When Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced their separation back in 2017, I felt it like a very tiny punch to my gut. I’d been rooting for them: a funny, relatable celebrity couple who seemed genuinely to enjoy each other’s company, and now it was all over.
But this week, as we learn that Chris Pratt is now engaged again, to author Katherine Schwarzenegger, perhaps the bigger news is that Anna Faris is okay with it. In fact, she seems authentically pleased for the couple. She was one of the first to comment on Chris’s Instagram announcement, saying: “I’m so happy for you both!! Congratulations!”
As someone who took almost erotic pleasure from declining a Facebook friend request from an early boyfriend, I’d like to learn how to be this well-rounded when it comes to exes, so I did some digging into Faris and Pratt’s post-relationship relationship, if you will, and these are the lessons I learned.
1. Make yourself indispensable to the wedding
"Chris texted me this morning and he was like, 'I proposed to Katherine last night,' " Faris said, on the latest episode of Unqualified, her podcast. "And I was like, 'Ahh, that's amazing.' I texted him back, like, 'I just wanted to remind you I'm an ordained minister.' "
She also said: "I'm so happy for them. I knew that it was gonna happen and I love her and I love him and I'm just so happy that they found each other.”
If my husband and I ever separate, I would like to have the sort of relationship with him that allows this sort of goodwill and friendly banter. I mean, I love him, but I’m not even sure we have this healthy a relationship now.
2. Work hard to normalise your new family dynamic for your children
Although both Pratt and Faris are in new relationships (Faris is now seeing cinematographer Michael Barrett), it’s clear that their young son, Jack, is still at the very top of their priorities.
“Chris and I work really hard 'cause we have Jack,” Faris admitted on her podcast. “That is sort of the long game idea and making sure Jack is really happy, which makes us really happy.”
And apparently what makes Jack really happy is dressing up as a ninja to go trick-or-treating at Halloween. Last year, in an eye-watering but down-to-earth feat of post-relationship bonhomie, Jack was escorted by each of his parents, plus their significant others. Pratt and Schwarzenegger dressed as Vikings, Faris went as Snow White, while her partner Barrett made a very charming Khaleesi from Game of Thrones, and everybody looks really happy about it.
3. Spread your wisdom to other (un)happy couples
Rather than issue a woolly statement about “conscious uncoupling”, Faris and Pratt have been fairly clear and honest about their new lives. In addition to opening up about the challenges of her own relationship, Faris offered advice on relationship problems from her listeners, particularly those juggling the twin challenges of co-parenting with a broken heart, and not letting resentment creep in.
She and Pratt, she said, had 'the luxury of circumstance':
“We are both in other loving relationships. … But It’s like, how do you not in general sink into a place of bitterness? I do want to reiterate though, that I f*cking acknowledge, we all do, everyone acknowledges, that there’s bitterness and pain with all breakups and that hopefully makes us more human.
“But the long game, and it’s just the worst being the bigger person. It just is. It f*cking sucks! Until then, what [matters most] is that everyone's happy."
4. Try and keep your sense of humour
Faris has said before that there is still “so much laughter” in her and Pratt’s lives: "We watched each other grow, and he still cracks me up all the time. And I think I crack him up — unless he’s a really good actor and great at faking laughter."
And maybe that’s the real secret to retaining your equilibrium after a break-up – keeping a sense of perspective so that you can laugh at yourself.
“Sometimes I’ll put on my short black bob wig and play a different character,” Faris replied to a podcast listener who asked about her sex life. “I also like to play really trashy girls because I am not a great lover. I’m very lazy. Usually, I like to call myself a stripper named Tragedy. It turns me on.”
I don’t think Anna Faris is in any danger of losing her sense of humour. May we all be a little more Anna Faris