Before dating, Chelsea Handler and Jo Koy had been friends for almost 20 years, but their relationship began at the perfect time.
Handler acknowledged having feelings for Koy while he was a frequent visitor on her late-night talk program, Chelsea Lately, which aired on E! from 2007 to 2014, but she “suppressed” them during an episode of her podcast, “Dear Chelsea,” in October 2021.
“By the way, who gives a s–t?” the Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea author said. “Look where we are now. I would’ve ruined it if I had those feelings earlier, probably.”
The host and Koy frequently got into arguments while they were coworkers on Chelsea Lately. She now believes that she was simply unable to communicate how she truly felt for the stand-up comedian.
“In retrospect that was my version of flirting,” Handler informed E! News from the People’s Choice Awards red carpet in December 2021. “I think I was so out of touch with my own emotions that that was my currency.”
She added, “He keeps telling me that I’ve been in love this whole time and didn’t know it so I’m just choosing to believe that.”
The native of New Jersey also thinks that the only reason she was able to work out a relationship with the author of Mixed Plate: Chronicles of an All-American Combo was because she made the decision to put herself first.
“I think you have to be healthy to get healthy, so I had to really dig deep and get my stuff sorted out, and then all of a sudden I saw him through a completely different lens,” she said in December 2021. “I was like, ‘Wait for a second — that’s my guy, I think.’”
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The author of My Horizontal Life believes that finding “The One” is feasible because of her relationship with Koy, and she wants her admirers to share this belief.
“For everyone who is still looking for their person, do not adjust who you are or make yourself smaller to find them. Be patient and never settle for anything less than you deserve,” the Girls Behaving Badly alum wrote via Instagram in November 2021. “Your person is coming and sometimes — they’ve been standing in front of you the whole time.”
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Break Up Story Of Chelsea Handler and Jo Koy
After almost a year of dating, Chelsea Handler ended things with Jo Koy because she understood that “you can’t change a person intrinsically.”
On the “We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle” podcast on Thursday, the former “Chelsea Lately” presenter discussed her breakup with her co-host and explained that she had to do it to save herself from breaking as a result of overextending herself.
“It’s nice to bend for people. It’s nice to learn how to compromise. It’s nice to learn how to demonstrate my love publicly. … I believe Jo needed that,” Handler, 47, explained.
“I was so inspired by us, but Jo didn’t crack me open. My psychiatrist cracked me open, and then I was open, and then I was able to bend for somebody. …. But you can’t change somebody intrinsically.”
Chelsea Handler admitted she was “willing to do so much bending” until she reached “a line.” “I’m proud of myself because I didn’t let myself cross that line,” she said, later clarifying that they actually split up a month or so before going public with the news.
Handler talked about how difficult it has been for her to get over her trauma through therapy and meditation, and she implied that Koy, 51, would not always be willing to meet her halfway.
“I understand the wanting to avoid that, the avoidance of wanting to look in with that,” she explained, “and I think I’m at a place in my life that I have to be with somebody who is where I’m at with that.
“That’s not to say anything about Jo Koy,” she added. “I love him, and he’s on his own path. If I have to choose one person, I have to choose myself.”
The former “Chelsea” star also commented on her social media post announcing the news, expressing her belief in Koy. “needed to hear those things, and I really thought I needed to say them.”
“No one cheated or anything like that. It just didn’t work out,” she clarified. “I did everything I could to make it work, but it didn’t work out. I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that this is a different me. This is the first time that I’ve ended a relationship where I’ve felt like an adult.”
Despite their breakup, Handler said the “Easter Sunday” actress gave her passion for stand-up comedy a new lease on life and motivated her to create a new book.
Chelsea Handler
In Livingston, New Jersey, on February 25, 1975, Chelsea Joy Handler was born. In a Reform Jewish family with five other siblings, Chelsea was brought up. Handler relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 19 to pursue an acting career. At the time, she shared an apartment with her aunt and supported herself by working as a waitress.
Career
Chelsea Handler quickly fell in love with stand-up comedy while residing in Los Angeles. Later, Handler appeared in the hidden-camera reality series Girls Behaving Badly, which ran from 2002 to 2005. She made appearances on sitcoms including The Bernie Mac Show, My Wife and Kids, and The Practice at the beginning of Handler’s career. Additionally, she began to make appearances as a correspondent on programs like The Tonight Show.
The Chelsea Handler Show, which she launched in 2006, was her breakthrough project. For two seasons, the show was broadcast on E! Handler performed stand-up comedy throughout the year 2007 and later hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. Finally, Handler launched Chelsea Lately at the end of 2007. The show was also shown on E!, and in 2011 it attracted an average of 960,000 people per episode. When Chelsea Handler’s contract with E! expired, Chelsea Lately finally came to an end in 2014.
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Based on her best-selling book from the same year, Chelsea Handler appeared in the NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? in 2012. The first season of the program was canceled. Chelsea Handler started collaborating with Netflix on several new projects in 2014. She first made a Netflix special available via the media firm. Later, Handler covered a range of divisive subjects in the four-part documentary series Chelsea Does.
Following that, she debuted Chelsea, a chat show on Netflix. The chat program, in Chelsea Handler’s words, was a more somber variation of Chelsea Lately. After two seasons, Chelsea was canceled in 2017, and Handler turned her attention to activism.
Chelsea’s books have helped her gain popularity. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands, her debut book, was published in 2005. She launched the more popular Are You There, Vodka? in 2008. My name is Chelsea. The New York Times Bestsellers List was topped by this book.
She accomplished this feat again with The Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me in 2011 and 2010’s Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang. She picked up writing again in 2014 with Uganda Be Kidding Me. Additionally, this book peaked at number one on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
Jo Koy
Joseph Glenn Herbert, also known as Jo Koy, was born on June 2, 1971, in Tacoma, Washington. Koy’s Filipino mother, a manager for a Filipino rock band, wed his American father while he was serving in the United States Air Force in the Philippines. When Jo was 13 years old, the marriage split and his mother then raised all of her children by herself. Soon after he graduated from high school in Tacoma, Washington, the family relocated to Tacoma and later to Los Vegas. To be closer to Jo’s elderly grandma, the family relocated to Los Vegas.
Jo’s stage name is derived from a moniker that his family used to refer to him as a child. Jo usually tells stories about his mother during his comic shows and attributes his acting and humorous abilities to her. His mother pushed him to perform in talent shows at school and to put on impromptu performances for his loved ones and friends.
At the University of Nevada–Las Vegas, Jo started her college career. He made the decision to leave the school, though, in order to devote all of his attention to a comedic career.
Career
He started doing stand-up in the mid-1990s in Las Vegas, and his popularity increased when he started appearing regularly in the MGM Grand production of “Catch a Rising Star.” This gave him the idea to relocate to Los Angeles. Jo hired the Huntridge Theater and went door to door to sell tickets to his own comic gigs after performing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Then he received an invitation to participate in “Comic View” on BET. From there, he went on to appear in other high-profile tours and shows and won a number of comedy prizes. He has been on “Comic View” for two seasons. In later years, the comic appeared in more TV stand-up specials, such as “Jamie Foxx Presents: Laffapalooza!” Jo has won the Showtime at the Apollo and had appearances on many “I Love the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s'” episodes on VH1.
He appeared on more than 100 episodes of “Chelsea Lately” as a season regular roundtable guest and was a frequent guest commentator. Only a select few comedians, including Koy, were given a standing ovation after appearing on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” Koy has appeared on “The Adam Carolla Show” frequently. On PodcastOne, he has his own program called “The Koy Pond.” He also made an appearance on the Tru TV shows “New Millenium” and “World’s Dumbest.”
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Koy was given a second invitation to the “Just for Laughs” comedy festival in Montreal, where he won the esteemed Canadian Gemini Award. Koy has also performed stand-up in front of audiences crammed into stadiums and arenas with 10,000 seats on Carlos Mencia’s Punisher Tour. On July 23, 2012, Jo and comedian and TV broadcaster Michael Yo launched “The Michael Yo and Jo Koy Show,” a podcast. The comic currently performs stand-up comedy throughout the US and appears as a guest every week on “The Adam Carolla Show” podcast.
“Don’t Make Him Angry” and “Lights Out,” are two highly regarded and popular comedy specials that Koy has produced for Comedy Central. A Netflix Original, “Jo Koy: Life from Seattle,” his third comedy special, was made available to all countries on March 28, 2017. “Joy Koy: Comin’ In Hot,” a new Netflix special from Koy, was released in June 2019.
On the stage of the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado, in February 2019, Koy gave two performances for the final night of the renowned Aspen Laugh Festival. “Jo Koy: In His Elements,” another comedy special from Koy and Netflix, was released on June 12, 2020. DJs, the B-Boys, and other Filipino American comedians were featured on the special.
