Helen Flanagan has set the record straight on her split with Scott Sinclair.
The former Coronation Street star started dating the Bristol Rovers footballer in 2009 and they are the proud parents of three children. The two reportedly ended their romance last year as Helen stopped wearing her engagement ring.
Helen has now confirmed the two broke up last July as she told OK! Magazine: "He’s a very private person, while I’m an open book. But we were together for 13 years – we both needed to deal with the break-up.
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She added: "You don’t spend all your twenties with someone, have three children and not have a good relationship and care about them and love them. When you have that with someone, no one – nothing – can take away what we had. I’ll always love him and he’ll always love me, you just sometimes don’t work any more.
“It will always be really special. But I don’t regret anything. I have three perfect children.” The two got engaged in 2018 and Helen revealed she has cancelled her plans for a fairy-tale wedding at Grantley Hall.
She said: "A lot of people say, ‘Oh, stay, make things work for the children. But children need happy parents and they need a happy environment, so it’s not always so straightforward." The two have entered into a co-parenting arrangement and enjoyed a family day with the children in Dubai and organised their son, Charlie's, second birthday party.
She said: “It’s been a gradual thing, it has been a journey. We get on for the children.” Helen dotes on her children and credited Scott's mum for helping with the process.
She said: “Scott’s mum’s a massive reason why things have been easier for me. They have a lovely home life with me and I’m fun and I have a lot of support. I’m a happy, positive person and so is Scott. They have really nice environments. Scott’s great – whenever he has a day off he’s over and the kids are obsessed with their dad. We work really well together.”
Fans speculated the two had got back together earlier this month when Helen was spotted wearing a ring during the Dubai holiday. However, the 32-year-old revealed the confusion was just a misunderstanding as she said: "That’s so typical of me – I didn’t even think about wearing a ring on that finger!"
Helen also shut down rumours there could ever be a reconciliation between the two as she added: “I just hope we can be good friends and co-parent.”
Helen is currently competing on I'm A Celebrity All Stars, which premiered last night. The show was filmed in South Africa last September and Helen said she wore her engagement ring throughout filming because her break-up was not public at the time.
She added: "We’d only just broken up, and I didn’t want everyone to be asking, ‘Where’s your ring.. I didn’t want to talk about it… I wanted to keep it private for the kids, I didn’t want to be talking about it on the show. I did find that difficult, because I had all that going on in my head."
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