Michael Sheen says Sarah Silverman split was due to Brexit and Donald Trump presidency
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sarah Silverman and Michael Sheen arriving at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2016. (Reuters)
Michael Sheen revealed that his relationship with actress and comedian Sarah Silverman came to an end due to politics.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the British actor opened about why the two decided to split and said, “After the Brexit vote, and the election where Trump became president, we both felt in different ways we wanted to get more involved."
He continued, "That led to her doing her show 'I Love You, America,' and it led to me wanting to address the issues that I thought led some people to vote the way they did about Brexit, in the area I come from and others like it.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Silverman and Sheen broke up in December 2017, but remain friendly. (AP)
The couple, who were together for four years before breaking up in December of 2017, shared the same passion for politics and following the Brexit vote, the actor made the decision to move back to Britain in order to get more involved.
“We both had very similar drives, and yet to act on those drives pulled us in different directions — because she is American and I’m Welsh,” Sheen explained before stating that he couldn't just sit on the sidelines with Brexit occurring back home. “I felt a responsibility to do something, but it did mean coming back here, which was difficult for us because we were very important to each other. But we both acknowledge that each of us had to do what we needed to do.”
In February, Silverman publicly addressed the split on Twitter and clarified that besides feeling as if they were being pulled in different directions, there was no real rift between them.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“No fight. We just live in different countries & it got hard,” the "Wreck It Ralph" star tweeted. “Felt we should just tell y’all so u stop askin, ‘How’s Michael/How’s Sarah?’”
Silverman, who dated Jimmy Kimmel in the early '00s, even went on her ex's late night show to address her split with Sheen in September.
"I was with Michael [Sheen]. We broke up over Christmas," she told Kimmel. "As you know, he moved back to the U.K. and his life is really there and my life is really not there. But I love him to pieces and you know if he's in town and we're both single, we will make love."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Sheen was previously married to British actress Kate Beckinsale. The former couple share a daughter, Lily Mo.