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SheKnows.com Lifestyles
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Jason Pham
Wednesday, April 12th, 2023
The way they were. Since their split more than five years ago, fans have had questions over why Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney broke up and the real reason they ended their engagement.
Gaga and Kinney started dating in 2011 after they met on the set of the music video for her song “You and I.” They got engaged on Valentine’s Day 2015 and broke up a year later. Their split came as Gaga was filming her 2018 movie, A Star Is Born in Los Angeles, while Kinney filmed Chicago Fire in Chicago. Chicago Fire is NBC’s procedural drama following the personal and professional lives of firefighters and paramedics at Firehouse 51 in Chicago, Illinois.
The series, which premiered in 2012, has led to two spin-offs: Chicago P.D. in 2014 and Chicago Med in 2015. Kinney plays Kelly Severide, a Lieutenant at Firehouse 51 and the officer in charge of Squad 3. He made his debut in the pilot of Chicago Fire more than 10 years ago. But back to Kinney and Gaga. So why did Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney break up? Read on for what we know about their split.
Why did Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney break up? Gaga announced that she and Kinney had ended their engagement after five years of dating in an Instagram post in July 2016. “Taylor and I have always believed we are soulmates. Just like all couples we have ups and downs, and we have been taking a break,” she captioned a black-and-white photo of them from behind. “We are both ambitious artists, hoping to work through long-distance and complicated schedules to continue the simple love we have always shared. Please root us on. We’re just like everybody else and we really love each other.”
A source claimed to People at the time that the Kinney lived in Chicago as he filmed Chicago Fire, while Gaga has homes in Malibu, Hollywood Hills and New York City. “Chicago Fire keeps him in Chicago and her work is almost always elsewhere,” the insider said at the time.”She’s working on an album, he’s working on his show, they aren’t in the same state, it was just hard.”
A source also told Us Weekly at the time that “distance” was the main issue in Gaga and Kinney’s relationship. “It’s really sad and [Gaga’s] really torn up. They thought they’d be together forever. Distance was a big part of it,” the insider said. “They weren’t together a lot.” The source continued, “They had a good life and a lot in common, but were ultimately too different. I know he was always in Chicago and she went there all the time, but really had to be in L.A. or on tour, and it was hard for them to make their schedules work. Distance was definitely a big, big issue.”
Three months after their breakup, Gaga released her single, “Million Reasons,” from her fifth album, Joanne, which is rumored to be about Kinney. Gaga denied the rumors in an interview on The Howard Stern Show that year, claiming that the “Million Reasons” was about “all the men in [her] life.” Gaga also denied that her song, “Perfect Illusion,” another single from Joanne, was about Kinney in an interview on Andy Cohen’s Radio Andy in September 2016. “I love Taylor so, so much and this song is not a hit out against Taylor. He’s my best friend,” Gaga said. “This song is just about, I’m sure not only feelings that I’ve had but that he’s had, that my friends have had, that my sister has in her relationship. It’s a record about all of us, you know? And I would never use my song or want to use the public to hurt anyone that I love so much.”
When asked if she and Kinney “beautifully consciously uncoupled,” Gaga told Cohen, “I don’t know if I would even say it that way. I don’t think we’ve un- anything. We’re just two people figuring it out.” Gaga revealed in her 2017 Netflix documentary, Gaga: Five Foot Two — which was filmed amid her and Kinney’s breakup — that the two split while she filmed 2018’s A Star Is Born. “Me and Taylor are fighting, so that sucks,” she said. “My threshold for bulls— with men is just — I don’t have one anymore. In relationships, you have to move together.”
Later in the documentary, Gaga semeed to hint that the real reason she and Kinney broke up was because of her acting career.“My love life has just imploded,” she said. “I sold 10 million [records] and lost Matt. I sold 30 million and lost Luke. I did a movie and lose Taylor. It’s like a turnover. This is the third time I’ve had my heart broken like this.” Despite their breakup, Gaga and Kinney seemed to remain on good terms. Later in the documentary, she received a bouquet of flowers from Kinney on the day of her 2017 Super Bowl performance. “Nothing like flowers from your ex-fiancé on the day of the Super Bowl,” she said.
Two years after the documentary, Kinney seemed to shade Gaga by “liking” a comment on his Instagram that read: “Stoked you got away from Gaga. #Hollyweird.” Many users slammed Kinney for the “like.” “Imagine being bitter and liking shady comments after someone’s success,” a user wrote. Another commented, “I had so much love and respect for you until you liked this s—. Way to trash someone you were once going to marry.”
When did Lady Gaga and Taylor Kinney start dating? Gaga and Kinney started dating in 2011 after they met on the set of her music video for her single “You and I” from her second album, Born This Way. Kinney played her love interest in the video. The couple first sparked dating rumors after they were photographed together over Labor Day Weekend in Mission, Viejo, California, in September 2011. A source confirmed to People at the time that the two were “hooking up” and “hanging out.”
Gaga confirmed the relationship herself in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2013. “Having your lover be your best friend is the best thing ever,” she said. “We’re boys. I wear his flannels and we eat pizza and watch TV. And then I play him my next single. He likes it, and that’s our normal life.” She continued of Kinney, “He is extremely strange, actually. We complement each other’s weirdness. That’s actually one of the first things he ever said to me. It’s a Dr. Seuss quote. You find in someone else a compatible weirdness.”
Gaga and Kinney made their red carpet debut in 2014 at the 71st annual Golden Globe Awards. Later that year, Gaga claimed that Kinney was the first boyfriend who’s cried when she sang. “He’s the first man that I have dated that, when I sing onstage, he cries. That means more to me than anything,” she told The Times in October 2014, adding that Kinney was “supportive of everything I do.” Gaga also opened up about the relationship in an interview with The Howard Stern Show in 2014. “I really can’t imagine being with anyone other than who I’m with right now,” she said. She continued “He is the right guy. I have that feeling. I just know it.”
Gaga and Kinney got engaged on Valentine’s Day 2015 after the Chicago Fire star proposed to her at her family’s restaurant, Joanne’s Trattoria, in New York City. Gaga announced the engagement in an Instagram post of her heart-shaped engagement ring. “He gave me his heart on Valentine’s Day, and I said YES!” she wrote in the caption. The Times Herald-Record’s executive editor Barry Lewis, who happened to be at the restaurant at the time of Gaga and Kinney’s engagement, also confirmed the news at the time. “I heard the singer say ‘It was time’ as she flashed the ring around,” Lewis reported, adding that Gaga’s father, Joe Germanotta, opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate the engagement. Gaga and Kinney made their red carpet debut as an engaged couple at the 88th Oscars later that year. “With the love of my life,” she captioned an Instagram post at the time. The two broke up a year later.
Chicago Fire airs on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC.
For more One Chicago relationships, check out our photo gallery of Chicago Fire stars and their real-life loves.
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