Helen Skelton has now confessed in her new book that her ex-husband Richie Myler took her by surprise when they divorced.
The former Countryfile host, 40, announced her divorce from the England and Leeds Rhinos rugby player in April of last year, and their divorce was finalised this summer.
Ernie, eight, Louis, six, and Elsie, 22 months, are the former couple’s three children.
The former Strictly Come Dancing star revealed the breakup on Instagram, eight years after they married and only four months after they had their third child together: ‘I’m sorry to announce that Richie and I are no longer together.
‘He has left the family home. We will be doing our best to co parent our small children.’ She also posted two heartbroken emoji.
Following their divorce, the star’s ex had a child with his new girlfriend, 33-year-old Stephanie Thirkill, the daughter of Leeds Rhinos president Andrew.
Helen has now spoken up about the stressful time in her new book, In My Stride, which is out today, finally revealing that her husband’s leaving came as a huge shock.
She wrote: ‘I was in shock. I know that following break-ups, people often say they didn’t see it coming and it sounds like a cliché, but that was me.’
Helen was claimed to have feared that job, children, and their house restoration project would ‘consume her’ and cause her to miss’signs’ that her marriage was failing. She also pondered the possibility that she had just ‘ignored’ them.
It’s also been said that she struggled to inform her parents about the breakup and kept it a secret until her father unexpectedly paid her a visit and the truth spilled out.
Helen’s grief inspired her to audition for Strictly last year, and she was placed with partner Gorka Marquez, who she recalls asking why she didn’t feel beautiful.
She reportedly said: ‘He was asking a woman with three children under six, whose husband had just left her and was with another woman, TO BE SEXY.
‘I thought, ‘Who would feel good about themselves in that scenario?’.’
But the show grew her confidence, and eventually Helen performed a boss routine which gave her – what her choreographer called – a ‘f*** you’ moment.
According to he publication, Helen said: ‘We had found a dance which let me own my own moment and be the boss.’
She had been doing her own Sunday morning programme on BBC Radio 5 Live for a year before announcing her resignation in August.
Keeping things real, Helen stated that she was hard to balance the employment with her other presenting work and caring for three children as a single mother.
Around the same time, Helen admitted to feeling ‘guilty’ about starting to date again.
‘Helen’s family and friends encouraged her to get back out there and she was happy to dip her toe back into the dating scene,’ a source told Closer Magazine.
The source continued: ‘But she has had some wobbles and found herself feeling guilty. She’s concerned about who to let into her life and worried about being judged for any decisions she makes.
‘There have also been some people who have made comments about her not trying hard enough to make it work with Richie, and it’s made her think about her marriage and what went wrong.
‘Ultimately, she knows she tried everything she could, and once the trust was broken there was just no going back. But dating again has brought up some unexpected feelings that she’s been struggling with.’
Source My Celebrity Life.