‘The Great Separation’: Summer divorce is a Hollywood epidemic

It’s a cruel summer for Hollywood lovebirds — they’ve got first-class tickets to Splitsville.

This season is shaping up to be “hot divorce summer,” as celebrity couples call it quits, including pop sensation Britney Spears, whose husband Sam Asghari filed for divorce this week.

Simultaneously marking the return of the media spectacle of the messy A-list breakup, it’s safe to say ’tis the season of divorce — just in time for hot girl summer.

It’s what divorce attorney and author Nicole Sodoma is calling “The Great Separation.”

“We are seeing a lot more [divorces],” the North Carolina lawyer, a divorcee herself, told The Post.

“I think that people in relationships are holding themselves accountable to what they want.”

Her practice, Sodoma Law, saw a 60% uptick in consultations after the pandemic, a trend that has persisted — perhaps with the help of Hollywood.

“Summer is often time where people take a minute to look around them and reflect,” Rachel DeAlto, Match’s chief dating expert, told The Post.

“Work is a little slower, school is out, and time off gives time to think about their lives. It’s also when everyone has a bit more fun, and if your relationship isn’t fulfilling it becomes more evident.”

There have been more than three dozen blockbuster breakups in 2023, and even Hollywood’s hottest items had fizzled out by summer.

In April, actress Reese Witherspoon announced her divorce from Jim Toth after 12 years of marriage, while pop superstar Taylor Swift quietly split from her long-term beau Joe Alwyn the same month.

Weeks later, Jeremy Allen White and Addison Timlin called it quits after just three years, while Kevin Costner and Christine Baumgartner’s chaotic divorce unfolded in the public eye.

Then, on the same day actors Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello filed for divorce, singer Ariana Grande and her husband of two years, Dalton Gomez, split.

Not to mention the recent divorces of Sophia Bush and Grant Hughes, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott as well as Ricky Martin and Jwan Yosef.

Raiford Dalton Palmer, a Chicago divorce attorney and author, said divorces have a “seasonal element,” citing mid-summer and post-holiday as high frequency periods.

“This spate of celeb announcements and divorce filings is not unusual based on our experience,” the STG Divorce Law partner told The Post.

While it may not be a welcomed trend, A-list splits could give way to a chain reaction.

“When you start talking about it out loud, it makes it relatable, and it makes people more willing to share what’s happening in their own relationship,” Sodoma said.

“To that degree, when they start realizing that there’s an opportunity to change their relationship for the better to change their marriage … they’re giving themselves permission [to leave].”

The uncoupling epidemic could spark despair, in lieu of love, in hopeless romantics searching for their soulmates.

After all, if the world’s biggest stars are tossing in the towel, what hope is there for the rest of us?

“Celebrities are people, too,” Sodoma said. Despite their elite status “they have the same issues.”

“The reality is that we don’t know and we can’t make assumptions about how one of them or both of them came to that decision.”

There is, however, a glimmer of hope in the face of all the heartbreak — or at least a lesson in love to be learned.

“Relationships take work, and we [shouldn’t] wait until it’s broken to fix it,” she said, noting the importance of communication and teamwork.

“It takes two to say, ‘I do,’ and one to say, ‘I don’t.’ “