Katy Perry grew emotional as she reflected on the time she and fiancé Orlando Bloom broke up for nearly a year.
The “Woman’s World” singer, 39, opened up about her relationship with Bloom in a recent episode of Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast.
Bloom and Perry, who began dating in 2016, separated in 2017 and reconciled about a year later. They got engaged in 2019 and share a 4-year-old daughter, Daisy.
Perry revealed that she and Bloom only “kind of” spoke during their separation.
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“He was boundaried,” she said.
The singer also explained that in order to work on her relationship with Bloom, she first needed to work on herself and acknowledge her own needs.
“We all have our strengths and our opportunities for growth. But one of his strengths (is) when I crumble, he can step in and be that anchor,” she said of her fiancé. “Because I’m usually just, ‘Alpha, alpha, testosterone, testosterone! I got this, I don’t need any help!’”
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“But actually, I do need help, I do need a partner,” she continued, growing tearful.
“I went on a guided journey the other day, and for as strong as I am, I was like, ‘No, I do need, I do need, I do have needs. And I do need help sometimes,” she continued. “So it was a beautiful revelation.”
Perry explained that in the early days of their romance, she and Bloom were in different places when it came to personal development and the way they approached relationships.
“We weren’t really in it from Day 1,” she said. “I mean, he was, in a way, because he had just done a huge time of celibacy, and he had set intentions. I was fresh out of a relationship, and I was just like, ‘I can’t do this anymore, I need to swim in a different pond.’ But I had yet to do a lot of some real work.”
She said a turning point came when Bloom attended the Hoffman Process, an intensive weeklong therapy program.
“He went there, and then he came back, and he wasn’t playing this cat-mouse game anymore with me, and I was like, ‘This is boring, I’m moving on,’” she said. “Because I was so used to this push-pull … I was playing games. It was a dopamine hit, right? It’s what I knew.”
That marked the start of a “really tough year” of personal exploration, Perry said.
Then, near the end of the year they were separated, the singer said she decided to try out the same intensive therapy program that Bloom had attended.
“Then I got the tools and spoke the same language, and it changed my life,” she said. “It saved my life. I would be dead without it. I would not be on this planet without that process, and meditation.”
One thing she learned during this time of self-reflection was that she relied on external validation to bolster her sense of self.
This especially came to light with the release of her 2017 album, “Witness,” which received mixed reviews.
“When ‘Witness’ came out and things started to shift, and I thought I really loved myself and I thought I really had that center, but actually that core was all created from outside validation,” she said.
Perry also reflected on what initially drew her to Bloom, naming his “adventure spirit” and his loyalty.
She also shared how their bond has deepened the more they work on their relationship, and themselves.
“The more we do the work, the more we find the next level,” she said. “And sometimes we get stuck and we’re like, ‘OK, well, let’s go in to do the work, and this is going to be annoying, and I don’t want to do it ...’ And then we find the next level, and that’s why we’re continuing in the relationship.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
