Love him or hate him, the interest in comedian Matt Rife‘s personal life becomes more intense the more famous he gets. That includes the reason why he and his girlfriend, Jessica Lord, broke up. They were first confirmed as a couple in June 2023.
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“She forces me to take personal time, obviously, and I love that. Whenever she’s like, ‘Can we have tomorrow for ourselves?’ I’m like, ‘Thank you. I would love to have that,’” he told People in October 2023. He’s occasionally mentioned her in his comedy sets. “She loves it,” he said. “She’s British, so she has like the best sense of humor.” So what went wrong?
Why did Matt Rife and Jessica Lord break up?
According to TMZ, which was the first to report the breakup, Rife and Lord split up in March 2024 and it was on amicable terms, “with no hard feelings. The relationship had run its course,” the tabloid said. Apparently, he’s more focused on his career than his love life right now.
There has to be more to this story, though, because during an 800 Pound Gorilla stand-up special, Rife said the split was still emotionally taxing. “I went through a horrible breakup at the beginning of this last year, and I thought it was such a low in my life, nothing positive’s going to come out of this,” he said.
“But then I did some thinking and it made me realize so much about myself. Made me think about the standards I wanted to set, but it also made me think about how much I f—cking hate being single. This shit is so trash. People over-hype the f—ck out of being single.”
A few months before Rife and Lord started going out, he told Esquire that he had conflicted feelings about dating. “I kind of hate dating. I know I am just in my mid-to-late 20s, but still, I do want a wife and a family and a prominent home life that makes me feel comfortable, safe, and is my peace,” he said. “But when I’m touring six days a week, 52 weeks out of the year, it’s incredibly hard to maintain a relationship.”