These 16 YouTube stars broke up in front of millions of people on their massive platforms

YouTubers Joey Graceffa and Daniel Preda took to YouTube on July 12 to announce their split after six years of dating.

Graceffa told his 9.4 million subscribers that the pair had broken up three months prior, but they continued to live together amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was obviously not ideal timing," he said of the split.

While the breakup happened amid a pandemic and time of upheaval, the decision to go their separate ways was not a result of "everything going on" in the world, the couple explained. Large issues in their relationship, they said, simply came to light amid lockdown.

"This has been coming for a bit, " Preda said, "And the world just slowed down and said, 'Wake up, b-tch, you need to focus on yourself.'"

"We didn't really have any distractions to keep us from what's been kinda building up over the past couple years," Graceffa added.

The couple has also worked out an agreement regarding the care of their dogs. Graceffa and Preda will be splitting up their pets, but they will arrange playdates for the pups and care for each other's animals when necessary.

YouTubers Scotty Sire and Kristen McAtee announced their breakup in early February via a six-minute video uploaded to Sire's channel, appropriately titled "we broke up."

Sire, whose YouTube channel boasts 2.9 million subscribers, met McAtee, who has her own 1.2 million-subscriber following, in 2015. For the next five years, the two produced content together and separately — from cooking vlogs, to relationship update videos, to imitations of friend David Dobrik's content.

"There's no right way to do this, and we might look like goofs right now," a teary McAtee joked in the video. "But we broke up."

"It's difficult," Sire added, "but we know it's the right thing."

Ultimately, McAtee said, the two had outgrown the relationship. "I think it just got to a point where we just grew apart. We weren't growing together anymore," she explained.

The exes assured viewers that they will remain friends, perhaps even reuniting for a cooking video. And McAtee will be keeping the couple's beloved dog, Link.

The video, at the time of this post, has received over 4 million views.

Jason Ethier, known by his 5.5 million subscribers as JayStation, caused an online uproar in January during his tumultuous split with girlfriend and fellow YouTuber Alexia Marano.

On January 21, Ethier uploaded a now-deleted video to his channel, claiming that Marano had been killed by a drunk driver. In the following days, he uploaded additional vlogs of himself visiting Marano's supposed memorial and communicating with her via ouija board.

Ethier's subscribers, who viewed his behavior as suspect and tasteless, expressed outrage in the comments section of the videos and demanded a response from the 29-year-old vlogger.

On January 27, Ethier posted another video admitting that Marano was, indeed, alive. The scheme, he said, was the couple's joint effort to boost the following of their prank channel Dream Team. He also claimed that Marano had left him and was accusing him of assault with a weapon.

"Alexia is trying to ruin my life because of videos that she helped me make," he said in the since-deleted video, which received over one million views.

Marano responded to her ex's claims with a video of her own, in which she denied wanting any involvement in the hoax and accused Ethier of being controlling and manipulative throughout their relationship.

On February 3, Ethier was arrested on charges of assault and assault with a weapon, according to a statement from Toronto Police.

The two eventually reconciled, posting a video on their jointly-owned YouTube channel called Dream Team on April 4.

Makeup mogul and YouTube phenom Jeffree star announced his split with boyfriend Nathan Schwandt in a YouTube video titled "We Broke Up," posted on January 11.

"I never thought the day would come where I'd be sitting here talking about this," Starr told his 17.4 million subscribers, confirming the rumors that began weeks earlier when Star disappeared from social media and removed all mentions of Schwandt from his profiles. "I'm starting this year off alone."

The YouTube star explained that Schwandt, who appeared in multiple videos with Starr over the course of their five-year relationship, struggled to adapt to the pressures of viral fame. "It's difficult because Nathan never wanted to be in the spotlight," he said.

The pain of the split, Starr said, was compounded by betrayals from family.

"We've had family try to reach out to the media to make money off of me and Nathan's breakup," he said. "I don't even know how to process that. We're over here heartbroken, dealing with our emotions, dealing with things behind the scenes and off-camera, and there's family trying to tell the media fake stories, get money out of it."

Throughout the 17-minute video, Starr referred to Schwandt as his "soulmate" and his "one and only love."

Starr closed out the video by thanking his subscribers for their support and promising to return soon with makeup content.

The video, at the time of this post, has received over 30 million views.

YouTube royalty (and arguably, the most controversial creators on the platform) Jake Paul and Tana Mongeau took to Instagram to announce their split on January 2, just six months after their Las Vegas wedding.

The couple went public with their "relationship" in April of 2019 by posting videos of their hangouts to their respective channels — simultaneously cuddling, admitting the videos were just to stoke the flames of YouTube gossip, and kissing. Paul even referred to the pair as "two of the biggest sociopaths on the Internet."

Two months later, Paul proposed to Mongeau on her 21st first birthday, fueling ongoing confusion about the legitimacy of the relationship. The couple's lavish July wedding — costing a reported $500,000 — involved private jets, a mansion, multiple wedding cakes, a replica of Jon Snow's sword from "Game of Thrones," and even a mid-ceremony fistfight.

The YouTube stars never actually made their union legal; the couple didn't sign a marriage license because, as Mongeau stated in a video about the wedding day, saying legally-binding paperwork "takes away the love."

Paul's Instagram post announcing the "break" from the relationship, posted on January 2, featured a photo of the couple snuggling with their dog, Thor.

"As Tana and I sit next to each other writing captions about taking a break we're literally laughing at how crazy and stupid the past couple months have been," he wrote. The 22-year-old insisted that he wouldn't "change anything that happened" and that two remain "best friends."

He joked that while he would retain custody of their dog, Tana would be keeping his prized Lamborghini.

Ultimately, Paul said, the two needed to step back to focus on their own lives and careers. "luv u mongeau," he closed out the post, which has since received 690,000 likes.

Mongeau posted an identical photo and echoed her ex's sentiments.

"i'm happy to still be able to sit with Jake and laugh as we do this," she wrote. "i''ll never know what the future holds and i will always love Jake and everything we did."

The 21-year-old expressed excitement for the new year, also joking about her "new Lamborghini."

"i love u Jakey. thank u for this past year," she closed out the post. It has since received 860,000 likes.

The split came in the wake of an emotional video Mongeau posted to YouTube titled "the truth about everything. (the wedding, jake, alissa, erika, mtv, mental health, drugs, etc)." In the clip, the YouTube star suggested that her relationship had been struggling since the wedding.

Finding out that Paul met up with his ex-girlfriend YouTuber Erika Costell just a month after their vows, she said, rocked their already-fragile relationship. Paul releasing a new song about ex Alissa Violet, then posting an old photo of them kissing to his Instagram, only compounded the newlyweds' problems.

"I felt like I was opening my phone every day to something that just broke me further," she said.

After almost two years of dating, FaZe Banks and Alissa Violet — known as "Balissa" to their combined 9 million YouTube subscribers — ended their relationship, confirming rumors that began circulating days earlier when Violet unfollowed Banks on Twitter.

Before the split, the model and Chief Operating Officer of e-sports organization FaZe Clan frequently appeared in each other's vlogs. In 2017, Banks even confirmed the relationship with a YouTube video titled "My New Girlfriend." Later that month, Violet posted a cryptic tweet that read "Alissa Violet Marie Banks," causing fans to speculate that the two were engaged.

Rather than opting for the traditional "We Broke Up" video, Violet posted a simple tweet announcing the split.

"single violet thrives," she wrote, receiving over 80,000 likes.

Banks' tweet confirming the split required several extra sentences.

"Love that girl to death and always will," he wrote. "I'll never say a bad word about her." The tweet, to date, has received over 165,000 likes.

While Banks insisted the breakup was "mutual" and that the two would remain friends, Violet took to Twitter months later to clarify the circumstances of the split.

In a tweet that received over 155,000 likes, the vlogger wrote that she caught Banks cheating on her in the guest wing of their house.

Banks, in between thousands of comments on the post, wrote, "I love you," in response to the allegations, to which Violet replied with a screenshot of the former couple's text messages (with Banks listed as "scumbag" in her phone).

High school sweethearts and former Vine stars Lance Stewart and Lizzy wurst, who have a total of 7.1 million subscribers between their respective YouTube channels, posted a joint video to Stewart's channel titled "we broke up" in December of 2018.

"We are no longer together," Wurst said through tears.

"It's a buildup of things over time," Stewart added, explaining that the couple had been "bickering" for the last 6 months.

The exes assured their subscribers that there was no bad blood.

"I will always have a love for him," Wurst said, reminding viewers that the two began dating when she was just 14 years old. "I believe that us separating is going to help us find out who we are as an individual."

The two followed through on their promise to remain friends, even reuniting on Wurst's channel in 2019 for an "ex-boyfriend tag" video. To date, the breakup video has received over 4 million views.

Jake Paul and Erika Costell, referred to as "Jerika" by their combined 24 million YouTube subscribers, dated for seven months before Paul announced their split on Twitter.

Over the course of their relationship, the vloggers frequently featured each other in videos and kept their audiences guessing about the status of the relationship. The couple even posted a YouTube video in 2017 in which they appeared to get married, although Paul claimed in an interview months later that the two were not married — or even dating.

The relationship, it seemed, became legitimate earlier in 2018 when Costell was featured in Shane Dawson's "The Secrets of Jake Paul" documentary. The two were filmed holding hands and Dawson commented that the relationship "didn't feel fake."

In his tweet announcing the split, Paul admitted to "barely holding it together" and called the split "heartbreaking."

To date, the tweet has received over 52,000 likes.

Laura Riihimaki, known as LaurDIY to her 8.9 million YouTube subscribers, and vlogger Alex Wassabi announced the end of their three-year relationship in a video posted to Riihimaki's channel in September of 2018. "Laurex," as the couple was referred to by fans, insisted the relationship wasn't over for good — just "taking a nap."

"Basically, we just feel like we both need specific things and we're not fully on the same page and we need to take time apart," Riihimaki said. "So for us to come back better and stronger, we have to take time and focus on ourselves."

To date, the video has been viewed over 12 million times.

Over the course of their two-year relationship, vloggers David Dobrik and Liza Koshy had become one of YouTube's most beloved couples, posting content chronicling their joint Target runs and disastrous vacations. The Dobrik & Koshy content, however, came to an end with a video titled "We Broke Up," posted to Dobrik's channel.

The split, they said in the emotional six-minute video, actually happened six months prior, but the pair was planning to remain friends and re-evaluate their relationship in the future.

"Liza broke up with me because she felt like we've been kind of distant because we've just been so busy. Period," Dobrik said. "And, as much as I hate to admit it, I was feeling that on my side, too."

The exes made an effort to keep the video light.

"How's my hair?" Dobrik asked Koshy.

"Receding," she joked.

The viral video has received 60 million views to date. Koshy, thanks to the widespread interest in the couple, even appeared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to discuss the split.

The vlogger-turned-actress explained that she and Dobrik needed six months to process their breakup before broadcasting it to their combined 33 million subscribers.

"We wanted to heal first," she said. "We wanted to give ourselves some time to come to an understanding and be able to be best friends and be in each other's lives still without being in a romantic relationship and still be able to create online."

Colbert offered his sage advice on the couple's continued friendship, calling it a "terrible idea."

Beauty YouTuber Jaclyn Hill and her husband of nine years, Jon Hill, announced their divorce via matching Instagram posts in May of 2018. The announcement followed months of speculation from fans after the two unfollowed each other on social media and the makeup guru was noticeably absent from her channel, where she has 5.9 million subscribers.

In her Instagram post, Hill stressed that choosing to divorce was "one of the hardest decisions" of their lives, but they were confident that they'd made the right move.

"My heart is broken by this, but I still believe in love," she wrote.

The post has received over 660,000 likes to date.

Jon echoed his wife's sentiments.

"This is obviously not the future we envisioned," he wrote, citing "growing apart" over the course of their decade-long relationship as the impetus for the split.

YouTubers Jake Paul and Alissa Violet, who once collaborated on videos through creator coalition "Team 10," opted out of a joint breakup video, choosing to air split drama over Twitter.

"Jalissa," as the pair came to be known, never officially confirmed a relationship, although they appeared together in videos beginning in August of 2016. The vloggers also lived together in a house with fellow social media stars Neels Visser, Alex Lange, AJ Mitchell, and twins Lucas and Marcus Dobre.

In February of 2017, however, Violet dropped hints on Twitter that things were rocky.

"Jake rhymes with snake," she wrote, receiving 13,000 likes.

The cryptic tweets continued, and Violet ushered followers to her Snapchat story for more information.

In her Snapchat video, Violet alleged that Paul had moved her belongings into the Team 10 house foyer and changed the locks, effectively kicking her out.

Paul took to Twitter to defend himself, writing: "Predicted this is what she'd do. Jalissa WAS real. The problem is she cheated on me. I am the victim, not her," in a since-deleted post.

Violet fired back that the relationship wasn't real, citing Paul's flings with "girl after girl."

The vlogger also posted a note accusing Paul of emotional abuse, explaining that she would cry herself to sleep while living in Team 10 House.

In response, Paul tweeted his admiration for Violet, calling her "super talented" and promising fans that the two would "work it out."

Violet, however, was not impressed and shut down the possibility of any reconciliation.

Months later, Violet uploaded a video titled "What you've been waiting for," in which she shared her side of the "Jalissa" relationship and breakup.

"I never thought someone could be so malicious and evil," Violet said of Paul's decision to remove her from the level 10 house.

"I lost all my friends," she said. "When all that happened, everyone kind of went to Jake's side because they're in contract with him."

The pain of the split, Violet added, was compounded by a negative encounter in which Paul's father told her to "go f---" herself.

Years later, in 2019, Paul would go on to produce a nostalgic song about Violet titled "These Days," which he cited as a contributing factor in the breakup of Violet and then-boyfriend FaZe Banks.

YouTube icon Colleen Ballinger, known for her online persona Miranda Sings, devastated fans in an emotional YouTube video announcing her divorce from husband Joshua Evans. The couple, who chronicled their entire relationship online, from their first date to their wedding vows, developed a devoted online following.

The image the couple created online, Ballinger said in the now-deleted video, was not the full picture.

"We have always had a rocky relationship since the beginning, we've always butted heads, we've always fought ever since we met. It's never been a perfect relationship," she said through tears. "We've chosen to share our relationship online. You've watched us date, get engaged, get married. We've shown you everything because we wanted to and I don't regret any of that but, you know, we chose to not share with you the hard parts of our relationship and there were a lot of hard parts of our relationship.

Evans posted a video of his own titled "Heartbroken," in which he suggested that the relationship had been rocky. "We've had some great times and terrible times over the past eight years," said.

He clarified that the divorce, however, was not a mutual decision.

"I do not want this divorce," he said. "I want her but I truly believe she thinks she's making the right decision right now and I can't make her decisions for her."

YouTubers Jesse Wellens and Jeana Smith, known for their PrankvsPrank and BFvsGF videos, announced their split in 2016 with a video posted to Smith's channel titled "A NEW CHAPTER."

Working together to constantly produce content, the couple said, strained their partnership.

"Don't make daily videos," Smith advised her 8.8 million followers. "We both can agree it's not healthy, it's not good for your relationship."

Several days after posting the breakup announcement, Wellens told his followers in a series of now-deleted tweets that he believed he had a long-lost teenage daughter — and he planned to move to New York City where the girl lived with an adoptive family.

"My Drunk Kitchen" star Hannah Hart and fellow YouTuber Ingrid Nilson, dubbed "Hangrid" by their subscribers, shocked fans by announcing their split via Twitter in March of 2016.

The vloggers, who appeared on each other's channels and walked red carpets together over the course of the relationship, appeared to be smitten.

"To have a peer who is also my partner, who does what I do and gets this world, this world that we live in, but also gets the world inside ourselves? Oh my god. I couldn't be happier," Hart said in a feature in DIVA Magazine's October 2015 issue.

The split, Hart insisted in her tweet confirming the breakup, was amicable. "Ingrid is an incredible woman," she wrote. "She remains my personal hero in more ways than one."

The tweet, to date, has received over 10,000 likes.

Nilson posted a now-deleted tweet of her own in which she said that she would always "love Hannah beyond words" and that the two had broken up months earlier, but delayed a breakup announcement while they took time to process the split and worked on "building a friendship."

Over the course of their 4-year relationship, YouTubers Shane Dawson and Lisa Schwartz solidified their place as one of the internet's favorite power couples. The pair, who frequently posted videos together, shocked fans in July of 2015 when they announced their split.

Days after the announcement, Dawson posted a coming out video titled "I'm Bisexual."

In the 14-minute video, which has since received over 10 million views, Dawson discussed his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality and how Schwartz fully supported him when he opened up to her.

"I dont know who I'm gonna end up with, and I don't know what my life is gonna be," he said, "but I just wanna be honest about it."

Schwartz uploaded a video of her own to address the split, titled "Explaining My Breakup."

"I feel a lot of joy for Shane," she said through tears, "because for years I watched him suffer. And for years I hurt for him. And at the time, I didn't know why he was suffering."

Despite the pain from the split, Schwartz explained, she knew the decision had given both her and Dawson a chance to live a happier future.

"I was able to help give him this opportuntiy to be himself," she said, "and now I'm also able to help myself and give myself the best chance of being free, of having the ability to find someone who's able to love me fully."

Schwartz added that she would repeat the relationship "in a heartbeat" and would always love Dawson.

The video has since received over 5 million views.

Years later, in July of 2019, the couple would revisit their breakup in a video titled "What Really Happened (with Shane Dawson)," posted to Schwartz's channel.

In the video, the former couple addressed some of the misconceptions surrounding their split — mainly, the rumor that Dawson's sexuality caused the breakup. In reality, the two said, they were grappling with emotional and mental health issues.

"That period of time was quite dark because I think we needed each other because we were both lost in so many different ways — career and so many different things," Dawson said in the clip. "It was very much a family bond and trauma bonding, almost."

Schwartz recalled just how bittersweet the split was and how she forced to confront conflicting emotions.

"Breakups are awful and the one with you was so painful. But then at the same time, I was so proud because once we got past that stuff, then I was proud for you," she said.

Since the split, Schwartz has gone on to write a book titled "Thirty-Life Crisis" and has gotten engaged to comedian Jeff Galante. Meanwhile, Dawson has grown his massive online following and gotten engaged to fellow YouTuber Ryland Adams.

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