Lupita Nyong’o, 40, did not hold back when she announced her apparent breakup from Selema Masekela via Instagram on October 19. The Oscar winner penned a lengthy statement about “heartbreak” and stated her love for her now-ex was “extinguished” following their split. “There are much more important things going on in the world right now, and my thoughts are with those who are deeply suffering,” Lupita began in the caption. Despite this, she noted it felt “necessary” to address the split since she can seemingly “no longer trust” Selema.
“At this moment, it is necessary for me to share a personal truth and publicly dissociate myself from someone I can no longer trust,” she went on to write. “I find myself in a season of heartbreak because of a love suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception.” The 40-year-old and Selema went Instagram official in December 2022, however, it is unclear when they began their romance.
“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.’ But I am reminded that the magnitude of the pain I am feeling is equal to the measure of my capacity for love,” Lupita went on to write. “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.”
Further in the post, the Black Panther starlet admitted that she chose to open up about the split publicly to “keep it 100” with her 10.8 million followers. “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 [100 emoji], 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,” Lupita shared. “#Breakup Let’s face our pain so we don’t spread it.”
The news of Selema and Lupita’s apparent breakup comes one day after she was spotted at Janelle Monae‘s concert in Los Angeles alongside newly single actor Joshua Jackson, 45 (see PHOTOS HERE), and other pals. The Dawson’s Creek alum and Lupita were pictured at the show together on the heels of his split from Jodie Turner-Smith, 37, who filed for divorce from Joshua earlier this month. The Queen & Slim star and Joshua were married from 2019 until her recent filing, which listed the date of separation as September 13, as reported by TMZ. They share one daughter, Janie, 3.