Love is wonderful and exciting and disappointing, often all at the same time. And, every once in a while just plain confusing. That’s the state Lana Del Rey says she’s been in recently after a break-up she just can’t understand.
In a cover story for Harper’s BAZAAR in which the singer looks back on the difficulty of the critical pile-on early in her career and how that scorn has magically turned into praise for the singer’s influence on a new generation of stars such as Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo, LDR also tackles love. Or the lack of it.
Hanging in her modest home with the writer, Lana opened up about how despite creating what she thinks of as a welcoming, mellow environment, her latest unnamed beau just couldn’t hang in her sacred space. “I feel like even the most chill guy doesn’t really want to chill here,” she said. “Sadly, part of you knows … that ain’t it.… That one shocked me. I won’t name names and whatever, but that one really shocked me, that person. That was actually the end of a relationship.”
She said the recent love interest wanted more from her, but what exactly that was wasn’t clear. “That’s a tough nut to swallow,” she said of the man who seemed enamored with the “idea of her,” but maybe not actually her. “In that person’s case, there was something going on with them, like a little bubble ego. See, I don’t get to have one anymore. It’s been smashed to … what do you call it? Smithereens. I’m sure it’s somewhere in my toe. That’s it. I’d love to grow one. I’m learning how. I’m learning. I know what I want.”
Del Rey also made one thing perfectly clear about her current dating status.
“I’m definitely not in love right now. No,” she “firmly” told her interviewer. “Absolutely not in love. Have been, but no.” Asked if she wishes to be in love at some point in the future, Del Ray shrugged and said the thought hadn’t actually crossed her mind over the last five months on the road in support of her most recent Grammy-nominated album, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. “But give it a week. My history, sure, it’s coming for me at some point. Yeah. It would be interesting if it didn’t. It would be interesting if it didn’t.”
Del Rey — who People magazine reported earlier this year was in a relationship with house musician Jack Donoghue of Salem that began in early 2022 — has been linked to a number of musicians and photographers over the years. After several years with Scottish singer/songwriter Barrie-James O’Neill of Kassidy, the magazine said Del Rey began dating Italian photographer Francesco Carrozzini in 2014, before a reported brief dalliance with rapper G-Eazy, followed by a year with cop Sean Larkin and an engagement to musician Clayton Johnson.
Billboard reported in March that Del Rey was engaged to Range Media Partners’ Evan Winiker; it was unclear at press time if the break-up referenced in the Harper’s story referred to Winiker.
After this latest break-up, Del Rey said some things would have to seriously shift for her to open her heart to someone else. “I think I would have to get my orientation toward where I want to be geographically stronger in my solar plexus, like a knowingness there, before I could tune into a stronger desire romantically,” she said. “Because if you don’t feel a connection necessarily to the pavement you’re walking on, the love thing stays over there.”
Check out the Harper’s cover below.
