"The 'Mom Put Up With It' Generation Is Passing Away." Valeria Gai Germanika Speaks Out About Divorce
Valeria Gai Germanika, who recently became a grandmother for the first time, reflected on divorce on her Telegram channel. According to the 41-year-old director, there's a stark contradiction in society: while the state promotes the institution of marriage at any cost, real statistics and the media paint a different picture.
"There's an ideological movement in the country toward family and traditional values, but it feels like divorces have only increased. Divorce has become a trend among celebrities: the Dibrovs, the Lercheks (Valeria and Artyom Chekalin – Ed.), Samoylova-Dzhigan, Alsou, and their names are legion. Families that seemed ideal are falling apart before our eyes. Why is this ideological trend trying to build a model family, while the cultural and social trends are destroying it?" Valeria wrote.
She noted that while ideology constructs a model family: "the wife endures, the husband is responsible, the children smile," show business, which operates by the "logic of selling life," reveals reality. "Today, it's not glitz that's being sold, but trauma. Not a façade, but breakdown. Divorce has become the new dramaturgy: fall, recognition, liberation. This is more powerful than any official slogan," Gai Germanika added.
The director also highlighted a new "cultural trend" that has emerged in the wake of frequent celebrity divorces: "the liberation of women from the role of furniture." Samoylova, Chekalina, and Alsou, in her opinion, have demonstrated through their own example that a woman's life doesn't end after a breakup, thereby setting off a chain reaction. "Marriage is no longer a cage. A woman is no longer a function," Valeria emphasized.
"Ideology misses the point: families are held together not by tradition, but by the psyche. A vibrant marriage requires maturity, boundaries, dialogue, and emotional intelligence. But we preach obligation: marriage as a duty, divorce as weakness. This creates not love, but an internal rift," explained Gai Germanika. In conclusion, she urged people to view the increasing divorce rate not as a problem, but as a new stage in the development of Russian society: "The 'Mom put up with it' generation is passing away. The 'I want to live' generation is starting to speak."
"Ideology speaks of form. Culture reveals the essence. While ideology paints a picture, culture articulates what's happening to a person. And the truth always speaks louder than the poster," she concluded.
As a reminder, Valeria Gai Germanika (born Valeria Dudinskaya), known for her provocative and unconventional projects (Girls, Everyone Dies But Me, School), has been through two divorces and has three children from different men. Her eldest daughter, Oktavia, was born in 2008; the director has never revealed her father's name. In 2015, Gai Germanika married dancer Vadim Lyubushkin, but it soon emerged that he had not dissolved his previous marriage in the United States. Despite Lyubushkin's insistence that it was merely a formality, their marriage only lasted six months. At the time of the divorce, Valeria Gai Germanika was pregnant with her second daughter, Severina. In 2019, she remarried, to businessman Denis Molchanov. Their son, August, was born that same year. In October 2023, Gai Germanika announced her divorce.
Фото: germanicaislove_official, dereguzoova, alexanderarutyunov/Instagram**
