This week, Kendall Jenner did one of the more relatable things the ultra-wealthy Kardashian-Jenner family has ever done: broken up with her boyfriend after attending a wedding with him.
Having just returned from the Italian nuptials of Jenner’s older sister Kourtney to Travis Barker, Jenner and her now ex-boyfriend, NBA player Devin Booker, decided to end their two-year relationship. “They had a really nice time in Italy together,” an anonymous source told E! News. “But once they got back, they started to feel like they weren’t aligned and realized they have very different lifestyles. Kendall told Devin she wanted space and time apart.”
Not that anyone should really care about the relationship happenings of a celebrity, but still, it represents the common occurrence of going to a wedding with a partner and realizing that maaaaybe the two of you aren’t right for each other. Online, among normal people, there are countless stories of similar events. In 2017, someone wrote into Offbeat Bride to ask why several of their guests went through a major breakup after her wedding. A friend of hers, she said, experienced the same thing.
The reasoning is pretty simple: Going to a wedding forces you to think about whether you’d want to have a wedding of your own with the person you’re with. It’s literally an hours-long event devoted to the concept, giving you plenty of time to ruminate on the problem. And while not everyone in a relationship intends to get married, the realization that you don’t see yourself committing long-term to someone is a good enough reason to end things.
Beyond just the comparison aspect, weddings can also put a relationship to the test in other ways. You’re likely introducing your partner to lots of people, maybe having them meet family, all while trying to look and act your best despite often consuming copious amounts of alcohol. Even if lifelong commitment weren’t the theme, it’d still be a stressful, reasonable inciting location for a breakup.
In the comments section of the Offbeat Bride article, tons of other women shared stories of couples breaking up at — or after — their weddings. “This happened at my own wedding,” one bride wrote. “Two couples broke up in the parking lot. One because he realized that he didn’t love her ‘like that,’ and the other because she realized that she was in love with someone else! Neither were bitter toward us and thankfully didn’t clue us in until we got back from our honeymoon.”
“I had this happen too. My maid of honor went right home and moved out of the house she’d been sharing with her boyfriend of 5+ years,” another added.
Among the comments, there’s a mix of stories where a relationship was already rocky and the wedding just happened to be a big, stressful event thrown into the mix, and others where attending the wedding helped people come to the realization that they didn’t want to be with their significant other any more.
Regardless, there’s an upside to all this: It’s far better to have a breakup after attending someone else’s wedding than not figuring it out until it’s time for your own. In that sense, maybe going to a wedding together should be considered a required task you complete together as a couple before deciding on marriage for yourself. If you choose to breakup, though, at least do the polite thing like Kendall and Devin and wait until the wedding is over.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
