Kate’s divorce in a January interview with Us. “We’ll come to find that neither Toby or Kate are wrong or right,” she explained. “They’re just sort of growing apart, and I think that’s such a beautiful way to — we always see these very tumultuous endings of relationships, and we’re gonna see that these are two people that love each other desperately but just aren’t meant to be together forever. And it doesn’t have to be terrible all the time. You can understand each other’s perspectives. We’re gonna go through that whole journey of the new and the old.”  

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

The Biggest Issue?

Kate and Toby realized during a March episode that they were having the same fight over and over again. She resented him for moving away for work and not being around to help with the kids, while he felt like she never took his opinions on the children into consideration because he was not home enough. 

This Is Us airs on NBC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Kate Knows

“I don’t know if Toby and I are going to make it," Kate said in an April episode after baby Jack's accident.

The cooker didn't split his head open, as viewers previously assumed. It simply reminds him of the day he ran away from home to go to the park — the one place his parents didn't fight. Jack tripped and split his head open while trying to play.

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

It’s Over

“It’s over Toby. It’s time,” Kate told Toby during the show’s 100th episode, which aired in April.

The episode, titled “Katoby,” took viewers through the final days of their marriage the moment they signed their divorce papers.

“This is not how our story ends. Just because our marriage is over doesn’t mean our story is over,” Kate said after their marriage officially came to an end. “We were meant to find each other in that weight loss group. We were meant to be together. And now, we’re meant to be apart, and I know that one day you will see it.”