They didn’t “split” for one simple, agreed‑upon reason; instead, their partnership ended after years of growing tensions, different values, and very painful disputes that only came fully to light in 2026.

Quick scoop: what actually happened?

  • Publicly, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron announced the end of their competitive partnership in December 2024, framing it as the natural close of an extraordinary career after their Olympic gold and world titles.
  • In early 2026, that calm narrative collapsed when Papadakis released (and previewed) a memoir and interviews that described the relationship as increasingly unhealthy , both personally and in their training environment.
  • Cizeron has strongly disputed her version, accusing her of spreading lies and orchestrating a “smear campaign,” which means there is now a very public, very bitter disagreement about what really went on between them.

In other words, why did Cizeron and Papadakis split? The answer depends on whose perspective you’re reading.

Gabriella Papadakis’s side

Papadakis has linked the breakup to clashing values, mental‑health struggles, and feeling trapped in a toxic environment.

Key points from her perspective:

  1. Values no longer aligned
    • In a podcast and later in her memoir, she said her values stopped matching those of Cizeron, their coaches, and the French federation.
 * She describes the Ice Academy of Montreal (IAM), their famous training center, as no longer feeling like a **healthy** place for her to continue.
  1. Psychological pressure and “oppressive” dynamics
    • Papadakis talks about their duo becoming unbalanced , with her feeling “under his control” and the relationship turning oppressive and unhealthy.
 * She connects this to high‑performance pressure, loneliness, and the strain of carrying a shared public image as a “perfect” duo.
  1. Handling of abuse and allegations in the sport
    • She has said that one year before the final separation, Cizeron allegedly threatened to stop skating with her when she wanted to file a complaint against a coach who raped her as a teenager in Lyon.
 * In her 2026 memoir, she adds that she refused to keep training at IAM because it continued to work with ice dancer Nikolaj Sørensen after sexual‑assault allegations surfaced against him in late 2023.

 * According to her, Cizeron refused her ultimatum to leave IAM and instead publicly supported Sørensen, then later teamed up on the ice with Sørensen’s former partner and girlfriend, Laurence Fournier Beaudry—something she describes as triggering “pure rage.”
  1. Mental health and survival
    • The memoir excerpts and commentary emphasize exhaustion, mental fatigue, and the feeling that staying in that partnership and environment would mean “disappearing” as a person, which is echoed in her book’s title “Pour ne pas disparaître” (“To Not Disappear”).

From Papadakis’s viewpoint, then, they split because she could no longer tolerate what she saw as a psychologically damaging dynamic and an ethical clash over how abuse and allegations were handled in their sport.

Guillaume Cizeron’s side

Cizeron paints a very different picture: a long partnership eroded by emotional distance and his former partner’s personal struggles, not by his control over her.

What he has said:

  1. Progressive deterioration, not sudden betrayal
    • He describes the split as the result of a progressive deterioration in their relationship over recent years.
 * He rejects the idea of a “psychological hold” and denies being an oppressor, saying he is shocked by that characterization.
  1. Her mental‑health struggles
    • Cizeron mentions that Papadakis went through upheavals and several episodes of depression, saying he tried to support her and empathize.
 * He implies these struggles contributed to distance between them and made it harder to maintain the partnership.
  1. Different paths and values (from his POV)
    • He says her choices and public actions showed they now have different values and are going down separate paths.
 * He insists his public response is to “put elements back into the timeline,” suggesting he feels unfairly portrayed and wants to defend his reputation.
  1. Accusations of a smear campaign
    • In January 2026, as her book and claims were making headlines, Cizeron accused her of spreading lies and launching a “smear campaign” against him ahead of the Milan‑Cortina Olympics.
 * His camp emphasizes reputational damage and questions the fairness and accuracy of her allegations.

In Cizeron’s telling, they split because their relationship and communication broke down, amplified by her personal difficulties and diverging values, and he sees some of her public accusations as untrue and harmful.

So, why did they split? Putting it together

If you zoom out, several overlapping themes keep coming up across both sides and media coverage.

1. Diverging values and ethics

  • Papadakis explicitly says their values diverged—especially around the federation, their training center, and how abuse allegations were handled—and that this was central to her decision to end the partnership.
  • Cizeron also uses the language of “different values” and “different paths,” but frames it less around institutional ethics and more around personal direction and choices.

2. Mental‑health strain and a long career

  • They started skating together as kids and carried the weight of Olympic and world titles for years, which brings intense pressure.
  • Papadakis emphasizes the mental‑health toll and how the duo dynamic felt suffocating; Cizeron talks about her bouts of depression and his attempts to be supportive, while hinting that it took a toll on him too.

3. A partnership that became “unhealthy”

  • Her side: the relationship became oppressive and unbalanced, with elements of psychological violence and control inside a broader toxic system.
  • His side: the partnership became strained and emotionally distant, but he rejects the idea of psychological abuse and sees himself as the one being unfairly targeted now.

4. The spark that turned a quiet breakup into a public feud

  • The initial 2024 retirement announcement looked peaceful.
  • The conflict detonated in early 2026 when excerpts from Papadakis’s memoir went public, revealing allegations about their relationship and about his stance in abuse‑related issues in figure skating.
  • Cizeron then responded in the press and legal arenas, calling her statements lies and a smear campaign, which escalated the feud and even impacted her planned Olympic commentary job.

What people are saying online (forums & “why did they split” buzz)

Public discussion and forum threads around “why did Cizeron and Papadakis split” tend to fall into a few camps, often mixing sympathy, anger, and confusion.

  • Some fans side mostly with Papadakis , seeing her as a survivor trying to speak out about abuse, power imbalances, and toxic systems in elite sport, and interpreting the split as her reclaiming control over her life.
  • Others lean toward Cizeron , arguing that long‑term partnerships often crumble under pressure, that both sides may be hurting, and that some accusations might be exaggerated or incomplete, especially given his claim of a smear campaign.
  • Many people are simply heartbroken and conflicted , remembering how harmonious and intimate their performances looked on ice and struggling to reconcile that image with the very raw, painful story now being told.

Because there are no court verdicts establishing one definitive “truth” about all allegations, and because both sides vehemently disagree, the deeper “why” of their split remains contested. What is clear is that it wasn’t just “we retired after winning everything”; it was about clashing values, mental health, and a partnership that, at least for one of them, came to feel impossible to stay in.

TL;DR:
They announced a peaceful retirement in 2024, but in 2026 Papadakis revealed she left because the relationship and training environment felt oppressive, unsafe, and out of line with her values, especially around abuse issues in the sport. Cizeron denies being abusive, says the partnership simply deteriorated amid her personal struggles and diverging paths, and now accuses her of a smear campaign. The “real reason” is therefore a mix of conflicting narratives about power, ethics, mental health, and what was happening behind the scenes of one of ice dancing’s greatest teams.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.