'How I Met Your Mother' Alum Splits With Girlfriend After 8 Years Together

Former How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel and his girlfriend, artist Alexis Mixter, have broken up. The two started dating in December 2013 but kept their relationship out of the spotlight. Mixter rarely wrote about their relationship on Instagram, and this was the first time she published a photo with the actor since January 2020.

Mixter shared an older photo with Segel, 41, on her Instagram page early Thursday. "This is a photo of two best friends," she began. "This guy and I have shared so much life together. Changed each other at a soul-deep level. All for the better. The depth of our bond was something I could never have anticipated. I've never spent so much time with another person, grown so much alongside someone else, laughed so much, cried so much, shared so much."

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A post shared by Alexis Mixter (@gonzoaesthetic)

The artist wrote that it was "odd" to open up about the end of the relationship since their friendship "is so full of life." However, "change happens and we made the decision quite a while ago to let ourselves grow away from what our relationship had been and into what it was becoming," Mixter continued. "Announcing a breakup on social media is a strange feeling. Some won't understand why it is necessary and that's okay. Having a public romantic relationship is not easy. Ending one feels like navigating a road that doesn't even exist."

Although they were a public couple, they were very private about their relationship and Mixter will continue to keep it that way, she wrote. She only feels "love and gratitude" and called her post a "tribute to love and friendship and those relationships that make life worth living." she went on to thank Segel "for being my best friend. The person who shares all my favorite jokes, sees who I really am and all I want to be, loves me unconditionally and makes me always strive to be bigger and better than I was yesterday." In the end, she wrote, "I will never stop cheering you on with every cell of my body. I will never stop loving you unconditionally."

Segel has not commented on the breakup. The two rarely discussed their relationship publicly. They started dating in December 2013 but did not make their red carpet debut until 2016, when they attended a fundraiser hosted by Sean Penn, reports PEOPLE. Mixter last wrote about her relationship with Segel on Instagram in January 2020 when Segel marked his 40th birthday. "In your 40 years on this earth you've done so much and come so far," she wrote in part. "I'm inspired by you every day and you've taught me that my heart is big enough to hold more love than I ever imagined. Thank you for being my best friend above all else. I'm so happy you were born."

Segel is best known for playing Marshall Eriksen on CBS' How I Met Your Mother. Last year, he starred in AMC's Dispatches from Elsewhere, which he also created. His other credits include The Muppets (2011), Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Five-Year Engagement, This Is 40, and Sex Tape.