Chelsea Handler spoke about the end of her relationship with Jo Koy. (Photo: Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images)
Chelsea Handler is ready to find love again after her relationship with fellow comedian Jo Koy ended.
The former Chelsea, Lately presenter – whose new special released on Netflix entitled Revolution on December 27 – joined Brooke Shields on her podcast Now What? in which the two women spoke about Handler’s personal and professional life. One topic that Handler spoke openly about was her romance with Koy, which ended just before their one-year anniversary in July.
“I really believed that was my type. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I won. I have everything. I’ve got my career, I’ve got respect, I’ve got my family, I’ve got so many friends, I’ve got all these things. And then I thought that was going to be the person I was going to spend my life with,” she explained. “I’m not that difficult to get married, but I was open to the idea and we definitely talked about it at length because it was important to him. But towards the end of the relationship I just realized that it wasn’t me. … There were just a few behaviors that we couldn’t agree on. … It felt to me like I had to give up on myself, which I might have been okay with when I was 20 or 25, but I wasn’t ready to do that, no matter how much I loved that person — and I loved him so much. But I wasn’t ready for that.”
While Handler said it was “difficult” to break away from a “forever relationship,” she recognized that there were irreconcilable differences between the two.
“I was in a lot of pain but — it was just unacceptable,” she noted. “Like I just said, ‘This… can’t happen.’ Our relationship has just evolved. And we both couldn’t agree on one situation or several situations. And I thought, you know, therapy might help – it didn’t. And I’ve exhausted every avenue I could think of, and then I just realized this is pointless.
She added: “I understand that after therapy there is no reason to be angry with someone if something isn’t working. You just have to understand that sometimes things don’t work out. And there’s no reason to make fun of it. But yeah, walking away from him was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
The story goes on
Handler and Koy texted each other on Instagram shortly after their split in July. Handler said of the star on Easter Sunday, “You blasted my creativity, my desire to work hard again, to be on the road again, and you reminded me of who I was and always was.” Koy said he’s staying after hers Separation Handler’s “biggest fan”.
Despite Koy directing her latest Netflix special, Handler told Shields that she “hasn’t spoken to him in a while.”
“There has to be some responsibility — you know what I mean — from him for what happened because it was just ridiculous,” the ex-talk show host said. “And you know, I don’t think we can have a friendship until there’s some accountability and responsibility.”
Regarding what she is now looking for, Handler said: “I need someone who reads books and news and does global affairs. … I never thought it was the most important thing, but I’m so over it. And it’s no fun reading the newspaper and arguing about it with someone. Like a thirst for knowledge, a thirst for growth.”
Handler previously opened up about the end of her relationship with Koy this summer on Glennon Doyle’s We Can Do Hard Things podcast. She called the decision to stop dating the comedian a “grown-up thing.”
“If you know, you know,” she said at the time. “It’s like any other intuition you have. You have to close your eyes and listen to your gut and understand that sometimes the pain you will go through with a breakup is much better than staying in something that is no longer working.”
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