Katy Perry & Orlando Bloom's Relationship Always Felt Off

There are times when Orlando Bloom’s relationship with Katy Perry is more cold than hot — like a popsicle before it gets melted by the California sun. “Sometimes things are really, really, really, challenging,” Bloom told Flaunt magazine in 2023. 

Perry has also made her relationship with the “Lord of the Rings” star sound as arduous as a long and perilous trek to Mordor. “When we first met, he said we would pull the poison out of each other, and we really do. It’s exhausting … It’s like a never-ending cleanse,” she told Vogue India in 2020. The comparison to an unpleasant alternative medicine practice was possibly inspired by Bloom’s lifestyle. “He’s super healthy, and he wants me to be healthy,” Perry said in a 2024 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast. “Sometimes that can be annoying.”

It’s a minor miracle that Perry met her future fiance at all. In 2021, Bloom told The Times, “I’ll only eat a really good piece of red meat maybe once a month.” But at the 2016 Golden Globes, he happened to have a hankering for some beef — and Perry had a plate of In-N-Out burgers at her table. “He stole one … and I was like, ‘Wait — oh, you’re so hot. Fine, take it,'” the “Woman’s World” singer recalled on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” A relationship built off junk food can’t be all bad, but the pop star and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” actor do give off some weird vibes sometimes.

In an interview with The Times, Orlando Bloom revealed that pro surfer Laird Hamilton had convinced him to try being celibate for a long stretch of time not long before he met Katy Perry. On “Call Her Daddy,” Perry revealed that the effect this had on Bloom caused friction between them early in their relationship. “I was just like, I can’t do this anymore. I need to go swim in a different pond,” she said. So, in 2017, Perry and Bloom broke up.

The couple’s split didn’t last long, but during their break, Perry delivered a big blow to Bloom’s ego. To promote her album “Witness,” she the singer filmed a livestream with James Corden, who made her play a game called “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts.” To avoid eating a “1,000-year-old egg,” Perry ranked the sexual prowess of three of her exes. She placed Diplo last, Bloom in the middle, and John Mayer on top.

Bloom got revenge in 2021 when The Guardian asked him to reveal the best kisser he’s ever had the privilege of locking lips with. “I had a girlfriend when I was 17 called Debbie: that was a kiss,” he said. Bloom snuck in another little dig at Perry when he was asked, “How often do you have sex?” The actor replied, “Not enough — we just had a baby, though.” That would have been a good time for Perry to remind him that he once voluntarily took a vow of celibacy.

Poor Katy Perry. She’s so desperate to get help around the house that she rewards Orlando Bloom with a sexual favor when he pulls his weight. “If I come downstairs and the kitchen is clean and you’ve done it all, you’ve done all the dishes, and you’ve closed all the pantry doors…” she said before describing the NSFW way she shows her fiance how much she appreciates his efforts. Bloom reacted to this segment of Perry’s “Call Her Daddy” interview by dropping a cheeky comment on one of her Instagram posts. “I’ve cleaned the whole house,” it read.

Apparently, Perry’s incentive doesn’t always work. In May 2024, she tried to social media shame Bloom into being tidier instead. In an Instagram post, Perry first performed her wifely duties by promoting her hubby’s Peacock series “Orlando Bloom: To the Edge.” On the show, Bloom indulges his inner adrenaline enthusiast by skydiving, rock climbing, and going on other extreme adventures. If he can do all that, Perry reasons that he can take care of his own laundry. In a slideshow, she included a photo of Bloom’s socks stuffed on a coat hanger and wrote in her caption, “Honey check slide 9, CAN YOU PLEASE PUT YOUR SOCKS AWAY IN THE RIGHT PLACE FOR ONCE AND THEN FINALLY I WILL BE IMPRESSED I DONT NEED YOU TO CLIMB MOUNT EVEREST OK.”

Orlando Bloom has a habit that Katy Perry can’t stand. In a 2022 “Heart Breakfast” interview, the “Smile” singer praised her partner for keeping his elven grin healthy by being a diligent flosser. The problem is that he doesn’t properly dispose of his floss when he’s through with it. “He leaves the floss everywhere — on the side of my bed, and in the car, and on the kitchen table,” she said. What really confounds the singer about these strings coated in dental detritus being deposited everywhere is that she and Bloom have trash cans all over their home.

Bloom’s behavior annoys Perry so much that she brought it up again during an episode of UNILAD’s “Do You Even Know Me?” She appeared alongside her “Where We Started” duet partner Thomas Rhett, who told her to get Bloom a water pick. Perry also warned Rhett that she’s fiercely competitive, which was evident when Bloom left a comment on an Instagram post promoting the Fridababy NoseFrida nasal aspirator (or “snot sucker”). “I’ve sucked out so much snot with this thing. Katy and I take turns to see who can get out the biggest booger,” he wrote. “So far she’s winning or maybe that means she’s losing? Lol Parenthood is weird but at least our daughter can breathe at night.” So, how is Perry cool playing games with her daughter Daisy’s baby boogers but grossed out by used dental floss?

Katy Perry has a long history with the royal family, so it’s odd that she convinced Orlando Bloom to voice a character in an animated series that brutally mocked them. Even weirder, he portrayed the royal she once confessed to crushing on: Prince Harry. In a 2012 appearance on “The Graham Norton Show,” Perry said of Meghan Markle’s future husband, “He’s a hot ginger, isn’t he?” A royal insider told the Daily Star that the admiration was mutual and that Harry wanted Perry to perform at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee so he could shoot his shot with her. “Harry has a double reason for targeting Katy. First he thinks she is a rocking artist with great songs. But secondly, she is single and very sexy,” the source revealed.

Perry didn’t perform at the event, but she and Bloom did become neighbors with Harry when the prince moved to California with Markle. Bloom also parodied Harry in the short-lived HBO Max series “The Prince,” which portrayed Prince George, the oldest son of William, Prince of Wales, and Catherine, Princess of Wales, as a snarky tea-spiller who had all the royal goss. “Katy saw one bit of it and was like, ‘You’ve got to do this. This is genius,'” Bloom told The Hollywood Reporter. However, his wife’s advice put him in an awkward position, not just because the show was controversial but because he’d inevitably have to chat with Harry about it.

It’s never a bad thing when divorced parents seamlessly blend their new families together, but when there are Gwyneth Paltrow levels of unconscious coupling going on, the vibe goes from sweet to a little strange. Such is the case with Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom’s ex-wife, Victoria’s Secret Angel Miranda Kerr. At the 2023 G’Day USA Arts Gala, the two women posed together on the red carpet. Perry also introduced Kerr to the audience and admitted to talking to her friend behind Bloom’s back. “It’s like I gained another sister, one with whom I usually sidebar from the main family chat and agree with,” Perry quipped, per People.

Kerr had previously gushed about how much she adores Perry during a 2021 appearance on the “Moments with Candace Parker” podcast. “It’d be safe to say I love her more than Flynn’s dad,” said Kerr. “To me, right now, he’s like a brother and, most of the time, an annoying brother. So, she helps me deal with him because she can deal with him.”

Perry was there to support Kerr when the model launched her skincare line, Kora Organics, in 2019. The singer also helped Kerr promote the brand by participating in an Instagram Live with her in 2021, and Perry praised one of her pal’s products, in an interview with WSJ Magazine. “She has this turmeric moisturizer that I swear by … once I find products they’re staples for decades,” said the “Dark Horse” hitmaker. Top that, Paltrow.