Hayley Williams And Chad Gilbert Split Up: ‘Marriage Is Not For The Faint Of Heart’, Says Rocker Couple

After close to ten years together as a couple, including the past one year and four months as a married one, Paramore singer Hayley Williams and Chad Gilbert are splitting up.

Earlier today, Williams and Gilbert both took to Instagram to post identical joint statements announcing that they have indeed split up. This, they said, was their way of sharing the unfortunate news to their fans, without looking like the same “publicity crap” that usually gets posted when a couple breaks up. And while the Paramore vocalist and New Found Glory guitarist did stress that they did grow up together after almost a decade as a couple, the challenges of marriage proved too much for them to handle.

“There is a challenge to trying to understand your own heart in the context of a relationship… and there is goodness in considering another heart, even in spite of your own,” said Hayley and Chad in their joint statement, as quoted by Just Jared.

“Marriage is not for the faint of heart. Love is an absolute risk. And it’s up to each of us to stay hopeful even when the outcome isn’t what we’d originally hoped for.”

Gilbert and Williams, however, appear to have split up amicably, as the couple noted that they remain “close friends who are good in each other’s eyes.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWAux-AjjBj/

As People reported on New Year’s Day 2015, Williams, 28, and Gilbert, 36, were engaged on Christmas 2014, but decided to keep the news of their engagement secret until New Year’s Eve, which was when they used a meme of the two of them in wedding attire to announce the good news via social media. Hayley and Chad tied the knot in February 2016 at the Franklin Theater in Nashville, with a small crowd of about 50 people present for the ceremonies.

Reports of Hayley Williams and Chad Gilbert’s breakup come not long after the Paramore lead vocalist spoke to Fader about a variety of topics for the magazine’s upcoming July/August 2017 issue, including her recent struggles with depression. While Paramore’s music was relatable to teenagers of the mid-2000s like Hayley was at the height of her band’s success, Fader pointed out that the band’s latest album, After Laughter, deals with more adult problems, including some of the rougher patches Williams had dealt with in her relationship with Gilbert.

Congratulations Chad & Hayley!!! pic.twitter.com/Q10S1sykvP

— Hopeless Records (@hopelessrecords) February 21, 2016

“For the first time in my life, there wasn’t a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel,” Williams told Fader, as she described the worst parts of her battle with depression.

“I thought, I just wish everything would stop. It wasn’t in the sense of, I’m going to take my life. It was just hopelessness. Like, What’s the point? I don’t think I understood how dangerous hopelessness is. Everything hurts.”

Williams also told Fader about the time her depression had forced her to briefly quit Paramore in the summer of 2015, with exhaustion and creative burnout playing a role in her decision to temporarily leave the pop-punk mainstays.

At the moment, it’s not sure whether Hayley Williams and Chad Gilbert’s split is related to Hayley’s depression struggles. But as Williams and Gilbert said in their joint statement, they’d rather keep the reasons behind the breakup to themselves, in order for them to move forward “with integrity.”

[Featured Image by Christopher Polk/Getty Images]