Lupita Nyong'o Says Adopting A Cat Helped Her Recover From A 'Severely' Broken Heart
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Lupita Nyong’o figured out the purr-fect way to heal from a breakup.
In an interview with Glamour published on Monday, the Oscar winner revealed that adopting a cat helped her recover from a breakup with her ex-boyfriend, sports commentator Selema Masekela, after their split last year.
Nyong’o explained that she knew she was ready to adopt her cat, Yoyo, after fostering him for two days. The orange tabby helped her heal from a “super-low” point in the breakup that left her heart “severely broken.”
“I was really having a hard time believing in joy,” she said. “I was flirting with depression. I wasn’t there yet, but I was flirting with it. And I had a voice say in my head, ‘Get a cat.’”
Nyong’o told the publication that the adoption center where she’d eventually meet Yoyo had a sign displayed that said something along the lines of, “Not over your ex? Foster a cat.”
“It was spot-on,” she said.
In October, Nyong’o had announced in a candid Instagram post that she was in a “season of heartbreak because of a love suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception.”
The “Us” actor did not mention Masekela by name in that post, but she noted that she intended to “publicly dissociate” herself from someone she no longer trusted.
“Let’s face our pain so we don’t spread it,” she wrote at the time.
Nyong’o, who went Instagram-official with Masekela in December 2022, had documented the pair’s loving moments on social media before their split.
The “Black Panther” actor has since fueled romance rumors with fellow actor Joshua Jackson. Speculation that the two actors are dating ramped up in March after they were spotted enjoying a PDA-filled beach outing together in Mexico.
Neither actor has publicly commented on the nature of their relationship, but Nyong’o has not been shy about her love for Yoyo.
In January, she shared a sweet video on Instagram that showed the cat snuggled in her luggage. She wrote in the post’s caption that she wished she could’ve taken her pet with her.
