“Personally I find it chic to be divorced by the age of 30.” That’s how model, actor, author and divorcee Emily Ratajkowski captioned a recent TikTok video extolling the virtues of ending a marriage relatively early in life. “There’s nothing better than being in your 30s […] having tried that married fantasy and realising that it’s maybe not all it’s cracked up to be and then you’ve got your whole life ahead of you,” she continued. In the comments beneath Ratajkowski’s video, the overriding tone was one of hopeful empowerment and validation. “26 and just got divorced yesterday. I NEEDED this right now,” commented one woman. “Divorced at 30 is THE BEST,” wrote another.

Ratajkowski isn’t the only celebrity helping to undo the stigma that has traditionally surrounded getting divorced at a young age. Look at 27-year-old Sophie Turner, going through a very public separation from Joe Jonas and making glamorous headlines with Taylor Swift in the process. Or Miley Cyrus, who divorced long-term partner Liam Hemsworth at 27 and wrote in a tweet: “I had to make a healthy decision for myself to leave a previous life behind. I am the healthiest and happiest I have been in a long time.” ‘Divorcee’, the once-maligned label that stuck uncomfortably to famous women from Catherine of Aragon to Meghan Markle, seems to be taking on a whole new meaning.

“It embodies growth and bravery”: how divorce got a rebrand