Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher George Pimentel/WireImage
Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher’s marriage had been rocky long before they officially separated, multiple sources exclusively tell Us Weekly.
Cohen, 52, and Fisher, 48, had been “at odds,” bitterly fighting over their respective professional commitments and family responsibilities, according to the insiders.
The two actors, who share three children, announced on Friday, April 5, that they had split.
“After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down,” Cohen and Fisher wrote in a joint Instagram Story statement, alongside a throwback pic of the pair wearing tennis outfits. “In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage. We have always prioritized our privacy and have been quietly working through this change.”
They concluded: “We forever share in our devotion and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”
Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for L.A. Dance Project
While neither Cohen nor Fisher further addressed what led to their separation, a second source recalls the pair having a “heated argument” at an A-list Hollywood hotspot. Per the eyewitness, Cohen and Fisher “furiously argued” over their conflicting filming schedules, promotional tours and childcare demands.
Cohen and Fisher had been married since 2010, often keeping their relationship private.
“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,” Fisher previously said in a November 2022 interview with Australian Women’s Weekly. “I just think it’s nice to keep some things for yourself.”
Nearly one year later, social media clues began to emerge that there was trouble in paradise after they stopped posting pics together on social media and went to red carpets solo.
“They have been living separate lives since last year but wanted to give this space and time for their children to be OK with this before the news came out and they got all this attention,” another source told Us earlier this week. “They are notoriously very private people and wanted to focus on their family.”
The insider did note that the split had “nothing to do” with Rebel Wilson, who accused Cohen of misconduct on the set of 2016’s The Brothers Grimsby. Wilson, 44, laid out her claims in her Rebel Rising memoir, which dropped earlier in April, before Cohen denied the accusations.
With reporting by Andrea Simpson