Paddy McGuinness and wife Christine looked fresh-faced and happy as they were seen for the first time since Christine admitted to them experiencing a 'very difficult' time in their marriage. However, hours later the pair announced that they had made the 'difficult decision' to splilt
The couple, who have been married for 11 years, had managed to head off on a family break after their holiday was left in doubt. Earlier this week former model Christine, from Liverpool, said the family of five had been hit by a stumbling block ahead of their planned trip abroad.
She added that the flights and villa are already booked, so maybe there’s hope yet that the holiday can still take place. "I am keeping everything crossed. I really want to take [the children] away," Christine continued.
While their plans to jet off haven't quite worked out, Bolton-born comedian Paddy and Christine managed to take their children - twins Penelope and Leo, nine, and Felicity, six - away. Taking to Instagram, Top Gear host Paddy shared a selfie alongside his wife.
It is the first time the pair have publically posed together for months with neither being seen together on each other's social media accounts. Paddy, 48, and Christine, 34, put on a defiant display as they posed outside their woodland retreat as they enjoyed a week at Centre Parcs in Nottinghamshire.
"Yes! We finally got away for our family holiday!" he captioned the smiling photo. " 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."
Paddy continued: "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.
"We met another family there who also had a child with Autism. They’d been going there for years. We can highly recommend Nottingham Centre Parcs, this isn’t an advert, we paid. 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."
Paddy ended the post: "We’re home now to our own beds, which no holiday can ever beat!" Christine, meanwhile posted a picture of herself outside the idyllic location, donning a white vest and pair of denim shorts. "Well that was Tree-mendous," she penned to her followers. "We stayed amongst the trees, with the birds and the bees."
However, they later returned to Instagram with a joint statement about their marriage. It said: "We hadn't planned on sharing this publicly until we were ready but after the lack of privacy surrounding our life 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 as always is to continue loving and supporting our children.
"This was not an easy decision to make but we are 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."
They went on: "We hope this now draws a line under anymore unwanted intrusion into our our private life. Although we work in the public eye we ask kindly if you could respect our wishes for privacy on this matter." Paddy and Christine then concluded: "We'll be making no further comments. Loads of love, Paddy and Christine."
Earlier this month the former model spoke to the press about her 11-year marriage after rumours of a split began to swirl. Speculation about the couple's relationship arose when Paddy wasn't seen publicly supporting his wife during her stint on ITV’s The Games before the pair went on separate trips.
Christine headed off on her first girls holiday with Chelcee Grimes after the pair bonded during their appearance on the sporting competition show while Paddy headed off to Thailand to film for Top Gear.
Christine told The Sun: "I can’t deny we are having a very, very difficult time." She added: "It’s just — we’ve been together 15 years, 11 years married: we are gonna have ups and downs — but this situation at the minute — I don’t want to go into it too much but I will just say that I didn’t cause this situation."
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