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As is often the case, no one really saw it coming.
Just two months ago Isla Fisher appeared on the Kelly Clarkson talk show and appeared smitten with Sacha Baron Cohen, her comedian-actor husband of 14 years.
It was nearly Valentine’s Day and Isla, the 48-year-old star of movies such as Wedding Crashers and Confessions of a Shopaholic, shared how they celebrate the day of love.
“Every year Sacha gives me a card that says ‘Happy Valentine’s from . . .’ and then a massive question mark – as if I have any other Valentines!”
Her response caused Kelly to swoon. “Aw, you guys seem like such a fun couple.”
But it seems the flame-haired Aussie wasn’t quite telling the truth.
The Hollywood couple recently dropped the bombshell news that they’re going their separate ways. But more shocking was the confession they’d filed for divorce last year but had opted to keep it secret and carry on as normal.
“After a long tennis match lasting over 20 years, we are finally putting our rackets down. In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage,” they wrote on social media along with a photo of themselves in white tennis gear.
The reason for the secrecy, they said, was that they’d “always prioritised” their privacy and wanted to “quietly work through this change”.
But many fans now add another theory – one that involves actress Rebel Wilson, who just days earlier outed Sacha (52) as the anonymous “a**hole” she writes about in her new memoir, Rebel Rising.
In her book the Pitch Perfect star accuses Sacha of sexual harassment while they were filming the 2016 spy romp The Brothers Grimsby.
She says the way he treated her on set left her feeling humiliated and degraded. Despite having a no-nudity clause he asked her daily to strip for scenes in her role as his character’s love interest. He also pressured her to perform a lewd act with him for one of their scenes, she alleges.
Rebel refused to do any press for the movie and “started eating in an extremely unhealthy way,” she says.
Sacha and his lawyers have denied her claims, saying they’re contradicted by “extensive detailed evidence including film footage and eyewitness accounts from those present during the production of the film”.
“They have no basis in reality,” they say, and it’s all a ploy to promote her book.
Sources close to Sacha and Isla, who are parents to Olive (17), Elula (13) and Montgomery (9), say the split has nothing to do with Rebel’s claims. “They’ve been living separate lives since last year but wanted to give space and time for their children to be okay with it before the news came out,” a source says.
In which case, the timing of the book is pretty dreadful.
For years Isla and Sacha’s social media posts showed a happily married couple – holidays in exotic locations, date nights and more. But over time the strain of their careers and juggling a family started to take its toll.
“They furiously argued about conflicting filming schedules as well as responsibilities to the kids,” an insider says.
Things deteriorated after they moved from Los Angeles to Australia in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
They lived in Sydney for a year before moving to Perth, where her family is based. Around that time Sacha made it clear he wanted to return to the UK – and he got his way.
“Sacha grew up in Hammersmith, London, and is very close to his family,” a source says. “He was itching to return while his wife was happier in Australia.
“Things were becoming difficult and, as they say, home is where the heart is. Perhaps Sacha thought that would make things better.”
It didn’t. When Isla’s dad, Brian, to whom she was very close, died in January last year, things hit a new low.
Friends say his passing left her “absolutely devastated” and made her reassess her life. They reportedly filed for divorce around December and since then Sacha has been silent on social media.
Meanwhile, Isla has been promoting new projects, posting about her “mum’s nights out” and doing exactly what she wants to do.
READ MORE| Borat star announces divorce days after Rebel Wilson's harassment accusations
Before things went south, friends say Isla and Sacha were the perfect couple – albeit an unconventional one, she a girl-next-door from Down Under, he an oddball comedian from London.
“In many ways, they were always an odd couple,” a source says. “It just worked for them though. Isla found Sacha hilarious.”
They met in 2001 at a party in Sydney and immediately hit it off. Isla later told Marie Claire magazine that meeting Sacha was like “winning the lottery”.
“The relationship is built on a shared sense of humour,” she said.
In 2020, Sacha told The New York Times he was smitten from the get-go. “She was hilarious. We were at a very pretentious party and bonded over taking the mickey out of the other people at the party. I knew instantly she was the one.”
They got engaged in 2004, with Isla later converting to Sacha’s Judaism faith. They married in secret in an intimate Jewish ceremony in Paris in 2010.
Despite his penchant for creating outlandish characters such as Borat, a dim-witted sexist reporter from Kazakhstan; Ali G, a loudmouth rapper from London; and Bruno, a gay fashion reporter from Austria, in private Sacha is a quiet, down-to-earth guy.
“He’s totally unlike almost every star in Hollywood,” an industry source says. “He’s cripplingly shy, a sort of academic and a bit melancholy. He makes no pretence that he would rather be reading a serious book than swanning around at parties.”
Before he found fame he studied history at Cambridge University and then enrolled at a prestigious clown school in Paris, following it up with a career in showbiz.
READ MORE| Sacha Baron Cohen: 'My wife hated Borat'
Sacha has been a success in Hollywood, which is often notoriously difficult for Brits to break into. He’s collected four Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes and is in demand not only as an actor but as a writer, director and executive producer.
But according to Isla, her husband found the glitzy party lifestyle of Hollywood uncomfortable and would rarely emerge from his house without a hat and sunglasses. She, on the other hand, is bubbly, outgoing, and according to friends, great fun.
“She’s very sharp and I think she’s done a terrific job of guarding Sacha from the world,” one says. But he’s on his own now and both parties have sought the advice of high-profile celebrity divorce lawyers.
In 2022, Isla had approached the “utterly fearsome” Fiona Shackleton, one of the UK’s top legal eagles, who has represented the likes of Paul McCartney, Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and King Charles during his divorce from Princess Diana.
Meanwhile, it’s understood Sacha – who’s said to be worth a whopping $160 million (R2,8 billion) – has consulted top American divorce attorney Laura Wasser, whose previous clients include Kim Kardashian and Johnny Depp.
Sadly it seems it is indeed game, set, match for these two.
SOURCES: news.com.au, mercurynews.com, dailymail.co.uk, people.com, skynews.com.au
