Times where the Love Interest decides that Love Cannot Overcome in Live-Action TV series.
- Jamie Reagan's girlfriend in Blue Bloods left him because she couldn't stand loving a cop with Chronic Hero Syndrome.
- The Boys (2019):
- M.M.'s wife Monique quickly divorces him after finding out that he's rekindled his crusade against Supes behind her back when they have a daughter to consider. However, by Season 3 she's made peace with that it's who he is and becomes Amicable Exes with him.
- Queen Maeve's girlfriend Elena leaves her after discovering the Awful Truth about Homelander and Maeve's involvement in the plane incident, which leads Maeve to angrily call out her hypocrisy for being upset about Maeve hiding things from her while she tearfully admits she was right to do so. Elena then inexplicably goes back to Maeve in the season 3 finale despite watching her let a child die and cutting ties because the writers wanted to Preserve Your Gays.
- Early in the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Giles has a girlfriend named Olivia. At the end of the episode "Hush", after Olivia learns of the existence of demons, she says, "Scary." Giles asks, "Too scary?" and Olivia responds, "I'm not sure." Since we never see her again after that, we can presume that it was indeed too scary for her.
- Prue's first boyfriend, Andy, from Charmed admits to her that he can't deal with her being a witch and probably wouldn't be able to no matter how much time he had to get used to the idea.
- Although later when he finds out again, and learns they used a Reset Button to undo him learning before, he says they didn't give him enough time to accept it before pressing said reset button, though by the end of the episode, he changes his mind and decides that he wouldn't have been able to handle it no matter how much time they gave him. Though he continues to love Prue and may have been on his way to accepting it when he sacrifices himself in order to save the sisters.
- Every single loveline in The Confidant was doomed to failure.
- Concubine Wan fell in love with actor Yujun and wanted to run away from the palace together with their unborn child. Unfortunately, their affair was discovered and Yujun was sentenced to death. Concubine Wan was spared but unaware of all this, believed that Yujun had run away and abandoned her. What she didn't know was that he truly did love her and had pleaded for her life to be spared even as he knew he was going to be killed.
- Qianrong did her best to stay by Bolun's side through his opium addiction after he initially used it to reduce the pain in a leg injury. He treated Qianrong worse and worse, selling her and even went after Lianying's family in order to extort money and feed his addiction. To put an end to it, Qianrong attempted to poison Bolun and then commit suicide. Fortunately, she survives thanks to Lianying's intervention.
- Princess Heshuo relentlessly pursues Shuangxi, but they could never have a future together as she's betrothed and he's a eunuch. When Heshuo returns to the palace after her husband passes way, the bad guys seize the perfect opportunity to use her to force Shuangxi to betray his brothers-in-arm. Then he finds out that the Princess has long since moved on and has no intention of starting over with him again....
- West Empress Dowager loved the late Emperor, only to find out that he didn't trust her and even made a secret edict to execute her in case she misuses her power.
- East Empress Dowager is secretly in love with Prince Gong but she can never act on it and had to hide it at all times. She also resents West Empress Dowager for being favoured by the late Emperor.
- An Dehai loves Xiaochai to the point where he publicly marries her against the West Empress Dowager's advice. As he's not a 'real man', she ends up taking many lovers behind Dehai's back. To try and win her back, Dehai knowingly breaks the law and falls for a scam that claims to make his private part grow back. He gets caught and punished. Xiaochai leaves him anyway.
- The Emperor persisted despite heavy objection from the West Empress Dowager and successfully got to make Baoyin his Empress. Still, that love did not stop him from visiting prostitutes and neglecting her. After he's found to have contracted venereal disease, confirming his debauchery, Baoyin becomes disillusioned and turns against the Emperor eventually.
- Happened to an officer in his probationary period in the background of an early 1967 Dragnet episode. While the speech Sgt. Friday gives upon learning this covers most of the potential reasons that this trope would be invoked, he leaves out the "long nights of waiting" reason which was later covered in the first episode of the 1970 Season.
- Even reality TV isn't safe from this trope: In The First 48, Miami detective Kevin Ruggerio gets dumped by his fiancee—via "Dear John" phone message—saying she needed someone who put her needs first. Something he couldn't do as a homicide detective.
- In the final series of Game of Thrones, despite genuinely loving Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow can't bring himself to resume their previous relationship following his discovery they are aunt and nephew. Jon's inability to give her some desperately needed affection, added to her emotional fragility in the wake of having lost so many of her loved ones and having her own advisors plotting to undermine her in favour of Jon's claim to the Iron Throne is implied to be a major factor in driving Daenerys into violent insanity. After Daenerys lays waste to King's Landing and declares her intention to not only conquer the world but also put to the sword any who oppose her, Jon reluctantly assassinates Daenerys, despite genuinely loving her, because top of her list of enemies would be Jon's cousins/adoptive half-sisters Sansa and Arya Stark.
- On Haven, Nathan's season one Love Interest Jess abruptly leaves town and returns to Quebec after being attacked by a Troubled person, whom Nathan was investigating.
- Loki (2021): They might have both fallen in love for the first and only time in their lives but ultimately Sylvie can't be talked out of her lifelong goal of revenge by someone who she's only known for like 2 days, even if he is another Variant of her.
- Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure: Erik's love for Ondina does not stop his obsession with the merman chamber. If anything, it makes it worse by giving Erik more motivation to find some higher purpose to it because he knows most of Ondina's pod will never accept their relationship. The chamber turns out to be a lesson in Evil Is Not a Toy, nearly killing Ondina and her pod in the process. When the dust settles, Ondina flatly says that all of her begging didn't stop him then, so she can't trust that he won't pull another stunt like that again, and dumps him on the spot.
- In Psych, Shawn's ex-girlfriend, Abigail, says she can't take the stress of his job anymore after being kidnapped by Mr. Yin.
- The sixth season of Schitt's Creek has a heartbreaking example when Ted is offered a permanent job in The Galapagos Islands just as Alexis's PR career is taking off. The couple, who overcame much to be together and still love each other deeply, realize that their futures lie apart.
- In Siempre bruja, Cristóbal time travels to 2019 to be with Carmen, but he cannot adjust to the modern world. Despite their love for each other, they have to break up because neither can live in the other's time.
- Cyborg's girlfriend Katherine in Smallville decides (between episodes) that she can't handle what he's become and so leaves him.
- On Warehouse 13, Pete was about to reveal the true nature of his work to Kelly, but having just had a small sample of that dangerous world, she breaks it up with him and leaves. Since Pete is only allowed to tell his secret to a single living person, it's very fortunate that she stops him before he does.
- Subverted in The X-Files. In the series proper, Mulder tries to get Scully to leave him because she is constantly put in danger because of his quest for the Truth. She refuses. In the reboot, it's revealed that they broke up, not because of his involvement in the supernatural, but because of Mulder's refusal to treat his severe depression. It's implied it wasn't what either of them wanted, but was needed.
