But even riding a peak of her career, she made all necessary attempts to prioritize her marriage. “I invited him time and time again, and I tried to come home as much as I possibly could,” she said referencing her 2012 documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me. “You saw that in the movie. That wasn’t edited to leave footage out—there wasn’t any footage of him.”

Ultimately, she speculated, he wasn’t ready to hitch his wagon to a confident, international pop star unafraid of speaking her mind. 

“At first when I met [Brand], he wanted an equal,” she told Vogue, “and I think a lot of times strong men do want an equal, but then they get that equal and they’re like, I can’t handle the equalness. He didn’t like the atmosphere of me being the boss on tour. So that was really hurtful, and it was very controlling, which was upsetting. I felt a lot of responsibility for it ending, but then I found out the real truth, which I can’t necessarily disclose because I keep it locked in my safe for a rainy day.” 

What she would share, however, was the end result. “I let go and I was like: This isn’t because of me; this is beyond me. So I have moved on from that.”

In other words, it’s not me, it’s definitely you.