Katy Perry’s rocky road to love and motherhood
Katy Perry has announced the blissful news she was expecting a baby with Orlando Bloom — but it comes after years of heartbreak.
A marriage called off by text, whirlwind flings and five break ups with the same man – Katy Perry’s love life changed course almost as often as her outfits.
The 35-year-old set the internet alight yesterday as she revealed she was pregnant with her first child in the new video for Never Worn White, a love song to fiance Orlando Bloom ahead of their wedding.
And if the lyrics are anything to go by, the Firework singer has finally found “the one”.
I’ve stood on the edge of love but never took the leap / It’s so easy to surrender when you finally find forever
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Yet as Katy hurtles happily into domestic bliss with her soon-to-be husband and baby, she leaves behind a trail of rocky romances riddled by drug addiction, drama and deception.
With her famous exes including everyone from ex-hubby Russell Brand to ladies’ man John Mayer, we look at the singer’s rocky and often heartbreaking road to happiness.
EX’S SHOCK DEATH
Katy, who had been raised by evangelical pastor parents in a strict household, began dating her first serious boyfriend, Johnny Lewis, in 2005.
While she was still an unknown 21-year-old trying to land a record deal, Johnny was a hotshot up-and-coming actor with a regular role on The O.C.
But the actor, who was raised in the Church of Scientology, suffered from mental health and drug abuse problems and the couple split in 2006, two years before Katy hit the big time.
Tragically the troubled actor fell to his death from the rooftop of a writers’ retreat in Hollywood, after apparently killing his 81-year-old landlady Catherine Davis and her cat.
Katy was said to be “devastated” by news of his death.
“She had to separate from him to get ahead and focus on her career,” a source revealed to US Weekly at the time.
“He was in trouble then and she couldn’t help him.
“But she was young and it was a time in her life she cherishes.
“They had good times. It’s really sad. She could never help him and couldn’t go in that direction.”
‘CHOSE DRUGS’ OVER RELATIONSHIP
After splitting with the actor, Katy fell for Travis McCoy, lead singer of Gym Class Heroes, in 2006.
Katy, who was at this stage on the verge of a breakthrough, starred in the video for the group’s hit single Cupid’s Chokehold, looking loved up with her new man.
Just over a year later, in April 2008, the 24-year-old got her big break when her debut single I Kissed a Girl flew to the top of the charts, followed by her second hit Hot N Cold and a platinum album One of the Boys.
But Travis’s drug use had begun causing problems in the relationship, which Katy ended by email in January 2009.
“She wasn’t stupid. She knew when I was f***ed up,” Travis later admitted.
“I chose drugs over our relationship. As things started taking off for her, the more I started to doubt my role in her life. There were times I felt like a stepping ladder.”
Days after the split Katy told the crowd at her Los Angeles gig, “It hurts right now. When you break up with someone, you move on. But I’m over it!”
She revisited the relationship in the song Circle the Drain, where she sang, You could’ve been the greatest, but you’d rather get wasted / I’m not sticking around to watch you go down
WHIRLWIND WEDDING
Soon after the split from Travis, a brief dalliance with singer and music producer Josh Groban quickly fizzled out.
The couple brushed off romance rumours at the time, but later Josh admitted, “We might have skated on the line of dating.”
Shortly afterwards, in September 2009, Katy hooked up with notorious ladies’ man Russell Brand at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York.
The pair had met before, when she made a cameo appearance in his 2008 film Get Him To The Greek, and she remembered “hopping like a bunny” with joy before they shared a screen kiss, despite her being involved in a relationship with Travis at the time of filming.
Now single, Katy was free to date the comedian and the couple embarked on a whirlwind romance, getting engaged on a trip to India just three months after they met and getting matching tattoos, reading ‘Anuugacchati Pravaha’ or ‘go with the flow’ on their arms.
They tied the knot in October 2010 in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Rajasthan, India at the Aman-i-Khas luxury resort, next to the tiger sanctuary where he proposed.
Although the ceremony was kept under wraps at the time, Katy shared a few wedding pictures during her 2011 Grammy performance of Not Like The Movies.
By Christmas the same year, however, the relationship was over.
Katy revealed he had brutally dumped her by text on New Year’s Eve.
“He’s a very smart man, a magical man and I was in love with him when I married him,” she told Vogue in 2013.
“Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011.”
BRAND SPLIT LEFT HER FEELING SUICIDAL
Russell claimed her pop star lifestyle was to blame for the split, saying, “I’m associated with the very thing I detest. Vapid vacuous, plastic, constructed, mindless celebrity.”
But Katy said he’d used their marriage as material at stand up gigs, behind her back, and that he was “controlling”.
“(He’s) hysterical in some ways,” she said. “Until he started making jokes about me and he didn’t know I was in the audience, because I had to come to surprise him at one of his shows.
“I do admit I was on the road a lot. At first when I met him he wanted an equal, and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, ‘I can’t handle the equalness.’
“He didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting.”
The short-lived marriage inspired many of the songs on Katy’s Prism album, including the heartbreaking By The Grace Of God, which details her suicidal thoughts.
Katy wrote, We were living on a fault line / And I felt the fault was all mine / Couldn’t take it anymore
In a 2014 interview with The Project, Katy explained: “It was sad and there were thoughts, but there were never actions.
“That song is evident of how tough it really was at a certain point. I asked myself, ‘Do I want to endure? Should I continue living?”
ON-OFF ROMANCE SEES FIVE SPLITS
The divorce left Katy hurt and upset but almost a year later, in 2012, she fell for another infamous lady-killer, John Mayer.
She had a stormy relationship with the American singer – whose exes included Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Simpson, Kim Kardashian and Katy’s one-time enemy Taylor Swift – and reportedly split five times in two years.
But Katy was smitten, recording the duet Who You Love in August 2013, and telling E! News, “I’ve been such a fan, I think he’s so incredibly talented and gifted and a genius songwriter.”
Although the couple broke up for good in 2014, Katy ranked him as her best lover in a 2017 interview with James Corden.
Mayer also counted her as the love of his life, penning the song Still Feel Like Your Man two years after the split.
It contained the line, I still keep your shampoo in my shower, in case you wanna wash your hair / And I know that you probably found yourself someone somewhere / But I do not really care
IN THE TWILIGHT FRIEND ZONE
During one of her breaks from John Mayer, Katy was rumoured to be dating Robert Pattinson, a long time friend.
The gossip about the two reportedly upset the actor’s ex, Kristen Stewart, and Katy was forced to text her to assure her their relationship was purely platonic.
She later told Elle the text read: “I’m just trying to be a friend to him but it is unfortunate that I do have a set of t**s.”
After the Twilight actor split with singer FKA Twigs, in 2017, he turned to Katy for support and once more rumours started circulating.
But the pair have always denied dating and friends say Katy’s fiance Orlando Bloom is perfectly happy with their decade long friendship.
PIRATES, YACHTS AND CHOPPY WATERS
A love of fast food finally brought Orlando Bloom into Katy’s life.
The Pirates of the Caribbean star pinched a burger from her table at the Golden Globes, in 2016, and they started dating straight away.
In April the same year, the new romance hit a bump when Orlando was spotted packing on the PDA with Selena Gomez in a Vegas nightclub.
But lovestruck Katy dismissed the cheating rumours as a “dumb conspiracy” on Twitter and, a week later, Orlando nailed his colours to the mast by whisking her away to Cannes for a romantic break on a luxury yacht.
That summer, their romance hit the headlines again when Orlando was snapped paddleboarding naked, with Katy sat in front of him, prompting viral chat about the size of his manhood.
He later told Howard Stern, “It’s really not that big. Things are extended on cameras with a big telescopic lens. That was an optical illusion.”
The following March, the couple issued a statement saying they were “taking respectful, loving space at this time.”.
But after a five month break they were spotted together at an Ed Sheeran concert, with jubilant fans sharing pictures of them looking loved up.
Romantic Orlando – who was married to model Miranda Kerr for six years from 2007 – proposed on a helicopter flight on Valentine’s Day 2019 before landing on a rooftop where friends and family were waiting to celebrate.
Katy showed off her rare pink diamond ring, valued at around $A2 million by jeweller Andrew Brown, in a cute picture of the couple, surrounded by heart shaped balloons with the caption “full Bloom”.
Although the couple have not revealed details of the wedding, they are expected to walk down the aisle in the next few months.
It is thought they were planning to wed in Japan, but the coronavirus outbreak has forced them to rethink plans.
BABY BLOOM
Katy’s happiness seems complete with the announcement of their first baby together.
In typical style, Katy made the reveal through her music, silhouetting her baby bump in front of a huge moon in the Never Worn White video.
Speaking on Instagram after the reveal, Perry said: “I am excited, we’re excited, and happy. It’s probably the longest secret I’ve ever had to keep.”
The singer has always worn her heart on her sleeve, expressing her heartbreak or happiness through frank open lyrics.
Expect a lot of soppy loved up tunes from here on in.
This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission
Originally published as Katy Perry’s rocky road to love and motherhood
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