The Shady Details About Jonah Hill And His Ex Sarah Brady's Split

Actor Jonah Hill is known for his comedic chops, but there was nothing funny about the fallout from his split with surfer Sarah Brady. The pair went Instagram official in September 2021, when Hill posted a since-deleted picture of the pair, along with the caption, "grateful for you @sarahhbrady." Brady had previously featured Hill on her Instagram page that August, posting a snap of the couple kissing. Brady and Hill made their red carpet debut in December of that year, where they twinned in powder blue suits and loafers at the "Don't Look Up" premiere.

Matching clothes can be cute, but cute wouldn't be the word to describe what happened next. Hill and Brady apparently split at some point in 2022 because Hill next stepped out with new girlfriend Olivia Millar that August. The pair went on to welcome a child in May 2023, and it was during that summer that Brady released a barrage of text messages sent to her by Hill during their relationship. Brady accused her ex of weaponizing therapy words and acting emotionally abusive. "Sharing this publicly now because keeping it to myself was causing more damage to my mental health than sharing it could ever do," the surfer wrote.

Things worsened from there, with both Brady and Hill trading barbs. The public nature of the split also sparked an online discourse about emotional abuse in relationships.

Beginning on July 7, 2023, Sarah Brady took to Instagram Stories to share a series of texts from Jonah Hill. In the conversations she shared, Hill asked Brady to delete Instagram pictures of herself in a bathing suit that he thought were "overly sexual," as reported by Teen Vogue. "This is a warning to all girls. If your partner is talking to you like this, make an exit plan," Brady wrote. In another text conversation she posted, Hill bulleted out behavior that he felt was inappropriate, including "surfing with men" and "boundaryless inappropriate friendships with men."

Brady especially took offense at how Hill used therapy speech to manipulate her. "I too struggle with mental health," she wrote. "It's been a year of healing & growth with the help of loved ones and doctors to get back to living my life without guilt, shame, and self-judgment."

Brady's experience with emotional abuse prompted many others to speak out on social media. For example, TikTok user Tefi Pessoa posted a video in which she said, "The weaponizing of therapy is crazy because you're using terminology you used in therapy to get someone to stop doing what they love" — in this case, surfing. Another user tweeted her take on the situation to X, formerly known as Twitter. "Here's the thing: Emotionally abusive & controlling men don't want 'submissive women,' they want to take strong women down a peg," she explained.

Sarah Brady's handling of her split from Jonah Hill also coincided with an incident in which KeKe Palmer's then-boyfriend Darius Jackson publicly shamed his ex for wearing a provocative dress to a concert. Palmer later broke up with Jackson. On the heels of both her and Brady's experiences, other celebrities also chose to air their dirty laundry regarding emotionally abusive exes. For example, Olivia Culpo's sister, Sophia Culpo, posted since-deleted messages from her NFL ex-husband, Braxton Barrios, to TikTok.

And while most people sided with the likes of Sophia and Brady, others felt that it was a little unethical to share private messages on social media in this way. As Brady continued to release texts from Hill, Hill responded by saying that her choice to release "intimate texts ... [is] a huge triggering violation for me and a breach of trust as a friend." For the record, Brady posted that text, too. In July, TV personality Meghan McCain expressed her view that Brady's decision to post those messages made her the manipulative one, not Hill. "It must be every public person's nightmare to have their private messages blasted out for the world to read and judge," McCain said (via OK!).

Brady herself even admitted it wasn't the best look. "Yes, it's tacky and a violation of privacy to share private messages, however ... screenshots are the only pieces of evidence," the surfer posted to Instagram Stories.