It’s no secret that marriage is an incredible tricky thing in Hollywood. Couples are put under the microscope all the time, the paparazzi are quick to jump on any hint of an affair, even if it’s a total lie, and celebrities often spend a lot of their time travelling, either on press tours or filming a project somewhere abroad. All those elements add up to an uphill battle when it comes to keeping a strong marriage. There are countless couples who get married and then divorced less than a year later, or who have a string of failed marriages under their belt by the time they hit 40.
Now, there are certainly couples that make it work, and there are a few beloved couples in Hollywood who have been together for years and years and prove that it can be done. For the past several years, everyone assumed Chris Pratt and Anna Faris were one of those couples who would last forever. They were utterly adorable together on every red carpet and just seemed so in love all the time. In fact, they often got criticism on just how over the top cute they were on the red carpet, as their affection put all the other couples to shame.
Alas — Hollywood has another marriage casualty, and it’s them. As you’ve likely heard by now, the two have decided to separate, and though they claimed in their statement that they’ve been struggling for a while now, it totally blindsided the rest of the world. Everyone was left wondering how such a seemingly perfect couple could dissolve — but if you look really closely, there may have been some signs along the way that they had some tough obstacles to overcome over the years.
Here are 15 reasons that the Chris Pratt and Anna Faris relationship was doomed from the start.
15 Faris Liked Him Better When He Was A Little Chubbier
Okay, this is more of an aesthetic one, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention it. Anna Faris has gone on the record several times in the past about how she likes Pratt better when he’s a little bit chubby. And in the early years of their marriage, when he was playing a lovable goof on Parks and Recreation, that’s the physique he had. He ate Faris’ delicious home-cooked meals and didn’t worry too much about maintaining any specific type of physique. And then, the studios came calling. When Pratt transitioned to the world of film, action roles in particular, all of a sudden he was required to get a sculpted physique. He had to clean up his diet tremendously and put in hours and hours of hard work at the gym to get the body that you see in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic Park. And, we can’t help but wonder if Faris kind of missed her lovable, slightly chubby hubby.
14 Pratt Is Going From Funny Guy Roles To Hunk Roles
Like with Faris and Pratt’s level of fame switching a bit over the years, the types of characters you play has an impact. Faris’ career has been spent playing the goofy roles — and yes, she’s been the love interest in many films, but it’s always the goofy hot girl, not the seductive vixen. Pratt started with similarly goofy roles, but when he switched to action movies, suddenly he wasn’t the lovable goof — he was the hunk. His scripts included way more spicy moments, way more shirtless scenes, and a whole lot more sex appeal than before. While actors know that what happens on the screen is strictly professional and part of the job, it can’t have been easy to see that switch in the types of roles your husband was getting. Before, he was just her hunk — in the past few years, he’s been the world’s hunk.
13 There Were Rumours About Pratt And Gorgeous Starlet Jennifer Lawrence
Now, actors will pretty much always be the subject of allegations about infidelity because of what they do. The tabloids love a juicy scandal, and a simple meal between co-workers after a long day on set can get spun into something totally different. Actors know this and their spouses know this (particularly if they’re actors as well), so often they just shrug it off and roll their eyes at the tabloids and their tactics. However, every now and then things strike a nerve — and when allegations started flying about Chris Pratt and his co-star Jennifer Lawrence, many publications speculated about how it would affect the Pratt-Faris marriage. At the time, it seemed like they were able to just shrug it off like they would with any allegation — but we can’t help but wonder if those rumours added another wrench into their struggling marriage.
12 The Balance Of Their Fame Was Switching (Pratt Was Less Famous At The Start, Now He’s More Famous)
Now, we’re not saying that Faris is at all resentful of Pratt’s career. She obviously loves him dearly, and is totally supportive of his success. However, there’s no doubt that the balance in their careers has certainly shifted a bit over the years. When they first got together, Faris was a bigger star, with a few film roles under her belt, while Pratt was just getting started. Then, he became a television sitcom staple while his wife continued her big screen career. Now, though, Pratt stars in some of the biggest blockbuster hits out there, while his wife has a starring role on a television show — it’s almost a total switch. While they both support one another’s career, it’s got to be strange to have the fame dynamic change so much in a relationship. Plus, the level of fame he's at now comes with a lot of demands and sacrifices that likely have a huge impact on a marriage.
11 As A Last Resort, He Upgraded Her Ring Out Of The Blue
Okay, now, we’re not saying that Pratt upgrading Faris’ engagement ring was a desperate attempt to make their marriage work. It’s no secret that he was nowhere near as successful as he is today when they first got together, and with his blockbuster film salaries he can afford a lot more than he could back then. It makes sense that he would upgrade Faris’ ring after having been together for several years. However, we can’t help but notice that he made the choice to upgrade the ring right around the time that rumours started swirling about him and his co-star Jennifer Lawrence. The duo framed it as a reciprocal gesture — Faris had purchased a tractor for him, he purchased a new and improved rock for her — but the whole situation seemed a little bit strange.
10 They Spend A Lot Of Time Filming In Different Places
One of the reasons that so many actors struggle to make relationships with other actors work is the logistics of being with someone who travels. While many television shows and movies are filmed in studios in Los Angeles, there are also countless projects that get filmed abroad. From Hawaii to Europe to Canada, actors are often required to travel for an extended period of time to film. In fact, if an actor snags a job on a television show that films in some place other than Los Angeles, they’ll nearly always just buy some property and set up a home in their new filming locale, since they’ll be spending so much time there. With Pratt and Faris both having careers requiring them to travel, they were often apart for extended periods of time — and that’s not easy for any relationship.
9 Pratt Was Gone A Lot While Jack Was Very Young
There’s no doubt that Chris Pratt is an absolutely amazing father — he obviously cares very deeply for his son Jack, and has always been an adorable family man who is crazy about his kid. However, there’s no denying that his career started kicking off right around the time that Jack was born. In fact, from the time Jack was seven months old to the time he was just over a year old, Pratt only saw his baby boy twice because he was swamped with work, filming Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, there are plenty of spouses who make it work when one partner is travelling or working abroad, but still — it can’t have been easy for Faris to be raising Jack alone for those months, even if Pratt regularly got in touch via phone and Skype.
8 They Have A Lot Of The Same Hobbies And Interests — Being Maybe Too Similar
Different things work for different couples, and while you may not want to be with someone who is your polar opposite, it’s also questionable if your spouse is basically a mirror image of yourself. Pratt and Faris both grew up in roughly the same area in Washington. They both have a weird obsession with dead bugs. They both got their start in silly horror spoof projects, and have a bit of a goofball personality. There are just so many similarities between them that we wonder if things got a little stale after a while, or alternatively, if the entire dynamic of their relationship started switching when their careers began moving in different directions. Either way, a little difference can add some excitement to a marriage — maybe what looked like paradise was actually boredom, who knows?
7 They Met When They Were Playing Love Interests On Screen — And Relationships That Start That Way Often Don't Work Out
It’s super common for actors who are co-starring in a project as love interests to end up dating in real life for a while. It’s happened to countless couples, and it makes sense — when the sparks are flying while you’re playing characters, why not explore that in real life? You’re around the other person all the time, you obviously enjoy being close to them, and you’re both in the same industry. Though they didn’t start dating right when they met, Faris and Pratt did meet when they were playing love interests in a film, Take Me Home Tonight. They started dating soon after, once Faris split from her then husband Ben Indra, but we can’t help but wonder if that first meeting had a bit of a curse, considering how many co-stars turned couples ended up with ruined relationships.
6 They Had A Tough Time When Their Son Was Born Premature
Really big life events have a huge impact on any relationship, both positively and negatively. While he’s an adorable healthy boy now, back when Anna Faris was pregnant with their son Jack, he actually ended up arriving nine weeks premature. Having a baby born prematurely is always terrifying for parents, because you just don’t know if they’re ready to be in the world quite yet, and you have to spend the first little bit of their lives in the intensive care unit making sure they’re okay. Both Pratt and Faris have discussed how terrifying the whole ordeal was, and how worried they were about Jack for those first few weeks of his life. There’s no denying that the situation had a huge impact on their relationship, whether for better or worse.
5 Pratt Was Travelling More And More For His Big Film Roles
Again — it seems that when it comes to relationships between actors, it’s all about balance. It’s bad enough when both people in a marriage are travelling all the time for work and never seeing one another. It’s even worse when one partner is constantly travelling and the other is stuck at home, waiting for his or her return. In the last few years, that seems to have been what was happening between Pratt and Faris. She had a steady television gig and podcast project, both of which required her to be in Los Angeles. Pratt, on the other hand, was constantly travelling, either to film his projects in far away locations, or to go around the world on press tours promoting the huge blockbuster projects. Feeling like your husband is just never around is probably not the greatest feeling, so we can only imagine that Faris may have been getting frustrated, even if she understands the demands that an actor’s career has from her own experience.
4 Faris Expressed Insecurity On Her Podcast
When fellow actress Isla Fisher came on her podcast, Unqualified, Anna Faris got more candid than she normally does about her relationship. She and Fisher were discussing having a relationship in the spotlight, and Faris admitted to being a little bit shaken and insecure when all the rumours started circulating about Pratt and Jennifer lawrence. “There were some tabloid rumours about strain in our relationship and I just remember feeling so hurt in a way that bothered me because i didn’t want to think of myself as somebody that could be affected by tabloid s--t,” Faris said. It just goes to show that even though logically you know that the stuff printed in those publications is all lies, there’s still a little bit of you that feels punched in the gut when you read itm even if you know it’s not true.
3 They Were Coming Up On The 10 Year Mark — Something Not Many Couples Reach In Hollywood
We’re not going to bore you with endless statistics, but one thing is for sure — Hollywood marriages kind of have a system like dog years. Since so many marriages in Hollywood fail so quickly, every year a couple is married is like seven years of marriage in the real world. There really aren’t that many couples that make it to double digits. Once they had about eight years of marriage under their belt, many assumed that Pratt and Faris were going to be in it for life. After all, once you make it past those first few years, it’s all smooth sailing, right? Well, based on the announcement they made, that’s obviously not the case. It pains us to see them join the ranks of failed celebrity marriages, but it seems like reaching that double digit anniversary just wasn’t in the cards.
2 They Met While Faris Was Still Married To Ben Indra
Look, couples meet in all sorts of ways. And celebrities often have a tougher time meeting people than the average person, just because of the challenges of their job. Once you’ve reached a certain level of fame, you can’t just anonymously try to flirt with someone at a coffee shop or pick someone up at a bar, at least not without the tabloids getting involved. When Chris Pratt and Anna Faris met for the first time, Faris was actually married to fellow actor Ben Indra. The two instantly connected, but because of Faris’ marriage situation, they kept things under control and didn’t make any moves until she left her husband. While it’s admirable that they managed to refrain from cheating, meeting your future spouse when they’re already someone else’s spouse isn’t exactly an ideal start.
1 Faris’ First Marriage Dissolved Because Of Issues With Fame
It’s tough to know exactly what goes on in a celebrity’s relationships, because there are certain things that they keep private and don’t talk about, and certain things that go on behind closed doors which the world may not know about. However, occasionally celebs will shine some light on their past failed relationships, and Anna Faris has. She’s spoken before about how one of the major reasons her first marriage failed was because her career was picking up steam while her husband Ben’s wasn’t quite there yet, which led to a lot of resentment and tension in the relationship. Little did she know she’d run into a similar situation down the road — it just goes to show that often, the actors who have the longest marriages are the ones who are married to people who aren’t actors. It’s tough to balance that kind of lifestyle.
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