Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom’s relationship hasn’t always been fireworks. The “Fireworks” singer shared insight into her and the Pirates of the Caribbean star’s relationship, which began in 2016 when they connected at a Golden Globes afterparty and why they realized they needed a break before they formed the deep connection they have now. “We weren’t really in it from day one,” Perry, who shares daughter Daisy, 4, with the actor, admitted on the Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper podcast’s Sept. 4 episode. “He was because he had just done a huge time of celibacy and he had set intentions. I was fresh out of a relationship and I was like, I can’t do this anymore. I need to swim in a different pond, but I had to do a lot real work.” Bloom-also dad to son Flynn, 13, with ex Miranda Kerr, went to a week-long retreat called The Hoffman Process, which focuses on rewiring your brain and negative patterns of thought and behaviour, in 2017. It was afterwards, when it became clear they were looking for different things in a relationship, they decided to part ways. “He went there and he wasn’t playing that cat-mouse game anymore,” the 39-year-old said of how the British actor, 47, returned from the experience. “And I was like, ‘This is boring. I’m moving on.’ I was so used to this push-pull. Because once you have it. I was playing games.” After a “really tough year” apart, Perry decided to go on the retreat-and it proved to be a pivotal experience. “I finally went to Hoffman towards the end of that year that we were separated and I got the tools,” the “Teenage Dream” singer explained. “We spoke the same language.” Not only did the experience rekindle their romance, Perry credits the process with changing her life. “I would be dead without it,” she continued. “I would not be on this planet without that process and meditation. Because the noise got so large. When Witness came out and things started to shift and I thought I really loved myself. I thought I really had that centre, but actually that core was created from outside validation. It just helped me rewire what I think about myself and it helped me connect my head to my heart.” As for what she appreciates most about her partner, Perry had quite the list, gushing that “he shows up.” In fact, the Lord of the Rings star proved that was the case during a really difficult time in Perry’s life. “I showed him the worst of me,” the “Part of Me” singer said of her rocky period in 2018. “I was like, ‘Here’s the next test. I’m gonna show you the craziest b–ch you’ve ever seen,’ and he was like, ‘I’m not shook.’ And I was like, ‘You’re my baby daddy.’ If you’re not shook by this, then we’re going the distance.” And the as their relationship has progressed, they’ve made it a point to put in the work, like going to couple’s therapy. “We want to evolve that’s I think why we’re in our relationship is to become better humans so we can raise this beautiful human being,” she said. “It’s been different layers. The more we do the work, the more we find the next level. And sometimes we get stuck and we’re like, ‘OK, let’s go in to do the work and this is going to be annoying and I don’t want to do it. We don’t have the time. I’m tired.’ But we’re gonna do it. And we find the next level. That’s why we’re continuing in the relationship.”