Editorial: Separation anxiety

Hollywood director Noah Baumbach's 2019 film, Marriage Story, a piercing examination of a relationship falling apart, in spite of the best intentions of the aggrieved spouses, features a line of dialogue that sums up the scarring of separation in a poignant manner. The counsel for one of the parties informs them, 'Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best, divorce lawyers see good people at their worst.' In the backdrop of a recent celebrity divorce that grabbed headlines across the nation and beyond, it might be helpful to look back at the media's neverending obsession with celebrity culture, and the manner in which that 'neediness' has spiralled into a vicious cycle endemic to newsrooms across the world.

The pitfalls of such 'news gathering' became a talking point way back in 1995, when reporter Martin Bashir interviewed Diana, the Princess of Wales for a BBC current affairs show in which she discussed her extramarital affair, as well as her husband's adultery. Diana's post-divorce life turned into a matter of intense media scrutiny, and it culminated in tragedy two years later, when she died in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris as her driver was fleeing the paparazzi. The crash also led to the deaths of her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver. In the aftermath of the accident, Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed embarked on a 10-year-long campaign to establish that the car crash that killed his son and Diana was premeditated by the British intelligence.

Fast forward a few decades, and the narratives centred on celebrity splitsville have undergone sea change. The age of breaking news buoyed by social media has ensured that any such ‘gossip’ ends up on a microblogging site or a photo-sharing portal even prior to the nearest next of kin being privy to such information. What has also become a hallmark of separations in the post-millennial era is the statements released on social media, that urges members of the media fraternity and the public at large to ‘respect the privacy of the individuals concerned’ and ‘allow them the space to heal during such testing times’.

It’s a defeatist approach, as loss of privacy comes with the territory if at all an individual happens to be in the public eye. It was a lesson learnt the hard way for an investment banker turned first-time MP from Kolkata, whose personal life, involving details of her divorce, was dragged through the muck on account of her being a fierce critic of the ruling dispensation at the Centre. The politician happened to be locked in a fierce custody battle for a pet Rottweiler with her former husband, who had filed a complaint to the CBI, alleging he was in possession of proof that the politician accepted large cash bribes and gifts from a Dubai-based businessman to ask questions in the parliament that suited his business interests.

Newsrooms will be presented with ample opportunities to dissect skeletons in the closet that tumble out when high-profile relationships meet their inglorious ends. However, it is time media outlets turned the mirror on themselves and reevaluated their dynamic with celebrity culture. And maybe ponder on whether divulging such information through clickbait kickers, is worth the engagement on social media, at a time when a significant part of an individual's life might be crumbling around him or her.