Singer Alanis Morissette has spoken about her past engagement to actor Ryan Reynolds and a challenging interview with Howard Stern that occurred nearly twenty years after their separation.
Morissette and Reynolds were engaged from 2002 to 2007. Reynolds began dating Scarlett Johansson two months after their breakup, marrying her 18 months later. He later married Blake Lively in 2012.
In a 2008 interview, Morissette discussed the breakup with Stern, recalling intrusive questions about her sex life and admitting she was attending therapy five days a week to cope with the heartbreak. Looking back, Morissette told The Sunday Times Style that the experience "felt like the ongoing normalization 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 normalized to hurt women every day, call her a bitch, tell her she's a shit," she said.
During the viral 2008 interview, Morissette also addressed how the breakup influenced her music, admitting she was initially "not okay" with the split. When Stern questioned her about her intensive therapy, she stated, "Therapy's not about the guy... It's about me. It's not about the guy."
Morissette confirmed she had anticipated the breakup when asked if she saw it coming. Regarding Reynolds' quick new relationship, she responded with a silent pause before emphatically denying that he announced he was with another person.
In 2010, Morissette married rapper Souleye. The couple have three children. Reflecting on her husband, she told The Sunday Times Style that he possesses qualities that were "slam-dunky" and that he "had zero desire to clip my wings."
Morissette, who marked the 30th anniversary of her album "Jagged Little Pill" last year, has identified as a highly sensitive person (HSP) and empath. She described her past struggles with regulating her emotions through methods like partying and work addiction, as well as love and sex addiction. "We aren't given a handbook about how to be responsible for this temperament," she said. "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."