Dakota Johnson and Chris Martin call it quits: 'Feels final this time'

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After an eight-year, on-and-off relationship, Dakota Johnson and Chris Martin have broken up for good.

“It feels final this time,” one source told PEOPLE of the separation.

The two started dating in 2017 and were rumoured to be engaged. They were last spotted together earlier this month in California and had a PDA-filled night out in India back in January when Martin was touring the country with his band, Coldplay.

A source told PEOPLE in March 2024 that the couple had actually been engaged for “years” but “were in no rush to get married.”

Rumours swirled last summer that a rift had driven them apart, but a rep for the 35-year-old actress shut that chatter down, telling PEOPLE that they were “happily together.”

“Sure, they’ve had issues and taken breaks in the past, but things are great now,” a confidant told the outlet. “They both love their career. They are balancing things the best they can.”

But one insider told the Daily Mail that the sweethearts had been over for quite a while.

“Their relationship has been over for a long time, they just haven’t been able to figure out to make it official. Dakota held a flame for them to be together because she loved him so much and loved his kids so much,” the source said.

“Breakups aren’t instant and they continued to breakup and makeup and sometimes things would work when they were away from each other, while they were working because absence makes the heart grow fonder, but then they’d get back together and little things just kept adding up to where they weren’t right for each other anymore,” they continued.

“Dakota is devastated that she isn’t going to be around his kids as much anymore, but wants them to know that she is always there for them.”

Another person in the know claimed that their age gap (Martin is 48) and the subject of children was another point of contention between them.

“They really tried to work through their issues but the age gap was often a problem and she’d expressed that she may want children in the future, whereas Chris is kind of done with that part of his life but they discussed it,” the source told the U.K. Sun. “They made some beautiful memories as a family and it’ll be hard for both of them to move on after such a long relationship but they will do it.”

The Mail’s insider says there’s still a glimmer of hope the two could get back together but added that “right now, being separated will do wonders if they were to have any type of future together.”

Martin shares two children — 21-year-old daughter Apple and 19-year-old son Moses — with ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow, from whom he split in 2014 after the pair’s “conscious uncoupling.”

Paltrow, 52, was a big supporter of his new relationship, telling a fan during an Instagram Story Q&A in 2023 that she and Johnson were “very good friends.”

“She’s an adorable, wonderful person,” Paltrow added. “I love her so much.”

Paltrow is also on good terms with Martin, telling Harper’s Bazaar UK that she was proud of how they handled the end of their marriage.

“It’s painful, it’s difficult, it might be easier to say, ‘I never want to see you again,’ but what good does that do anyone?'” she told the publication back in 2014 after their divorce. “We’ve made a lot of mistakes, and we’ve had good days and bad days, but I have to say, I’m proud of us for working through so much stuff together — and not blaming and shaming.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com