11 Celebs Who Reportedly Couldn't Even Bother To Break Up With Their Significant Others In Person And Did It By Phone Or Text

Britney Spears just confirmed that Justin Timberlake ended their high profile relationship over text message in 2002, leaving her "devastated."

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In her new memoir The Woman in Me, Britney Spears has made so many revelations — and one person who isn't coming off great is her ex, Justin Timberlake. In one excerpt, Britney even confirmed that he ended their extremely high profile, three-year relationship over text message, leaving her "devastated" and having her consider quitting show business altogether.

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This revelation is of course a huge contrast to the whole media narrative around Britney and Justin's breakup (and Justin's "Cry Me a River" music video) which painted Britney as a cheater. "I was comatose in Louisiana, and he was happily running around Hollywood," she wrote in her memoir, sharing her memory of what the time after their breakup was really like.

Of course, Britney isn't the only celebrity to get unceremoniously dumped by text or phone call. Here are 11 more examples of celebs who reportedly ended things that way:

1. Taylor Swift was famously dumped by Joe Jonas on a 27-second phone call in 2008 after three months of dating, which she confirmed during an interview on The Ellen Show. "That's got to be a record," she said, referring to the length of the breakup call.

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2. Cazzie David revealed in her essay collection No One Asked For This that Pete Davidson broke up with her via text message in 2018 after they were together for two and a half years — and then she found out that he was dating Ariana Grande on Instagram the very next day.

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3. Jason Derulo admitted in a radio interview with Power 105.1 that he broke up with Jordin Sparks after three years of dating over the phone because he "wasn't in town."

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"Every relationship has their ups and downs and you know, when you start having more downs than ups, you gotta take a look at your relationship and be like, ‘Is this something that I’m supposed to be doing?'" he said about the breakup. 

4. Katy Perry's documentary, Katy Perry: Part of Me, shows the exact moment that Russell Brand cruelly texted her to end their 14-month marriage — right before she went on stage on tour. "Let’s just say I haven’t heard from him since he texted me saying he was divorcing me December 31, 2011," she told Vogue in 2013.

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5. Chrishell Stause shared that Justin Hartley texted her to let her know they were getting divorced after their four-year marriage. "Um, I found out because he text[ed] me that we filed," she said on an episode of Selling Sunset. "Forty-five minutes later, the world knew."

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"If that’s really what you wanted, there are better ways to go about [it]," she said. "I talked to him right after cause I thought that must be a joke, but that was kind of the end of the communication. What am I supposed to say? What do you say after that? It’s like, now I have to find a place to live. Now I have to scramble and figure this out, you know?"

6. Perrie Edwards claimed that Zayn Malik ended their engagement over text message. "It was horrible, the worst time of my life," she wrote in Little Mix's book, Our World. "A four-year relationship, two-year engagement ended by a simple text message. Just like that."

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But Zayn actually disputed Perrie's account of their breakup. "I have more respect for Perrie than to end anything over text message," he told The Fader. "I love her a lot, and I always will, and I would never end our relationship over four years like that. She knows that, I know that, and the public should know that as well. I don’t want to explain why or what I did, I just want the public to know I didn’t do that.”

7. Early on in their relationship in 2007, Prince William reportedly broke up with Kate Middleton on a phone call while she was working, according to a claim in Robert Lacey's book, Battle of the Brothers. "It is said that Kate excused herself from a meeting to take a call from William — then a 'hard-drinking' Army officer often spotted at nightclubs — and shut herself in a room for more than an hour while the pair discussed their future. They broke up during the call but the split didn’t last long — they got back together 10 weeks later."

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8. Tiffany Haddish told The Washington Post that her breakup with Common after dating for over a year was "not mutual" and that he did it by phone call. "It was more him saying, 'I think this relationship has run its course.' And I was like, 'OK. Like you gonna be a 50-year-old single man. OK?.'"

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Common had previously called their split "mutual" in an interview with Hollywood Unlocked With Jason Lee. 

9. The Bachelorette contestant Nayte Olukoya broke up with Michelle Young via phone call — and right after her birthday. He said that the two had a "bad weekend" and got into an argument. "I broke up with her over the phone," he told Entertainment Tonight. "You don't want to break up with someone, especially your fiancé, over the phone. It was her birthday weekend."

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"If Michelle felt blindsided, I can't take that away from her, but I know the reality of it is, this wasn't our first time talking about a breakup," he continued. "The day I left LA after her birthday weekend, it was kind of already being said without being said, and again, it wasn't our first time having a breakup conversation, this is our third time nearly breaking up."

10. In a 2013 interview with Complex, Ariana Grande opened up about the worst way she was ever dumped. "Probably over a text message the opening night of my tour right before I was about to go on stage," she said. Given the timeline of her tour, many fans have speculated that she was referring to her ex Jai Brooks whom she dated for two years, though this has never been officially confirmed.

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11. Finally, Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas seemingly did have a mutual conversation on the phone, after which they decided to end their 10-month relationship. "They have had numerous discussions about their future and they decided together to break up," a source told People at the time.

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