Christine McGuinness and husband Paddy have announced their decision to separate following 15 years together – 11 of which they were married.
Following a family trip, which was understood to be a 'make or break' holiday for the pair, the couple have revealed they have in fact been separated for sometime.
The couple share three children Penelope, Felicity and Leo together. Despite the split, the couple will continue to live in the same house together as the co-parent their three children, all of whom have been diagnosed with autism.
Real Housewives of Cheshire star Christine, 34, and husband Paddy, 48, announced the news in a statement, which both Christine and Paddy had shared to their Instagram stories.
The couple wrote: "We hadn't planned on sharing this publicly until we were ready but the lack of privacy surrounding our personal life, we feel left with no other option but to clarify.
"A while ago we took the difficult decision to separate but our main focus was as always is to continue loving and supporting our children.
"This was not an easy decision to make but we're moving forward as the best parents we can be for our three beautiful children.
"We'll always be a loving family, we still have a great relationship and still live happily in our family home together."
The joint statement continued: "We hope this now draws a line under anymore unwanted and unnecessary intrusion into our private life.
"Although we work in the public eye we ask kindly if you could respect our wishes for privacy on this matter. We'll be making no further comment."
Signing off the statement, the couple wrote: "Loads of love. Paddy & Christine."
Hours before the joint statement from the pair, Paddy posted a photo of him and Christine smiling together following a trip the couple made to Centre Parcs.
The pair were due to go abroad with their three children but their holiday to Spain was cancelled as their daughter's passport was out of date.
Paddy and Christine appeared to be putting a defiant display in the photo amid speculation surrounding their marriage, as the both grinned at the camera for the image.
In the caption, Paddy explained how the disruption to their plans was difficult as their three children – Penelope and Leo, nine, and six-year-old Felicity – have autism.
He wrote: "Yes! We finally got away for our family holiday!
"After discovering, 3 days before we were due to fly, our youngest daughters passport had expired, our holiday to Spain had to be cancelled. We’d been telling the kids all about it, especially the airport part, so to suddenly change plans wasn’t easy! Mums and Dads with Autistic children will know exactly what I mean."
Top Gear star Paddy then explained the pair managed to find a last minute trip to Nottingham Centre Parcs.
He said: "Thankfully we got lucky and found the last available lodge at Centre Parcs, I booked it straight away. It was a big tree house and the kids absolutely loved it!!! We had a full week of activities booked for them and discovered a few of our childrens hidden talents, namely scaling the indoor climbing walls. I’m so proud of how well they did but mainly by how much fun they had."
Paddy continued to explain how they would "highly recommend" the destination, but insisted the endorsement wasn't an ad as the family paid for the trip.
He added: "If you’re a family who struggles with airports and all the hassles of travelling abroad this place could be the answer, it even had it’s own beach!
"The staff were great with the kids and you can please yourself what you want to do. You can chill out and have a quiet one or dive into all the activities! We did a bit of both. We’ll definitely go back there."
The Top Gear host ended the caption with: "We’re home now to our own beds, which no holiday can ever beat!"
Christine and Paddy first sparked concerns over their marriage while the RHOC star competed on The Games and Paddy was noticeably absent from the sidelines.
The rumour mill went into overdrive when fans thought they had spotted that Paddy had removed his heart tattoo – which replaced his wedding ring as a sign of their marriage – from his wedding finger.
Christine then headed on a solo trip with her pals and shared a cryptic post about "following her heart" – but squashed split rumours by flashing her wedding ring upon her return.
Later, Christine opened up about her and Paddy's relationship, admitting the couple were going through a "very, very difficult time".
Christine confessed to The Sun at the beginning of July: "I’m feeling really quite raw and all over the place."
Following weeks of rumours, Christine got honest about her marriage as she said: "What I might have put up with in the past, I probably wouldn’t put up with now, and the same for him."
Although Christine was reluctant to go into detail about the issues within their marriage, she insisted she "didn’t cause this situation".
Meanwhile, Paddy continued to stay tight-lipped about their marriage and opted to update his social media with lighthearted posts about his everyday life – from buying shoes for his kids to the family cat bringing in an unexpected visitor.
