Katy Perry Opens Up About Her Previous "Really Tough" Split from Orlando Bloom

Katy Perry is ready to be brutally honest about her 2017 breakup from Orlando Bloom.

The couple met in January 2016, at a Golden Globes afterparty, and dated for a little over a year before breaking up in February the next year. During her recent chat with Alex Cooper on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Perry opened up about why they called it quits in 2017—and why they were really ready to rekindle their romance when they reunited the following year.

“We weren’t really in it from day one. He was because he had just done a huge time of celibacy and he had set intentions," she said, according to Page Six. "I was fresh out of a relationship, and I was like, I can’t do this anymore. I need to swim in a different pond, but I had to do a lot real work.”

Perry explained that it became clear she and Bloom were looking for different things after he attended a week-long retreat called The Hoffman Process at The Hoffman Institute in California.

“He went there, and he wasn’t playing that cat-mouse game anymore," she explained. “And I was like, ‘This is boring. I’m moving on.’ I was so used to this push-pull. Because once you have it. I was playing games."

Following the split, Perry and Bloom spent what she described as a "really tough year" apart, but reconnected after she decided to attend the Hoffman retreat herself—an experience she said gave her the "tools" she needed to be in a serious relationship.

“When Witness came out and things started to shift, and I thought I really loved myself. I thought I really loved myself, and I thought I really had that center, but actually that core was all created from outside, validation," Perry explained of the headspace she was in at that time in her life, per People. "Everything started changing, and then I went to [the Hoffman Institute] and it changed my life. It just helped me rewire how I think about myself, and it helped me connect my head to my heart."

Even though the exes hadn't gone no-contact during their year-long breakup, Perry said they only "kind of" talked during that time because Bloom "was boundaried," so she took the initiative when they eventually reunited.

"I was doing a show that was close to where he was on vacation, and I was like, ‘I’ll pop over!’" she said of reconnecting with Bloom.

More than six years after reuniting, Perry and Bloom, who got engaged in 2019 and welcomed their daughter, Daisy, in 2020, are still going strong—something she attributes to their balance as a couple.

"We all have our strengths and then our opportunities for growth. But one of his strengths [is] when I crumble, he can step in and be that anchor," she said. "That's amazing, because I'm usually just alpha, alpha, you know? I'm like testosterone, testosterone. 'I got this. I don't need any help,' but actually I do need help. I do need a partner."