Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher announce separation

5 April, 2024

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fishe

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher have announced their divorce after almost 14 years of marriage and over 20 years together.

The two shared the news by posting identical images on their Instagram Stories this evening (April 5).

Wearing tennis outfits in the image, the accompanying post read: “After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down.”

The pair went on to say that they “jointly filed to end our marriage” in 2023.

“We have always prioritized our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change,” they added. “We forever share in our devotion and love for our children.

“We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy.”

The pair met in 2001 and got engaged three years later. They then welcomed their first child, a daughter, in October 2007. They married in Paris in 2010 and welcomed their second and third children in 2010 and 2015.

Meanwhile, Rebel Wilson has said that she felt like “something to be laughed at and degraded” on set of The Brothers Grimsby because of her size.

The Australian actor recently opened up about her experience of working with Sacha Baron Cohen on the 2016 comedy, in which she played the actor’s girlfriend.

In an extract from her new memoir Rebel Rising, she alleged that the actor pressured her into filming inappropriate scenes, which he strongly denies.

Elaborating on her experience making the film in a new interview with The Sunday Times, Wilson said: “It’s one thing for someone who is fat to exploit their size for comedy, but it’s another for somebody else to humiliate you.”

She added that it “turned out to be the worst professional experience of my career”.

Her comments come after she detailed her experience on the film in her new memoir, writing (via People): “It felt like every time I’d speak to SBC, he’d mention that he wanted me to go naked in a future scene. I was like, ‘Ha, I don’t do nudity, Sacha.’”

Baron Cohen denied the previous accusations. A statement by his representatives read: “While we appreciate the importance of speaking out, these demonstrably false claims are directly contradicted by extensive detailed evidence, including contemporaneous documents, film footage and eyewitness accounts from those present before, during and after the production of The Brothers Grimsby.”

His representatives also provided anonymous statements in support of his response from nine people involved in the film, five of whom claim they witnessed the incident and dispute Wilson’s accusations.

NME reached out to Baron Cohen’s reps for comment regarding the most recent complaints from Wilson.

In response to the accusations, a producer for the film who preferred to be kept anonymous told NME: “In my capacity as a writer and producer, I was present with Sacha and Rebel on pretty much a daily basis from the moment she was engaged as an actor to the moment the movie wrapped and she was no longer involved. Throughout this entire period, she was treated with the utmost respect and empowerment and was welcomed as a collaborator in all creative areas; the script, costume, hair, makeup – everything that involved her.”

“One should note that neither of their characters – Nobby or Dawn – were supposed to look conventionally attractive, that was the point and was always in the script that Rebel read and approved prior to signing up for the part. She also enthusiastically contributed to making jokes to that end, including about Dawn’s body type. If she’d ever felt uncomfortable or humiliated – and I was never aware that she was at any time – those would have been conversations the director, the costume designer, producers and Sacha would have been open to at the time. Never would Sacha want to humiliate his co-star and colleague. In 25 years of working together, he has never done that to a fellow actor.”

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