Emma Watson’s ‘self-partnered’ is very different from ‘conscious uncoupling’

Emma Watson in 2013, when she presumably wasn’t ‘self-partnered’

Emma Watson, Hermione to Harry Potter, is “self-partnered” rather than single as she turns 30 in April. She coined the phrase in an interview  with Vogue.

On the face of it,  that sounds like coinage similar to Gwyneth Paltrow’s term “conscious uncoupling” to describe her 2014 divorce from Coldplay singer Chris Martin.

But it’s not. Not really. It’s not hard to understand what Ms Paltrow meant by “conscious uncoupling”.

It’s about disentangling – finances, emotions, lives – as well as habits of thinking.

It’s about realising you really are on your own – there’s no one to ring and say, “please pick up a pint of milk”, or “meet me at the bus stop because I don’t want to walk through that alley way all by myself at 10.30 at night”, or “can you get the door…put out the garbage… pick up the drycleaning”.

But Ms Watson’s idea of being “self-partnered” sounds strange and schizophrenic.

Does she see herself as two people, two parts that unite with each other?

You can like your own company without being your own partner. Self-partnering sounds like unconscious self-love. That you are complete in yourself.