Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
John Jones

Emma Bunton's happy home life with 'soulmate' she's been with for 24 years following their early split

Emma Bunton is on hosting duties for Tuesday night's Concert for Ukraine. The two-hour live televised concert is raising money for the Disasters Emergency Committee's Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, which has been set up to help those affected by the violence which has seen at least three million flee their homes to escape the conflict.

A host of top stars will be performing at the concert in Birmingham, including Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, the Manic Street Preachers and Gregory Porter. The show will also be fronted by the Spice Girl, as well as radio presenters Roman Kemp and Marvin Humes. You can find all you need to know about the concert here.

It is the latest hosting gig for Emma, who presents her own Sunday evening show on Heart Radio and has also fronted shows such as This Morning, Loose Women and Great British Bake Off spin-off The Great American Baking Show in recent years. Her long and varied career began in 1996 when the Spice Girls burst onto the scene and there has been one man by her side for much of it.

Read more: Good Morning Britain issues health update as Ranvir Singh taken off-air

In 1998, she met Jade Jones, a member of the R&B group Damage. The couple are now married and very much in love - but things haven't always been so easy, with Emma revealing recently that they broke up at the start of their relationship.

Emma and Jade - who were aged 21 and 19 respectively when they met- dated for a few months before they split in 1999. While they reconciled the following year, they broke up again in 2002. It was only in 2004 that the pair reunited for good.

While her and Jade were on and off, the Baby Spice singer dated England footballer Rio Ferdinand for a year between 1999 and 2000, while she was also linked to Justin Timberlake in 2003. She was also rumoured to be dating Leonardo DiCaprio in 1997, although she has since confirmed this wasn't true. For more showbiz and television stories, get our newsletter here.

'Baby Spice' was part of the best-selling girl group of all-time and went on to have a successful solo career (PA)

However, Emma has admitted that she knew immediately that Jade was her soulmate, and claimed that their early split "worked a treat" for their relationship, which is now better than ever. Speaking to her close friend Holly Willoughby on the This Morning presenter's podcast, By the Light of the Moon, the singer - described the first time she met her now-husband.

"It was very immediate, as soon as I looked at him I thought, 'This is so special,'" she said. "He felt exactly the same and we had very magical moments very early on and I think we were both taken back about that.

"We would talk about children, it was very intense very quickly. I think both of us knew we wanted to be together. We're soulmates."

When asked by Holly if the couple's breakup served its purpose, Emma replied: "Yeah, definitely. Firstly, I was on tour, he was on tour, so I think we would have both taken that time apart anyway. But I think it gave us time to grow as people and when we came back together it was just amazing. We felt something very quickly." She added: "It worked a treat."

Emma - who also had a successful solo career with seven UK Top 10s - has previously said that her and Jade's first meeting was love at first sight. In an interview with the Daily Express in 2013, she said: "I fell in love with Jade at first sight. He was sitting across a table from me and I actually said to him, 'you’re coming with me.' I made the move, very girl power.

The pair split twice before reuniting for good in 2004 (FilmMagic)

"Jade is my best friend, we make each other laugh," she added. "We’ve got lots in common and we really respect each other."

Despite their long-term relationship, the pair only got engaged in 2011. In that time, the pair were constantly followed by engagement rumours, but Emma was quick to shut these down, adding: "We don't need a wedding to justify our relationship."

The pair already had two children together before Jade popped the question on Emma's 35th birthday. In August 2007, they welcomed their first son Beau, while their second son, Tate, was born in May 2011.

Jade and Emma finally tied the knot in a secret wedding ceremony in 2021. The couple shocked fans by announcing the news on Instagram, with Emma sharing a photo of the loved-up couple with her 1.2 million followers with the caption: "Mr and Mrs Jones".

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.