Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen might be laying low since announcing their divorce in April, but behind-the-scenes, friends are reportedly picking sides amid the end of their 23-year relationship.
A source told InTouch that two of the couples A-list friends, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell have seemingly favored Baron Cohen, 52, in the divorce which may come as a surprise given their ties to Fisher, 48, and Baron Cohen’s ongoing controversy amid allegations made by fellow star Rebel Wilson earlier this year.
“Even though people assume Isla is close to Owen Wilson because of their work on Wedding Crashers together, Sacha was the one who was friends with Owen first and helped get Isla in that movie. Similarly, he has tight relationships with Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell that are going to come in extra-handy as he navigates these unknown waters,” the insider told InTouch.
The source added that Baron Cohen is in “a full-blown PR crisis right now” as he navigates the fallout from his divorce and from accusations made by his The Brothers Grimsby co-star, Wilson. Shortly before Fisher and Baron Cohen announced their split, Wilson accused the actor of pressuring her to perform a lewd act and to appear nude on camera while filming the 2016 movie.
While Fisher and Baron Cohen’s divorce announcement hinted that they split months before Wilson’s claims were made public in her newly-released memoir, the timing of the two revelations has reportedly left Baron Cohen feeling like a “bona fide villain” according to the source.
“That means he needs to make this divorce as painless as possible, especially with his already fragile public image hanging in the balance,” the insider claimed. “He has amassed a huge fortune from his film and TV work. He totally has the money to be more than fair to Isla after all their time together. But he also is leaning on his decades of comedy contacts who are fiercely loyal to him.”
However, Fisher is reportedly determined to keep things amicable. The source claimed: “For the sake of their kids, Isla is not going to draw this out into a long fight, but she’s also not going to settle for anything less than fair from Sacha, nor should she.”
“She was his rock of support during his rise to fame in America, and absolutely contributed to his incredible success.”
Fisher and Baron Cohen share three children, two daughters and a son. They married in 2010 after nine years together and, at the time of their divorce, were based in Fisher’s home country, Australia. They announced their split in a joint statement shared to their Instagram Stories, revealing that they secretly separated at the end of 2023.
“After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down. In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage,” they wrote.
“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.”
Before you go, click to see all the couples who split up in 2024 (so far).
