Katy Perry Hints at Reason for Orlando Bloom Split in Song “Bandaids"
Katy Perry is roaring forth with a new era of music.
Indeed, the “Teenage Dream” singer released her first new song since news surfaced over the summer that she and Orlando Bloom had broken up and ended their engagement, and the track is one of her most vulnerable to date.
In the music video for her new song “Bandaids” released Nov. 6, Katy begins by washing dishes and drops what appears to be an engagement ring down the sink. As she sticks her hand down to try and retrieve it, she alludes to her breakup, singing, “Hand to God I promise I tried / There’s no stone left unturned / It’s not what you did, it’s what you didn’t / You were there but you weren’t.”
And Katy’s honesty didn’t end with the song’s opening lyrics, as she went on to hint at the reason for their split.
“Got so used to you letting me down / No use tryna send flowers now,” she continued. “Telling myself you'll change, you don't / Band-Aids over a broken heart.”
As she sings, Katy undergoes some multiple painful experiences in the video, including her hand getting injured by the sink’s garbage disposal and falling out of a tree. But, as she notes in her lyrics, pain wasn’t the only feeling she had during the relationship referenced in the song.
“On the bright side, we had good times / Never faked our pictures,” she sings. “We were perfect 'til we weren't / Now we've got too many splinters.”
As the song continues, she shared other shortcomings that led to her breakup, adding, “It's not that complicated / To ask me how my day is / I'm flatlining trying to save this / Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow.”
Despite the worst parts of her former relationship, though, Katy—who shares daughter Daisy Dove, 5, with Orlando—sings she has no regrets.
“If I had to do it all over again / I would still do it all over again,” she sings in the video. And as a train is about to crash into her, she looks over and sees a daisy, giving her the strength to dodge the freight. She adds, “The love that we made was worth it in the end.”
Earlier in the week, Katy announced the surprise single with a closeup picture of herself staring at the camera with scratches across her face and wearing a white T-shirt and necklace with her full name Katheryn.
Before “Bandaids,” Katy had not released new music since her September 2024 album 143, which is shorthand for the phrase “I love you.” On the first anniversary of the album, the “I Kissed A Girl” singer reflected on “the incredible impact this last year has had” on her, as well as her mindset behind making new music.
“Records are snapshots of an artist trying to tell their story of where they are now or have been,” she wrote on Instagram Sept. 22 alongside another angle of her “Bandaids” cover photo, “and hope someone will hear themselves in some of the messages.”
The “Firework” singer also referenced the “rollercoaster” she has been through over the years.
“History is important, we learn from history, we are reminded of how to and what not to do when we look back,” Katy continued. “We celebrate the wins and reflect on the losses. All of it is valuable.”
To her fans, she added, “Let’s hope we get to evolve together for years to come and at the end of it all be proud and at peace with how we tried our best in this imperfect world.”
Read on to look back at Katy and Orlando’s love story through the years.
Fireworks between Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom first sparked at a 2016 Golden Globes after-party. Days later, they reunited at a Stella McCartney fashion show.
The "Roar" singer and the Pirates of the Caribbean actor spent time together backstage at the one-man Los Angeles play The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. Two weeks later, Perry joined Bloom and his and his son Flynn (mom is Miranda Kerr) at a birthday party for Robert Downey Jr.'s son Exton.
By spring, Perry and Bloom became an official couple, with a source telling E! News at the time, "Katy likes how down-to-earth Orlando is. She calls him her boyfriend."
Days later, when pictures surfaced of Bloom and Selena Gomez in Las Vegas together, Perry shut down infidelity speculation.
As she tweeted at the time, "Instead of giving energy & eyeballs to dumb conspiracy, check out how cool this is," along with a link to an article about the actor's charity work. Perry's message received a stamp of approval from Gomez, who retweeted the post.
That same month, Perry posted her first photo of Bloom, showing the two sprawled out on the steps of the Hotel du Cap Eden-Rock, just miles away from the epicenter of the Cannes Film Festival.
The two vacationed with his son Flynn at Disneyland Shanghai, where they rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, of course.
The two celebrated the holiday with her family and his son Flynn.
A year after their meet-cute, the two attend Vanity Fair's annual Oscars after-party. Keeping with their tradition, they do not walk the red carpet together.
The following month, Perry and Bloom split after about 10 months together.
"Before rumors or falsifications get out of hand," their reps said in a joint statement, "we can confirm that Orlando and Katy are taking respectful, loving space at this time."
By summer, Perry and Bloom were spotted kissing and cuddling at an Ed Sheeran concert in Los Angeles.
The duo greeted Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Perry watched Bloom perform in the West End revival of Tracy Letts' Killer Joe at London's Trafalgar Studio 1.
The two finally walked a carpet together, at the Gala for the Global Ocean, hosted by Prince Albert II of Monaco, at the Opera of Monte-Carlo.
Days before her birthday, Perry and Orlando attended the amfAR Gala Los Angeles 2018.
Perry and Bloom get engaged on Valentine's Day. She debuted her ring—a flower-shaped cluster with a deep red center stone—on Instagram with the caption, “Full bloom.”
Perry debuted her baby bump in a music video for song "Never Worn White."
The following year, the couple welcomed their first child together, daughter Daisy Dove Bloom.
"1 year ago today is the day my life began," Perry tweeted. "Happy first Birthday my Daisy Dove, my love."
"There's still a plan but the location is challenging," Perry shared on The Drew Barrymore Show. "I love a big celebration. I am all about big, fun, exotic, great celebrations. So, hopefully, soon."
The pair shared a kiss while at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London.
“Orlando and I, when we argue, we argue kinda hot and fast and then cool really quickly,” Perry told Zane Lowe during an interview with Apple Music at the time. “It’s like, ‘la la la I love you. Let’s move on.’”
Bloom and Daisy Dove were there to support Perry as she launched into space with an all-female crew.
As Perry and Bloom began to spend time apart amid her Lifetimes Tour, the duo became the subject of breakup rumors.
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