Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher Met with Divorce Lawyers 'Several Years' Before Announcing Split: Exclusive Source

Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher's divorce has been in the works for a while.

After Cohen, 52, and Fisher, 48, announced that they are ending their marriage, a source tells PEOPLE that the Borat star "had been talking to divorce lawyers in the summer of 2023." The source adds that it wasn't the first time the pair had explored a possible split, with the couple also reaching out to divorce lawyers "several years prior."

Cohen and Fisher shared joint statements to their Instagram Stories to announce their divorce publicly on April 5. "After a long tennis match lasting over twenty years, we are finally putting our racquets down. In 2023 we jointly filed to end our marriage," the statement read, accompanied by a photo of the two wearing white tennis apparel.

"We have always prioritized our privacy, and have been quietly working through this change," they added. "We forever share in our devotion and love for our children. We sincerely appreciate your respecting our family’s wish for privacy."

The former couple share three children, two daughters and a son, whom they welcomed in 2007, 2010 and 2015, respectively. Cohen and Fisher have always remained private about their personal lives and have not revealed their children's names.

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Cohen and Fisher first met at a 2001 party in Sydney, Australia, years before either actor gained attention for their work onscreen. In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, Cohen recalled that Fisher "was hilarious" from the moment they met.

"We were at a very pretentious party, and me and her bonded over taking the mick out of the other people in the party," he said at the time. "I knew instantly. I don't know if she did." The pair later got engaged in 2004 and married on March 15, 2010.

Back in August 2023, Fisher shared multiple snapshots to Instagram of a trip she and Cohen took to Greece over the summer, including one photo of the former couple sharing a kiss and embracing. "GREECE…You definitely don’t sock!” she wrote in a caption to the post, referencing a pair of socks she showed off in another photo within the carousel.