Dakota Johnson Ex Boyfriend: Chris Martin, Role Model and Her Relationship History
Dakota Johnson’s best-known ex-boyfriend is Chris Martin, the Coldplay singer with whom she had a long relationship beginning in 2017. Their breakup was reported in June 2025, after earlier reports that they had been privately engaged. Her relationship history also includes Matthew Hitt and Jordan Masterson, while Role Model was linked with her after Martin and was reported to be an ex in 2026. The names belong to different periods, rather than one continuous relationship story.
Chris Martin Was Her Long-Term Partner
Chris Martin is the lead singer of Coldplay. He and Dakota first attracted romantic attention in 2017, after being seen together in Los Angeles.
Their relationship continued for nearly eight years, with occasional reported breaks and recurring public speculation about their status. They generally kept their personal life quieter than their separate careers, so the relationship was often documented through interviews, concert appearances and photographs rather than frequent formal announcements.
Martin had previously been married to Gwyneth Paltrow, with whom he shares two children. His marriage to Paltrow had ended before his relationship with Dakota developed. Dakota was his later partner, rather than his wife during that earlier marriage.
Their Life Together in Malibu
Dakota and Chris were associated with Malibu, California, where they spent much of their time away from work. Her interviews described enjoying ordinary time at home alongside their busy professional lives.
The couple also appeared together around Coldplay performances. Dakota spoke about enjoying watching Chris do the work he loved, providing a personal account of their relationship that went beyond anonymous reports.
That public affection coexisted with a preference for privacy. The absence of frequent red-carpet appearances did not mean the relationship had ended each time they spent a period out of public view.
Was Dakota Johnson Engaged to Chris Martin?
Their engagement was reported publicly in March 2024. Sources told People that they had actually been engaged for some time and were not rushing to marry.
That reporting explains why Chris is sometimes described as Dakota’s former fiancé, rather than only an ex-boyfriend. The more specific label reflects the reported plans to marry during their relationship.
The announcement did not establish a wedding. A private engagement and a legal marriage are different milestones, and reliable coverage did not identify a marriage between the couple before the breakup was reported in 2025.
Her Relationship With His Children
Dakota spoke in a March 2024 Bustle interview about her affection for Apple and Moses, Chris’s children with Gwyneth Paltrow. Her comments showed that the relationship involved an established family connection as well as a romance.
She also developed a friendly public relationship with Gwyneth. Photographs and interviews presented the women as comfortable with each other, rather than supporting a story of automatic conflict between a former spouse and a later partner.
Those accounts belong to the years when Dakota and Chris were together. They provide context for the depth of the relationship without establishing the family’s private arrangements after the separation.
The June 2025 Breakup Reports
On 4 June 2025, People reported that Dakota and Chris had separated again, citing multiple sources. The story characterised the relationship as having been on and off and described this separation as appearing more final than earlier breaks.
The report was attributed to sources; it was not a detailed joint statement from the couple explaining the reasons. Later entertainment coverage treated Martin as Dakota’s former partner, but claims about a specific cause need their own evidence.
That chronology also distinguishes the 2025 reports from August 2024, when a representative for Dakota rejected earlier breakup rumours. A denial in 2024 and a later separation report in 2025 refer to different points in time.
Her Earlier Boyfriend Matthew Hitt
Before Chris, Dakota dated Matthew Hitt, a Welsh musician and model known as the frontman of Drowners. Their relationship was publicly associated with the period from 2014 to 2016.
The romance included an earlier split and reconciliation before the final separation was reported in June 2016. It overlapped with the period when Dakota’s profile grew through Fifty Shades of Grey.
Matthew and Chris are separate former partners with different music careers. Hitt is associated with Drowners, while Martin is associated with Coldplay. Confusing the two would place the wrong relationship in the wrong part of Dakota’s life.
Jordan Masterson and Earlier Relationships
Dakota was also in a relationship with actor Jordan Masterson before her time with Matthew Hitt. Coverage generally places that relationship around 2012–14.
In an earlier Elle interview, she mentioned a home improvement gift he had made for her, offering a rare personal detail about their life together. Their relationship preceded the years she spent with Chris Martin.
Biographical accounts also identify musician Noah Gersh among her earlier partners. There is less detailed reliable reporting about that period, so it is more useful to acknowledge the relationship than construct an exact timeline from inconsistent dating lists.
The Later Role Model Relationship
After her separation from Chris Martin, Dakota was linked with Role Model, the musician whose real name is Tucker Pillsbury. Their relationship became part of entertainment coverage during the following period.
By September 2026, reports described the pair as having separated. Later coverage of Dakota’s dating life referred to both Chris Martin and Role Model as former partners, reflecting that her relationship history had moved beyond the 2025 breakup.
Rumours about another musician, Machine Gun Kelly, also appeared in 2026. Those reports should remain labelled as relationship speculation unless supported by a direct confirmation. For the question about her ex-boyfriend, the established central name remains Chris Martin, alongside earlier partners Matthew Hitt and Jordan Masterson and the later reported relationship with Role Model.