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After 14 years of marriage and three children, there might be clues as to why Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher divorced in Rebel Wilson’s memoir. The couple, who married in 2010, announced their split via Instagram stories on April 5, 2024, and revealed the paperwork had been filed the previous year.
Baron Cohen and Fisher met in 2001 at a party in Sydney, Australia, well before they gained fame for their hit movies, 2006’s Borat and 2005’s Wedding Crashers, respectively. “She was hilarious. We were at a very pretentious party, and me and her bonded over taking the mick out of the other people in the party,” Baron Cohen recalled of their first meeting in a 2020 interview with The New York Times. “I knew instantly. I don’t know if she did.”
The couple have repeatedly spoken about how much they value their privacy. Speaking to the Australian Women’s Weekly in 2022, Fisher said that it could be the secret to their happy relationship. “I get nervous talking about it because I feel like, by not having my relationship in the public domain and not having spoken about how we met or really talked about our marriage publicly, it’s remained something private and valuable to me,” she shared. “I don’t know if that’s the secret. But having a shared ability to find humor in the sharpness of life is always going to bring connection. And, otherwise, I just think it’s nice to keep some things for yourself.”
But on April 5, news broke that it was all over and had been for some time. “After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down,” read a joint Instagram statement. “In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage. We have always prioritized our privacy and have been quietly working through this change. We forever share in our devotion and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”
So why did Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher divorce? May what Rebel Wilson revealed in her memoir about him might hold some clues.
Why did Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher divorce?
The couple were mum on the reason for their split, but maybe Rebel Wilson’s memoir holds a clue. Ahead of Rebel Rising‘s release, Wilson teased that a “massive a—hole” was trying to stop her book from hitting the shelves. Writing on Instagram on March 25, she later revealed: “I will not be bullied or silenced with high priced lawyer or PR crisis managers. The ‘asshole’ that I am talking about in ONE CHAPTER of my book is Sacha Baron Cohen.”
In the memoir, Wilson retells meeting Baron Cohen at a dinner party in 2013. He later called her, asking her to play his girlfriend in The Brothers Grimsby, an R-rated comedy he co-wrote, starred in, and produced. Once they began filming, Wilson claims: “It felt like every time I’d speak to SBC, he’d mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene. I was like, ‘Ha, I don’t do nudity, Sacha.’ ”
She continued that later in filming, “SBC summons me via a production assistant saying that I’m needed to film an additional scene. ‘Okay, well, we’re gonna film this extra scene,’ SBC says. Then he pulls his pants down … SBC says very matter-of-factly: ‘Okay, now I want you to stick your finger up my ass.’ And I’m like, ‘What?? … No!!’ …” Wilson continues in her book, “I was now scared. I wanted to get out of there, so I finally compromised: I slapped him on the ass and improvised a few lines as the character.”
Baron Cohen vehemently denied how the incident played out. His rep said in a statement, per People: “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”
However, Wilson’s memoir was released in April 2024 and Baron Cohen and Fisher filed for divorce in 2023 so timing-wise, it can’t be the reason for their split directly.
Rebel Rising follows Rebel Wilson’s incredible journey of “making it,” constantly questioning, “Am I good enough? Will I ever find love? Will I ever change and become healthy?” Rebel writes for the first time about the most personal and important moments in her life—from fertility issues, weight gain and loss, sexuality, overcoming shyness, rejections, and, well…okay there’s at least one story thrown in about Brad Pitt.
