According to People Lupita Nyong’o announced her split from boyfriend Selema Masekela on Instagram, Thursday, while encouraging her followers to “face our pain so we don’t spread it.”
In the lengthy note — which she shared via screengrabbed slides, in a caption and again on her Instagram Story — Nyong’o, 40, began by acknowledging that:
“there are much more important things going on in the world right now, and my thoughts are with those who are deeply suffering.”
“At this moment, it is necessary for me to share a personal truth and publicly dissociate myself from someone I can no longer trust,” the Oscar winner wrote. “I find myself in a season of heartbreak because of a love suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception.”
Nyong’o wrote that she’s felt the urge to “run into the shadows and hide” amid the heartbreak, but said “I am reminded that the magnitude of the pain I am feeling is equal to the measure of my capacity for love. And so, I am choosing to face the pain, cultivating the courage to meet my life exactly as it is, and trusting that this too shall pass.”
The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star said she shared the personal news “to keep it ?, and hoping that the knowledge of my experience might be useful to someone else out there experiencing the grip of heartbreak who is poised to try and escape from the pain and miss out on the wisdom that comes from it. #Breakup.”
“Let’s face our pain so we don’t spread it,” concluded the message, in which Nyong’o never referenced Masekela by name. A rep for Masekela, a TV host and sports commentator, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, nor did one for Nyong’o.
Her announcement comes a day after she was seen attending a Janelle Monae concert with friends and Dawson’s Creek actor Joshua Jackson, 45, whose wife Jodie Turner-Smith recently filed for divorce.
Nyong’o and Masekela publicly confirmed their relationship on Instagram in Dec. 2022, though it’s unclear when their relationship began.
Back in August, Nyong’o had celebrated Masekela’s birthday on Instagram, calling him a “Sunshine Human ☀️.” At the time, Masekela responded in the comments dubbing himself the “luckiest man alive.”
