This week, a gay influencer couple announced their breakup online, complete with a “split custody” plan for their social media. The internet, in its usual fashion, went into prying auntie mode.
For years, New Orleans-based Matt Armato and Beau Ciolino shared lifestyle blogs and videos under the brand Probably This. They met in 2013 and established the brand in 2014, according to the Probably This website. The formerly married couple posted recipes, home design, and couples’ content on their Instagram and TikTok accounts.
Then, in mid-August, Armato and Ciolino shared a video across platforms announcing their split — complete with a fist bump.
“Well, we broke up,” Armato announced in the now-deleted video, The Tab reported. (The TikTok video link is now broken, and it wasn’t saved on the Wayback Machine. Clips are on X.) Later, he said, “This is like the dumbest video I think I can imagine. This belongs in my journal, not out there, but I want you to know I’m single.”
Ciolino, however, appeared to be in higher spirits. He smiled in the video and said it was a privilege to be partners for 12 years and to share their lives online for a decade. “I think that there is so much love between us, and really loving someone knows when to change the format of the relationship, and we’ve decided to just be best friends,” he continued, according to The Tab.
At some point, Ciolino fist-bumped his now-ex. On X, viewers weren’t shy to theorize about what happened to cause the breakup, or to psychoanalyze their facial expressions and movements:
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The men also announced that Armato would now control the TikTok account, and Ciolino would control the Instagram account. “They really did social media split custody,” X user @computer_gay posted.
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The two have since deleted the video from both platforms, presumably because of the reaction it caused. Due to Ciolino’s appeared cheerfulness in the video, people guessed that he cheated, and Armato posted on Instagram stories and added a highlight to his profile to share the real story:
Matt Armato’s Instagram story about the breakup
Credit: Screenshot: Instagram
In the statement, Armato acknowledged that the video “sparked a lot of reactions,” and said he didn’t want internet commenters to pile on against his ex.
“He is not a villain, he is a human, and a really beautiful one at that,” he wrote.
“One large point of criticism has been the gap between our apparent demeanors. Neither of us was confident addressing this publicly but given that we’ve built our career together as a couple it felt necessary,” he explained. “So what you might see as someone being carelessly giddy I see as nervous posturing and, sure, a bit of relief. I can’t fault him for that. I too am relieved to be moving on.”
Armato assured that he and Ciolino are still very close.
The discourse surrounding the video soon morphed into one about couples who base their social media presence around their relationship, and how it makes their entire lives “content.”
And this isn’t the first time that TikTok-famous couples have broken up. When Mashable spoke to such ex-couples in 2024, they shared the downsides of being a public couple — including internet hate and scrutiny into their off-camera lives. The same happened last year when another Instagram-famous queer influencer couple announced their breakup with matching posts.
Armato and Ciolino haven’t responded to Mashable’s request for comment.