Leah Remini‘s (uhhh… still former?) best friend Jennifer Lopez is going through a very sad divorce from her now-estranged husband Ben Affleck… and unfortunately, the King Of Queens alum is now right there with her.
On Thursday night, the 54-year-old television star took to Instagram to announce that she and longtime husband Angelo Pagán are splitting up. The sitcom vet had been with the 55-year-old for nearly three (!) decades, and the pair shares 20-year-old daughter Sofia. But now, it’s over.
Related: J.Lo And Ex-BFF Leah Remini Tried SO Hard To Reconnect After Fight Over ‘Selfish’ Ben Affleck
In the IG announcement, which was shared on both of their pages, Leah and Angelo wrote:
“Well, here we are. After 28 years together and 21 years of marriage, we have decided to file for divorce. This decision came after a lot of thought and care, and as hard as divorce is, we are approaching this with a positive outlook because we know it’s what’s best for us. We are proud of how we have worked through this together.”
Wow.
Amazingly, even though the occasion was sad, they were remarkably mature about it. Reflecting on how they’ve been best friends for years and remain so even amid their split, they wrote:
“Yes, we’re sad, and we’ve got some figuring out to do as we continue to move forward into our new normal—together still in many ways, and apart in some new ones. But here’s the thing: we’ve been best friends for so many years. We are still celebrating holidays together, watching our favorite tv shows together, and gathering as a family. So, the big question—why?”
But inevitably, people change. As they reached their 50s and life beyond it, they’ve come to the conclusion that they don’t fit into each other’s lives in the same way as they did:
“To put it simply, we both changed, as people do, and we got used to playing roles that didn’t fit us anymore. After a lot of effort and consideration, we’ve decided to take this step, which reflects who we are today. Our bond is still strong—it’s just evolved into something different. We think a marriage that lasted this long and created so many beautiful memories, especially raising our incredible daughter, is something to celebrate. From our perspective, this marriage was a huge success.”
They concluded their joint statement in an upbeat way, too. Reflecting on their time together and remembering how they even had a reality TV run as part of their long marriage, they ended things with heartfelt optimism:
“And now, we’re looking forward to creating even more cherished moments — just in a different way. We want to be as transparent as we can be here because, for years, we shared our marriage so publicly, whether it was on our specials on VH1 or our reality show, which ran for two seasons on TLC. We are sharing this unknown territory with you all as we take our first steps into this next stage of our lives publicly. We would love for everyone to have more access to different kinds of relationship stories and not feel so isolated in navigating the changes that millions of couples make every year. We hope our journey can inspire others to see that relationships — whether they change or end — aren’t failures. We’ll keep sharing snippets of our lives as we navigate this new chapter.”
Read the post (below):
Wow. It’s heartening to see them approach this so maturely and calmly. We wish them both the best as they navigate this next chapter!
[Image via FayesVision/MEGA/WENN]
