Barry Keoghan Addresses Online Abuse Following Sabrina Carpenter Breakup

Barry Keoghan has spoken candidly about the negative online attention he faced about his appearance after his relationship with Sabrina Carpenter ended.

While speaking on SiriusXM’s The Morning Mash Up on Friday March 20, the 33 year old Irish actor said he stepped away from public life for a period following his split from the pop singer in 2024.

“There’s a lot of hate online. It’s a lot of abuse of how I look,” Keoghan told host Ben Harlum. “I think I removed myself from online, but I’m still a curious human being that wants to go on and, if I attend an event or if I go somewhere, you want to see how it was received. And it’s not nice.”

He continued, “It’s made me shy away, it’s made me really go inside myself and not want to attend places, not want to go outside.”

The Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man actor also explained that the continued criticism has made him reluctant to step into the spotlight.

“It’s becoming a problem,” he said. “I don’t have to hide away because I am hiding away. I don’t have to go to places because I actually don’t go to places because of these things. But when that starts leaking into your art, it becomes a problem because then you don’t even want to be on screen anymore.”

After his widely discussed breakup with Carpenter in December 2024, Keoghan chose to remove his Instagram presence. Not long after that decision, he shared a detailed message on X explaining why he stepped back.

“I can only sit and take so much,” the actor wrote at the time. “My name has been dragged across the internet in ways I usually don’t respond to.”

He continued, “I deactivated my account because I can no longer let this stuff distract me from my family and work. The messages I have received no person should ever have to read them. Absolute lies, hatred, disgusting commentary about my appearance, character, how I am as a parent and every other inhumane thing you can imagine.”

Keoghan and Carpenter were together for roughly a year. At the time their relationship ended, a source told People they had chosen to step back because their work schedules were demanding. Rumors about the two first began circulating in late 2023 before they confirmed their relationship with a public appearance at a Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty. Keoghan later appeared in Carpenter’s music video for her Billboard Hot 100 number one single “Please Please Please,” which appears on her album Short n’ Sweet.

During the same The Morning Mash Up interview, Keoghan admitted he worries about how the online comments could affect his three year old son Brando in the future. He shares his son with former partner Alyson Sandro.

“It is disappointing for the fans, but it’s also disappointing that my little boy has to read all of this stuff when he gets older,” the actor said.

Keoghan is set to portray Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ upcoming Beatles film project. The Beatles A Four Film Cinematic Event will also feature Paul Mescal playing Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Harris Dickinson as John Lennon. The films are currently scheduled for release in theaters in April 2028.