What we know about Ben and Jessica Mulroney’s split

Like bad luck, explosive Canadian gossip bombshells come in threes. At least that’s the story this week—first, a Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry dinner date, then a love match for The Naked Gun co-stars Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson, and now, on the less celebratory end of the scale, this Page Six headline: “Meghan Markle’s ex–best friend Jessica Mulroney splits from husband.” That husband, as we on the north side of 49th parallel are well aware, is political scion turned TV star Ben Mulroney. For a while there, Ben and Jessica were Toronto society royalty. (It certainly didn’t hurt that they were connected to actual royalty.)

Related: The brandtastic life of Ben and Jessica

Then there was their fall from grace—also known as the Toronto social media scandal of the early Covid era. In 2020, when Toronto influencer Sasha Exeter accused Jessica of threatening her livelihood, the whole affair became a referendum on white privilege set against the backdrop of global unrest, the Black Lives Matter uprisings and a public stuck at home and hungry for gossip.

Jessica, who had ridden her close friendship with Meghan Markle to the very top of the influencer power pyramid, suddenly lost her brand deals, her gig on Good Morning America, her reality TV show and (at least publicly) her friendship with Markle. Ben stepped down from his co-anchor job over at Etalk to “create space for a new perspective and a new voice.”

Since then, the couple has kept a lower profile, though Ben has recently started a new gig as a conservative morning talk show host on 640 Toronto. Meanwhile, Jessica is getting used to the single life, according to Page Six, which reported her attendance at a swishy Toronto wedding where the guests included Drake and LeBron James (possibly this one). This is allegedly where she started sharing the news of the split with friends. “She’s sad, but relieved to have some clarity,” said “a Canadian source.”

Neither Ben nor Jessica have confirmed the split, but she did share mirror selfies sans wedding band recently, which is the Insta equivalent of an official statement. So now we wait and watch and wonder whether Jessica and Drake hung out at that wedding or whether Ben is a Katy Perry fan. When Canadian gossip is having a moment, we might as well dream big.