VETERAN politician Jimmy Wray has split from his glamorous advocate wife Laura.
Former MP Wray, who is 26 years older than Laura, has left the couple's £1million home and is now living with friends.
Wray married Laura, in 1999 in a glittering ceremony at the Palace of Westminster following a bitter divorce from his second wife Cathy.
Yesterday, Wray, 71, said: "We have separated and I am staying with different people in Glasgow until I find my own place.
"I cannot say exactly why we split but there are one or two reasons. These things happen.
"I do not know if my wife is seeing anyone else. It is all in the hands of lawyers."
He said the couple's disabled son Frankie, 10, is living with his mother but that he continues to see him.
Former boxer and coalman Wray was one of a family of nine born in a slum in Glasgow's Gorbals.
Laura, who came from a wealthy middle class family, was brought up in the city's leafy west end, went to private school and her father had his own law firm.
She said the pair split because of pressures caused by Jimmy having a stroke five years ago and the strain of bringing up Frankie, who suffers from a severe form of the condition dispraxia.
Laura said: "We separated a couple of months ago.
"We have already signed separation agreements and will probably get divorced. It is one of these things that happens in most relationships."
"If anyone has a stroke, they have a personality change and that has been a factor but we intend to remain friends. There is no animosity.
"Frankie is severely disabled and that is a strain on anyone's marriage."
Laura refused to confirm if she had met anyone else, adding: "I am not prepared to comment."
The couple own a house in Port of Menteith in Stirlingshire and a second home in Cannes in the south of France.
Laura, 45, met Wray in 1995 at a trade union conference and they set up home a year later.
They had Frankie in 1998 while Wray was still married to his second wife.
The ex-MP has three grown-up children.
Daughter Jacqueline is the same age as Laura.
Five years ago Wray had a stroke and almost died from a clot in his neck. He stood down as MP for Glasgow Provan in 2005 after 13 years because of ill health and was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war.
Pals include ex-Speaker Michael Martin, former Rangers boss Alex McLeish and boxing promoters Frank Warren and Don King.
He said in an interview five years ago that he would want Laura to marry again if he died.
His ex-wife Catherine took him to an industrial tribunal 10 years ago after she was sacked as his secretary and won a £7000 payout.
Wray won a £60,000 in a libel case against a newspaper the same year after Catherine falsely claimed he had beaten her up.
Laura had a bitter divorce in 1996 from lawyer Drew Walker.
He took her to tribunal after being sacked from her family law firm.
