Megan and Wes split: Love Island star hailed for using Gwyneth Paltrow's famous break-up statement

Splitting up: Megan Barton Hanson and Wes Nelson
Getty Images
Hatty Collier27 January 2019
The Weekender

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Love Island’s Megan Barton Hanson was hailed as “a national treasure” after it emerged she copied Gywneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s famous “conscious-uncoupling” statement to announce her break-up from Wes Nelson.

The 24-year-old used the famous 2014 statement in an Instagram post on Saturday but swapped out the references to Paltrow and Martin’s “two incredibly wonderful children” for the hamster she shared with Nelson and asked people to respect the animal’s privacy.

“It is with hearts full of sadness that we decided to separate,” she said in the statement.

“We have been working hard for well under a year, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much we will remain separate.

“We are, however, and always will be a family and in many ways we are closer than we have ever been.

“We are parents first and foremost to one incredibly wonderful hamster and we ask for his and our space and privacy to be respected at this difficult time.”

Megan Barton Hanson's break-up statement
Megan Barton Hanson

She followed up with another post in which she said: “In all seriousness, I am so lucky to have found Wes.”

Love Island fans were quick to praise Megan for her attitude to announcing the break-up.

Lucy Jayne Ford said: “Megan Barton Hanson literally ripping Gwyneth Paltrow off word-for-word in her break-up announcement is the kind of move that makes her eligible for national treasure status tbh.”

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin who separated in 2014
Getty Images for Entertainment I

While another fan, named Ayla, wrote: “Megan Barton Hanson copying and pasting Gwyneth Paltrow’s break-up statement but replacing ‘children’ with ‘hamster’ might be the funniest thing to come out of 2019 so far.”

Journalist Elizabeth Pears said: “I’m too old to tell if people are joking or not… Megan and Wes’s breakup letter is Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s but with a hamster instead of an apple.”

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Barton Hanson and Nelson have split after just six months together. She said she would still be supporting her ex on Dancing On Ice on Sunday night despite their break-up.

She had recently become embroiled in a feud with Nelson’s Dancing on Ice partner Vanessa Bauer after she accused her of being unwelcoming and not inviting her to rehearsals. The pair have since made up.

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