The Bizarre Spectacle of Michael B. Jordan and Lori Harvey’s Split

You may have heard that actor Michael B. Jordan and skincare aficionado Lori Harvey are no longer an item. The couple, who had been dating for a year and a half, announced their split in an exclusive for People via a “source” (most likely, a publicist) over the weekend. And, as of yesterday, Harvey has erased all evidence of the Creed star from her Instagram. Of course, Harvey’s stepfather, Steve Harvey, also weighed in.

The internet has made quite a meal out of this news over the past few days. While the People article didn’t disclose who initiated the breakup, the immediate assumption on social media was that Jordan did something stupid (i.e. cheated), and Harvey quickly dumped his ass. It didn’t help that the official Chase Center Twitter account posted a video of the 35-year-old actor sitting courtside at an NBA Finals game on Sunday where he appeared, well, not happy.

Now, thanks to another People exclusive, we’re learning that Harvey supposedly called off the relationship after realizing that she and Jordan weren’t “on the same page” while the couple were “making plans for the future.” Whether it was Jordan’s or Harvey’s representative who slipped this information to the press after several days of the Black Panther star being mocked and labeled a scumbag on social media, you can decide. Regardless, the revelation that Harvey, a 25-year-old woman, didn’t want to settle down with her 35-year-old boyfriend has sparked an outpouring of sympathy for Jordan on social media from, you guessed it, a bunch of men.

Well, for the most part. Yesterday, a Twitter account that appears to be run by a woman created a thread, offering men a “safe space” and asking them to share “a time [they] went in public after a breakup” and “had to fight back tears the entire time”— seemingly in response to the clip of Jordan at the basketball game. The prompt received thousands of responses, as men mostly recounted having to go to work or a family function the day after having their heart broken, as if it’s a novel experience that only happens to men.

Some of the stories were actually quite funny. But that was hardly the end of a bunch of random men making an influencer’s decision to leave her boyfriend about themselves and framing it as a cautionary tale of women being autonomous creatures.

In a quote-tweet to a video that Jordan filmed of an elaborate aquarium date he planned for Harvey last Valentine’s Day, one Twitter user dramatically wrote, “Men, Lori Harvey should be a lesson to you, if she wants to stay, she’ll stay. If she doesn’t, it doesn’t matter if you donate all your organs and drain your blood for her, she will leave you for lacking organs and blood. Don’t break your back, Don’t sweat it.”

Among a slew of condemning remarks, a Twitter user similarly implied that the Black Panther actor “move[d] mountains” for Harvey. Another joked that Jordan “didn’t know” Harvey “was already married to the game.” Someone even invoked reincarnation to explain Harvey’s new singlehood, tweeting, “Lori Harvey must have came to this world to take revenge on all the men that did her wrong in her past life. That’s it. That’s [the] tweet.”

The characterization of Harvey online as a gold digger (as if the Harvey family trust is short on cash) or a professional girlfriend at best is not new. When the SKN founder first arrived in the spotlight in 2017, she was engaged to Dutch soccer player Memphis Depay, who she split from in 2018. Since then, Harvey has either dated or been seen on what appeared to be dates with high-profile men such as Diddy’s oldest son Justin Combs, eventually Diddy, Trey Songz, and Future. The fact that Harvey has been linked to several men and doesn’t dress like a nun—all the while being the stepdaughter of a man who famously dishes out conservative dating advice to women—has rattled spectators on social media for confounding, mostly sexist reasons.

In that way, the internet has been strangely presumptuous when crafting narratives around Harvey and her motivations in dating other famous people, something she’s been tight-lipped about until very recently. Even the women who applaud her “hustle” and project a feminist angle onto her romantic life are inadvertently making a spectacle out of a 25-year-old whose refusal to be tied down seems healthy and, most importantly, normal.

You can say that Twitter making Jordan out to be Sad Ben Affleck 2.0 or speculating about his role in their uncoupling is another example of the public overstepping their boundaries with people they don’t know, although he’ll never experience the burden of being slut-shamed or having folks vilify him for not being settled down with a woman while he’s approaching his 40s.

Despite all the annoying reactions online, it’s weirdly an accomplishment that Jordan and Harvey managed to make the public emotionally invested in their split after having their relationship initially written off as a publicity stunt. And I’m sure, as celebrities who financially thrive on attention, the response is somewhat affirming. Let’s all just not be weird about a 25-year-old woman’s romantic life for once.