How Orlando Bloom & Katy Perry's Path to Forever Took a Dramatic Turn

And it wasn't the first time the two had fought and broken up.

In 2017, just a year into their storied romance, the couple split for about a year.

"We weren’t really in it from day one," Perry explained on a September 2024 episode of Call Her Daddy. “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 real work."

As the singer explained, the actor had gone on a weeklong retreat called the Hoffman Process—which she said "helps you rewire all the bad habits"—and she felt like he had changed.

"He went there, and then he came back and he wasn’t playing that cat-mouse game anymore with me," she added. "And I was like, 'This is boring. I’m moving on.' I was so used to this push-pull. Because once you have it, I was playing games."

But after going through a "really tough" time, she decided to put in the work. 

"I got the tools and spoke the same language and it changed my life," the 13-time Grammy nominee told host Alex Cooper, noting that the January 2018 retreat taught her how to truly love herself versus rely on outside validation. "It saved my life. I would be dead without it. I would not be on this planet without that process and meditation."

And Perry and Bloom—who reunited that same year, got engaged in 2019 and welcomed their daughter the following summer—continued to do the work.

"Orlando and I, we do a lot of couple’s therapy and we want to evolve," the 40-year-old shared with Cooper. "That’s why I think we’re in our relationship is to become better humans so that we can raise this beautiful human being."

But first Perry had some of her own growing up to do.

Back when she was best known as gospel singer Katy Hudson, the musician had her share of young, somewhat misguided teenage romances.

She rocked out with Relient K frontman Matt Thiessen in the early aughts ("We're not too close, but yeah, she's a great person," he would tell Songfacts.com years later) and split with troubled Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis in 2006, his untimely 2012 passing after he fell off a roof reportedly inspiring her somber single "The One That Got Away". 

And by the time she exploded onto the scene with 2008's racy-for-the-times "I Kissed a Girl" she had already cemented her preferred make-out partner in Gym Class Heroes' Travie McCoy. 

Just two years away from his catchy Bruno Mars collaboration "Billionaire", the couple seemed primed for music power couple status. 

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McCoy responded by taking to his blog to confirm the split, borrowing lyrics from "Looking at the Front Door," Main Source's break-up anthem ("We fight every night, now that's not kosher / I reminisce with bliss of when we was closer / And wake up to be greeted by an argument again / You act like you're ten,").

And suddenly Perry's "Hot N Cold" made perfect sense. 

"When you breakup with someone you move on," she shared while performing an acoustic set at L.A.'s Hotel Cafe in January 2009. "You don't really want to move on…but you have to because they don't give you any choice. But I'm over it!"

Proving her vow to be true she danced around the idea of getting together with close pal Josh Groban ("We might have skated on the line of dating," he told Details in 2013) before going all in with Brand. 

Mere months after flirting their way through rehearsals for the 2009 VMAs, the Get Him to the Greek star proposed on New Year's Eve at a tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India during an elaborate December holiday. Perry and Brand would return to the spot 10 months later for a days-long wedding celebration featuring a Bollywood-themed party and a Christian ceremony at the Aman-i-Khas luxury resort.

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But even riding a peak of her career, Perry made all necessary attempts to prioritize her marriage. "I invited him time and time again, and I tried to come home as much as I possibly could," she said referencing her 2012 documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me. "You saw that in the movie. That wasn't edited to leave footage out—there wasn't any footage of him."

Ultimately, she speculated, he wasn't ready to hitch his wagon to a confident, international pop star unafraid of speaking her mind. 

"At first when I met [Brand], he wanted an equal," she told Vogue, "and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they're like, I can't handle the equalness. He didn't like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting. I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can't necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day." 

What she would share, however, was the end result. "I let go and I was like: This isn't because of me; this is beyond me. So I have moved on from that."

That meant entertaining a romance with French model Baptiste Giabiconi and a dalliance with Florence + the Machine guitarist Robert Ackroyd that she told USA Today was "not even appropriate to label", and then her first go-round with John Mayer. 

Following their initial March 2013 breakup, Perry penned "Unconditionally."

"He pulled away. That was a big hello for me," she talked about the split with Elle U.K. "I realized I could lose the person I loved and I had to deal with some things, issues I think a lot of women have," she continued. "You can be strong in one aspect of your life but submissive in another. In relationships, it was hard for me to speak up and set boundaries. I think a lot of that was to do with the fear of loss."

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First, though, he'd play proud boyfriend, photographing the singer as she performed the on-theme "Roar" at the Democratic National Convention and even helping her write her speech.

The pair appeared to be such a strong team—and their romance an idyllic whir of globe-hopping, featuring trips to Sardinia, Tokyo and Palm Springs, where she feted him with a surprise 40th birthday bash—that the news in early 2017 they'd decided to take "respectful, loving space," after little more than a year together was awfully sad. 

"Katy pulled the plug," an insider told E! News. "It was a few events that happened over the past few months. They both still love each other very much, though, and getting back together could happen once they have some space."

Fans were quick to assign blame, with one People headline blaring "Orlando Bloom Had One Foot Out the Door With Katy Perry." But Perry batted down the idea that anyone should be at fault. "How bout a new way of thinking for 2017," she tweeted. "U can still b friends & love ur former partners! No one's a victim or a villain, get a life y'all!"

And when they reunited the following year, Perry knew this time was different.

"I was going through a really tough time in 2018, and he was not shook," she said in her Call Her Daddy interview. "And I showed him the worst of me. I was like, ‘Here’s the next test. I’m going to show you the craziest b---h you’ve ever seen.’ And he was like, 'I aint shook.' And I’m like, 'You’re my baby daddy.' I was like, 'If you’re not shook by this, then we’re going the distance.'"

Though the pair knew it would be tough rebuilding their union amid Perry's worldwide Witness tour, they proved to be up for the challenge, squeezing in visits to the Maldives, a March 2018 trip to Tokyo that saw them dressing as Mario and Luigi for a go-kart date and an April stop at the Vatican to meet Pope Francis with Perry's mom.

And, finally, that September, the pair walked their first joint red carpet at the Gala for the Global Ocean, hosted by Prince Albert II of Monaco, at the Opera of Monte-Carlo.

"Katy has never been happier and everyone around thinks that Orlando is great for her," a source told E! News shortly after. "Katy can really be herself, with no judgment."

But she didn't dare dream about what might come next. "They have discussed getting engaged," a source told E! News, "but Katy did not think it was going to happen so soon."

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Sworn to secrecy, her friends donned red sweatshirts emblazoned with the phrase "OK" and "everyone in the room cheered for them as they walked in and they had a champagne toast," says the source. Wiping away tears of happiness, Perry continued to marvel at her good fortune.

"Katy is over the moon and so excited. She has always said that Orlando's love for her was different than anything she has felt before," says the source. 

Because she'd put in the work and learned what she needed, they both felt confident in committing to forever. (Though the pandemic delayed their planned vows a time or two.) 

"I've gone to therapy, been through the Hoffman Process, done plant medicine...And I have a partner who is also all about finding a balance—Orlando, who is on a spiritual journey of his own. He's an anchor who holds me down, and he's very real," she told Vogue India in 2020. "Love is different from dating. You date in your twenties. Love is partnership, friendship, truth and being an absolute mirror to someone."

And it's a mirror they held up to each other.

"She definitely demands that I evolve, and I feel I do the same for her," Bloom said in an April 2024 episode of What Now? with Trevor Noah. "And that makes for fireworks, pardon the pun. But it also makes for a lot of fun and a lot of growth." 

Even if that means growing apart. Keep reading to relive the moments of their romance that made us go ah, ah, ah. 

(Originally published Feb. 16, 2019 at 3:00 a.m. PT)