Chelsea Handler chooses 'herself' in Jo Koy split

Chelsea Handler revealed she was in inexplicable pain when she broke up with Jo Koy. However, the comedian said there are some boundaries she cannot changed.

During a podcast with Brooke Shields, Now What? Podcast, the comedian dwelled on her split from her old friend-turned-boyfriend after the pair dated for nearly a year.

"I really believed that this was my guy. I thought, 'Oh my god, I won.' Like I got everything. I have my career, I have respect, I have my family, I have so many friends, I have all of these things. And then I thought this was gonna be the person I spend my life with," she continued, explaining the relationship even changed her perspective on marriage."

I'm not that hard up to get married, but I was open to the idea of it, and we definitely discussed it at length because it was important to him," she elaborated. "And then, towards the end of the relationship, it just became clear that this was not my person."

"There were just some behaviors that we couldn't agree on… It felt to me like I would have to abandon myself, which maybe I would have been okay to do if I were 20 or 25, but I wasn't willing to do that. No matter how much I loved this person — and I loved him so much — I was not going to abandon myself," Handler told Shields.

The duo was introduced by a mutual friend nearly 20 years ago. The couple announced their relationship in September 2021.

Earlier this year, Koy told Entertainment Tonight, "I'll always champion for her," when asked about his breakup wtih Handler.