Heart rending or wrenching ?

[WinoTime]

Which is the correct phrase ?

I see so many using heart wrenching.

I’ve googled and it seems both are acceptable now?

Aren't they just different words for different effects rather than only one being right?

Rending.

Guts are wrenched, hearts are rent.

As far as I know people use both although they have slightly different meanings.
Personally I've always used heart rending.

Surely rending comes from the verb to rend i.e to tear or break. Wrenching is more about twisting and turning forcibly. So it depends what you think your heart is doing.

I’m with @Gallivant. Heart rending/gut wrenching.

I think that heart wrenching is probably a new (ish) addition. I would have only read heart rending which is why I think wrenching is not quite correct.

I know language changes and evolves - but I do sometimes wish that it wouldn't.

‘Wrenching’ definitely goes with ‘gut’, it describes the sensation/emotion perfectly.
Ditto ‘heart’ with ‘rending.’

Really? Which era would you like it to have stuck at? We could all be walking round speaking like Chaucer, with no words for anything that's been invented since the 14th century.

We are all entitled to our opinions and when language evolves to be less than precise we can similarly feel entitled to say it feels like a retrograde step.
Your last sentence is just an example of reductio ad absurdum.
The OP was clearly not suggesting anything so silly.

There is a difference between evolving words to describe new concepts, inventions etc, and making mistakes (like 'should of') that stick through repetition.

That's regression not evolution.

Quite so. That's the difference I alluded to.

I'd say heart rending and gut wrenching.

I have actually seen "heart rendering" 🙄

Rendering? As in the cement like product applied to the front/sides of your house? ;)

Sounds painful