On Friday before this holiday weekend (in the US it’s Memorial Day today), we heard that Heidi Montag was sort-of separating with her husband of just over a year, Spencer Pratt. Heidi’s rep told TMZ “Heidi is looking to move out due to all the fake bad press that Spencer controls. She’s tired of it and is looking for a place and wants to focus on her acting career.”

Many of you wondered if this was for real or just a publicity stunt. This couple’s entire marital history, appearance, and personal drama seem timed to maximize tabloid headlines so it’s hard to tell if anything about them is genuine. The truth may be somewhere in between, with Heidi “separating” from Spencer so she can move in with a girlfriend to a beach house as they film their own reality show. Heidi’s co-star and friend, a woman named Jennifer Bunney who was also on The Hills, told US Weekly the show will focus on “our friendship, getting through things with each other like marriage stuff and boyfriend stuff.”

I guess this is good news. If Spencer would have stayed sane and been on board with impregnating Heidi as she was scheming, then we would have been treated to a reality show chronicling her every craving and hormone change. Instead she’s moving out and we will just be annoyed by them separately instead of as a perma-grin reality power couple.

As for all those stories about how Spencer was brainwashing Heidi and limiting her access to television, the Internet, and friends, that seemed to be at least somewhat true. Spencer even bragged about his influence over Heidi in an episode of The Hills while Heidi talked about the magical properties of the healing crystals they’ve sunk nearly 1/2 a million dollars into. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago “These two are crazy like foxes, but that doesn’t mean they’re not crazy, just that they use it to their advantage.”

Someone confirmed to TMZ that Spencer was just as controlling and off his rocker as the tabloids reported, and that Heidi is leaving “mainly because Spencer Pratt has taken away her friends and family. We’re told she has been complaining bitterly that Spencer is so controlling he isolated her from all her friends.” By leaving to start her own reality show with a friend, is Heidi serving as a kind of warped reality show example of how to get out of an emotionally abusive relationship? I’m incredulous of anything this two do, but am also happy for Heidi that she’s getting out and has her own “career.” As much as we ridicule them, this was an incredibly unhealthy relationship that showed the classic signs of emotional abuse.

Oh I just wanted to mention that Radar Online ran a story about this over the weekend using an older photo of Heidi in a bikini. At first I saw it and thought “Oh wow, she looks so pretty, I’m so glad she gained a little weight.” Then I realized that it was an old photo taken before she had those 10 completely unnecessary plastic surgery procedures. She’ll never look like that again.