Like Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik, these celebs chose to publicly distance themselves from their ex

When in love, many couples choose to express their happiness and joy of coupledom with posts and tweets on social media. However, when things go south these digital accounts of what transpired before said break-up become a constant reminder of what was. Hence, post break-up couples are left with no other choice but to cut social media ties with their ex in a bid to move on and start afresh. The latest couple to do so are former One Direction member, Zayn Malik and supermodel Gigi Hadid.

After two years of togetherness, Zayn unfollowed Gigi on Instagram giving rise to speculation that things had gone south between the two. This was followed with public statements addressing their break-up. “Gigi and I had an incredibly meaningful, loving and fun relationship and I have a huge amount of respect and adoration for Gigi as a woman and a friend,” Zayn wrote. “I’m grateful to all of our fans for respecting this difficult decision and our privacy at this time, we wish this news could have come from us first. We love you all. xZ.” Soon after, Gigi uploaded a matching post. “I’m forever grateful for the love, time and life lessons that Z and I shared. I want nothing but the best for him and will continue to support him as a friend that I have immense respect and love for,” she wrote. “As for the future, whatever’s meant to be will always be. xG.” And while the duo are the latest to use the social media purge as the first step to moving on, there are others before them who also chose to do the same. Here’s looking at former couples who chose to publicly erase and unfollow their ex from their profile.

Selena Gomez and The Weeknd

These two singers dated for 10 months before they split. The break-up made headlines after The Weeknd unfollowed Selena on Twitter, as well as deleting Gomez’s mother, friend Francia Raisa, and more people connected to her. Soon after this was followed by buzz that Selena and Justin Bieber were back together. He also unfollowed her on Instagram only to refollow her soon after.

Katy Perry and Russell Brand

This much-in-love married couple were together for less than years when their marriage fell apart. Rather than shy away from facing the media, the duo chose to move on with a social media purge. Katy Perry unfollowed her then husband Russell Brand on Twitter. And four months later, the funnyman dropped her from his list of ‘following’ on the social media site.

Sami Miré and Zac Efron

Zac Efron was dating Sami Miré for almost two years before they called it quits. And rather than shying away from it all, the actor chose to publicly erase digital memories of their time together. He went about deleting her pictures and also unfollowed her on Instagram and Twitter.

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker

Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria unfollowed her husband, Tony Parker, when they split up. The two were married for four years before news about him cheating on her became public. She then chose to she cut ties with him on Twitter.

Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

Six years after their marriage, the duo chose to go their separate ways. They were the most followed celebrity couple at the time on Twitter. Ashton at the time had 8,389,396 followers while Demi had around 4,259,513 followers.When things ended, they chose to offically unfollow each other, thus publicly cutting ties with each other.

Chris Brown and Rihanna

This couple had a public split because Chris Brown was accused of domestic violence against Rihanna. RiRi unfollowed Brown on Twitter reportedly in retaliation after he made a diss track addressing her.