Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne have announced they are separating after more than 20 years of marriage.
“After a long and love marriage, Win and Régine have decided to separate,” they wrote in a statement shared to social media. “They continue to love, admire and support each other as they co-parent their son.
“Their work in Haiti with KANPE continues and their bond as creative soulmates will endure, as will Arcade Fire,” the statement continued.
“The band send their love and look forward to seeing you all on tour soon.”
They got married in 2003, a year before the indie-rock band released their debut Funeral. The couple welcomed their first and only child, a son, in 2013, shortly before the release of Reflektor.
In 2022, Arcade Fire released WE, and Butler told Rolling Stone AU/NZ that the record was about trying to “capture these little bits of humanity”.
Arcade Fire returned earlier this year with Pink Elephant, their first album since sexual allegations were made against Butler in 2022. The band also went on a tour in support of the album, and performed several songs from it on Saturday Night Live in May.
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In 2022, three women, then aged between 18 to 23-years-old, made allegations of sexual interactions with Butler, who was in his late 30s at the time, that they felt were inappropriate due to the age gap, power dynamics, and context in which they occurred. A fourth person, who is gender-fluid, claimed that Butler sexually assaulted them twice in 2015, when they were 21 and he was 34.
In a statement to Pitchfork in 2022, Butler admitted to the extramarital relationships, but maintained that they were all consensual.
“I have never touched a woman against her will, and any implication that I have is simply false. I vehemently deny any suggestion that I forced myself on a woman or demanded sexual favours. That simply, and unequivocally, never happened,” he said in the statement.
“While these relationships were all consensual, I am very sorry to anyone who I have hurt with my behaviour. Life is filled with tremendous pain and error, and I never want to be part of causing someone else’s pain.”
