Keeley & Roy's Ted Lasso Split Hit Brett Goldstein The Hardest

This post contains spoilers for "Ted Lasso" season 3.

Roy and Keeley are no more. The "Ted Lasso" power couple spent the first two seasons of the series falling in love, only to part ways thanks to what basically amounts to scheduling conflicts hinted at in the show's season 2 finale — they're both in a period of career growth, which means there's no time to be together. The news that they split was not well-received by fans of the grumpy-and-sunshine couple, and Roy's niece, Phoebe, did not take it particularly well either. Yet if you ask the show's cast, no one took it harder than Roy himself, actor and series writer Brett Goldstein.

"There are no Roy/Keeley stans out there who are upset as Brett Goldstein, the biggest Roy/Keeley stan of all," Goldstein's co-star and series co-creator Brendan Hunt told the Today show in the wake of the surprising revelation that the two are now no longer an item. While he assured interviewers that Goldstein "got through it," he also revealed that the actor-writer's feelings on the matter were pretty obvious. "Brett Goldstein has rather openly admitted that he was very upset," Hunt shared. Same here, Brett.

Brett Goldstein, who is never shy about singing co-star Juno Temple's praises, has also opened up about processing the news of Roy and Keeley's breakup. "As an actor, I found it devastating and heartbreaking," Goldstein told Town & Country magazine. He added: "I love Roy and Keeley, and as a fan of that, it was very sad and difficult." While the 12-episode (probably) final season still has plenty of time to bring the pair back together, the latest episode twisted the knife even further in when it showed that enough time has now passed for Keeley to walk by Roy without even noticing.

The curmudgeonly footballer-turned-coach is still clearly upset by the breakup, though, responding by angrily popping balloons and screaming at his teammates to keep quiet about it around reporter Trent Crimm (James Lance). Goldstein says Roy's intense reaction is in line with the character the show has built. "You have this character of Roy who had suppressed all of his emotions his entire life, except rage — the only one he let out was rage," Goldstein told Town & Country. "And then he fell in love with Keeley, and he was opened up by Ted, and all these feelings fell out of him. [...] He has no skills for managing these emotions and these feelings."

Roy isn't the only character going through a rough patch this season; Ted (Jason Sudeikis) is also upset about his ex-wife's dating life, while Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) is stewing over her ex-husband's success as the owner of West Ham United. While both Ted and Rebecca would do well to get over their exes once and for all, it doesn't seem like Roy and Keeley need closure so much as a way back to each other.

Brett Goldstein has remained tight-lipped about what the rest of the season entails but said the character of Roy has some understandable and even relatable problems. "His tragic flaw is he doesn't feel worthy of love," the actor shared. "He doesn't think he deserves to be happy or deserves to be loved." He described Roy's state of mind post-break-up as, "'I'll just work, I'll just do football and nothing else and then I'll just die and it'll be fine.'" 

I know "Ted Lasso" can get darker than expected, but there's no way the show will trap the great Roy Kent in that fate. Whether or not he and Keeley make it work, here's hoping that Roy gets past the balloon-popping phase of his breakup soon.

"Ted Lasso" streams new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+.