Why celebrity divorces, from Bill and Melinda Gates to Tong Liya, are a source of fascination
- News that billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and actors Tong Liya and Chen Sicheng were ending their marriages has been a source of widespread attention
- Dismissing this interest in celebrities as facile fascination with the lives of the rich and famous misses the point
When news broke that Bill and Melinda Gates had filed for divorce, the global reaction was one of utter fascination. What had gone wrong in a marriage which had weathered 27 years, the raising of three children and the creation of a global empire which provided a cushion of immense wealth and privilege to buffer the couple from the stresses and strains that test the far less fortunate?
Across offices and homes, theories ranged from the couple becoming victims of “empty nest syndrome” after their youngest child had turned 18, to whether “mid-life crisis” had engulfed one of the parties.
Tong, 37, who has a huge fan base thanks to starring roles in a string of hit TV dramas, had met actor and director Chen in 2010. They married in 2014 and had their son in 2016.
The couple had been plagued by reports that Chen had been having affairs for a number of years and he was widely considered by her fan base to not be “good enough” for Tong.
News of their split created such a stir in China that the hashtag about the divorce was read more than 330 million times in the first two hours after the stars made their announcement. In this instance, the support for Tong was widespread and overwhelming. “I feel like breaking out the gongs and fireworks to celebrate,” one fan wrote on Tong’s Weibo.
While stories of this sort about celebrities are often dismissed as not “real” or “serious” news, it never fails to generate a huge amount of attention and discussion.
The question is: why do high-profile divorces strike such a chord?
We live in an era of celebrity news saturation. The time that someone had to be geographically and physically close to us to be socially important to us is long gone. The rise of reality television has, in particular, perpetuated this sense of closeness as it removes the traditional “fourth wall” between star and audience. The use of social media by stars adds another layer of familiarity.
With our communities or tribes becoming increasingly physically dislocated, celebrities have filled the void of real-life role models when it comes to providing cues for life strategies, relationship behaviour and even appearance and dress.
Now, the volume and access to information we have about the personal lives of public figures creates a sense of familiarity with people we have never actually met in real life – or IRL – and we discuss them in a way that reflects that.
To dismiss interest in celebrities as facile fascination with the lives of the rich and famous misses the point – their romantic trials and tribulations resonate with us because it is through their experiences, such as a relationship collapse, that we actually see ourselves.
They may be richer and prettier than we’ll ever be, but when it comes to basic human experiences, they are just like us.
Any middle-aged couple who found themselves with nothing to say to each other once the kids left home could relate to Bill and Melinda’s marital dissolution. Anyone who has been cheated on and struggled to make the decision to leave a relationship saw themselves in Tong.
And for every person who struggled to make peace with a decision such as when to leave a marriage, there is validation when seeing someone “successful” do the same.
Ending a marriage or long-term relationship and navigating the next steps is not easy – and when celebrities appear to struggle with the same issues as we mere mortals, it’s a reminder that neither fame nor fortune is a guarantee of relationship success, or protection from the pain and disappointment of its failure.
Melissa Stevens is the Post’s Digital Editor
