Why Chris Pratt & Anna Faris’ Split Shouldn’t Kill Your Belief In Love

It's heartbreaking news anytime a celebrity couple calls it quits, but this one is hitting especially hard. On Sunday night, Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced their separation after eight years of marriage and one child together, and fans are understandably devastated. It's hard to imagine that these people who seemed so in love are going their separate ways, and it might even make you question how any relationship could possibly last if even they couldn't make it work. But Pratt and Faris' split shouldn't kill your belief in love, if for no other reason than the fact that the love isn't dead between them, despite their breakup.

Just by looking at the joint statement they released, it's easy to see that this marriage isn't ending on bad terms, especially where their son, Jack, is involved. The statement posted on Pratt's Facebook reads:

Anna and I are sad to announce we are legally separating. We tried hard for a long time, and we’re really disappointed. Our son has two parents who love him very much and for his sake we want to keep this situation as private as possible moving forward. We still have love for each other, will always cherish our time together and continue to have the deepest respect for one another.

The statement spells it out pretty clearly — they love each other, they respect each other, and they're leaving this marriage with happy memories of the time they spent together. That doesn't sound like love is dead at all, including the love between Pratt and Faris; it just sounds like they couldn't make their relationship work to fit what they each needed out of it. In an ideal world, love really would be all you need, but that's not realistic. There are a million other factors that can make or break a marriage, and many of them have nothing to do with whether or not the people involved love each other.

Besides, letting anyone else's relationship, let alone a celebrity couple's, dictate the way you view your love life will always lead you down a negative path. As much fun as it is to label our favorite celeb marriages #RelationshipGoals, we only get a very limited view of their life together, depending on what they choose to share on social media, in interviews, and when they're out in public. It just isn't fair to compare their highlights to the realities of daily relationships. Whether they work or not depends on so many factors. No one couple can be used as a measuring stick against which all other couples can be judged — not even if its a love like Pratt's and Faris' once was.

And if you want more celeb couples to look up to, there are so many others out there, and there always will be. George and Amal Clooney, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, and Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are all great examples of those who are still making it work. Some of those marriages may end in divorce, because that happens sometimes, but love will always be real despite that.

Pratt and Faris are separated, yes, but life goes on. The world keeps turning, and love keeps existing... and whether or not you believe in it only depends on you.