Lupita Nyong'o was 'living in a lot of pain and heartbreak' after Selema Masekela split

Lupita Nyong'o was "living in a lot of pain and heartbreak" following her split from Selema Masekela.

The 12 Years a Slave actress candidly announced on Instagram in October that her relationship with the television host had been "suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception".

Explaining why she wrote such an honest post, Lupita told Porter magazine, "I was living in a lot of pain and heartbreak. I looked at the environment of my social media and thought, I don't want to be a part of this illusion that everything is always coming up roses. Surely there is a lesson for me to learn in this, and I just want to be real about it."

The 40-year-old star felt relieved and less alone as soon as she shared the post with her followers.

"I knew how it could be interpreted; I knew it would have a life of its own," she recalled. "But then I started to see the comments and people were being so loving and supportive. The ones that moved me the most were other people sharing their pain and their heartbreak."

Before Selema, the Oscar-winning actress had never made her relationships public. She explained that she made their romance Instagram official in December 2022 because she felt so "sure about it".

As a result of the split, Lupita intends to keep her personal life private going forward.

"That was very, very sage of me," she said about staying private. "I'm going back to those days, by the way."

Accordingly, the Us actress did not address the rumours linking her to fellow actor Joshua Jackson. They were pictured holding hands in December.