Chelsea Handler opens up about ‘difficult’ Jo Koy split: ‘I really believed this was my guy’

Chelsea Handler has opened up about her “difficult” breakup with Jo Koy.

The 47-year-old comedian announced their split on Instagram in July after nearly a year of dating.

In a new interview, Handler shared the difficulties she faced while ending her “last relationship”, which she described as an example of one of her “seminal” or “now what” moments in life.

"I really believed that this was my guy,” she said.

“I thought, ‘Oh my god, I won.’ Like I got everything. I have my career, I have respect, I have my family, I have so many friends, I have all of these things. And then I thought this was gonna be the person I spend my life with,” she continued.

Handler went on to explain that she was open to the idea of marriage with her previous boyfriend.

“And then, towards the end of the relationship, it just became clear that this was not my person.”

"There were just some behaviours that we couldn’t agree on… It felt to me like I would have to abandon myself, which maybe I would have been okay to do if I were 20 or 25, but I wasn’t willing to do that,” Handler told Brooke Shields’ on the Now What? Podcast.

“No matter how much I loved this person – and I loved him so much – I was not going to abandon myself.”

“I am not going to change the way that I behave in order to make you feel more comfortable. I’m not doing that, and I had to walk away from something that I really believed was gonna be a forever relationship," Handler insisted. “So that was difficult.”

Handler and 51-year-old comedian Koy had been longtime friends before making their relationship public in September 2021.

In July 2022, Handler posted a video of the pair that was recorded with the intention of celebrating their one-year anniversary.

Handler wrote on Instagram: “In anticipation of celebrating our first year together, Jo and I recorded this video early, but as many of you have noticed, it is with a heavy heart to announce that we have decided together that it is best for us to take a break from our relationship right now.”

“This man blew my heart open with love and because of him, my life experience has changed forever,” she said, praising Koy.

“He renewed my faith in men, in love, in being 100% who I am, and I’ve never been more optimistic for the future.”

Handler urged fans to continue to “root for us”, and reminded them that “YOUR PERSON IS COMING”.

On her Dear Chelsea podcast in October, Koy joined Handler, where they had an open conversation about their relationship. They agreed their chemistry was “amazing” from the start, but Handler didn’t initially think of Koy romantically because he had “brother energy”.