Alanis Morissette has spoken about the end of her engagement to Ryan Reynolds, nearly two decades after their split. The Grammy-winning singer, 52, and Reynolds, 49, dated from 2002 and were engaged for three years before parting ways in 2007.
Reynolds began a relationship with Scarlett Johansson two months after the breakup, marrying her 18 months later before their divorce in 2011. He subsequently married Blake Lively in 2012.
Morissette's 2008 interview with Howard Stern, in which she discussed the breakup and her sex life, has resurfaced. Reflecting on the difficult exchange, Morissette told The Sunday Times Style, "It felt like the ongoing normalisation of me being invisible." She added that she would handle such intrusive questions differently today.
"I have a million questions I could ask back that would be equally inappropriate. It just became normalised to hurt women every day, call her a bih, tell her she's a st," she stated.
In the viral TikTok clip from the 2008 Howard Stern Show, Morissette discussed how the breakup influenced her album at the time, admitting she was initially "not ok" with the split. When Stern asked if therapy was about the ex-partner, she responded, "Therapy's not about the guy... It's about me. It's not about the guy."
After Stern inquired about Reynolds' swift rebound with Johansson, Morissette paused before responding "No" when Stern asked if Reynolds had "comes home and announce he's with another broad?" She confirmed that she had foreseen the split.
Morissette married rapper Souleye (real name Mario Treadway) in 2010. The couple have three children. Describing her husband, she told The Times, "There are just so many qualities in him that were slam-dunky." She contrasted her current relationship with past experiences, stating, "If I would talk about something on a date, typically the person would look at me quizzically like I was strange. It was the complete opposite with Souleye. He had zero desire to clip my wings."
Looking back at her career and relationships, Morissette, who marked the 30th anniversary of her album "Jagged Little Pill" last year, identified as a highly sensitive person (HSP) and empath. "I tried myriad ways to regulate, whether that was partying or working. I was a huge work addict, still in recovery. A lot of love addiction, which also had some sex addiction. And I see this with empaths," she said.
"We aren't given a handbook about how to be responsible for this temperament. All I know is that I made absolutely no sense to most people for a very long time and it was lonely and painful but I persevered. Now I feel myself making more sense to people — there's a curiosity about what I'm talking about versus an immediate shutdown."