Ben Foden has revealed how he explained the end of his and Una Healy’s marriage to their two children.
In a new interview with the Daily Irish Mirror, the rugby player said their children, Aoife, 9 and Tadhg, 6, ask “difficult questions” regarding the split.
Healy and Foden separated in 2018 after six years of marriage. In the years since, they have both spoken publicly about the breakdown of their relationship, with Foden admitting to cheating on The Saturdays singer.
The athlete said their children have “an understanding” of why the marriage ended due to social media, but don’t know the main details”.
“But they do ask difficult questions, they’re not stupid kids, they can read and stuff now and they are on social media,” he told the Mirror.
“They talk to their mummy and they ask her difficult questions and they ask me difficult questions, we try and answer them as best as possible.
“The scary thing is with social media, Tik Tok and everything, the accessibility to them, to us, to pictures to anything online.”
A year after announcing his separation from Healy, Foden married businesswoman Jackie Belanoff-Smith and now lives in between the UK and the US.
He said that while living in between both countries had made co-parenting with Healy difficult, the former couple are “getting better” at it.
“Una and my relationship is getting better and Jackie’s relationship as well. I’ve always said about Una, she’s a great parent, a great mum to the kids,” he said.
“They’re always in a loving environment, they’re really excelling in terms of academics and sport and going to school and being sociable, everyone always says what great kids they are.
“That’s the main thing, they’re healthy and happy. Whether they’re with Una or myself we try to create that environment for them.”
Reflecting on his infidelity, Foden said he had received trolling on social media, but that “time was the biggest healer”.
“The way things happen and the things I put Una through were pretty stressful at the time,” he said.
“Obviously I’ve made mistakes in the past, we all have, and I have paid the price of getting a bit of hate and trolling. But time is the biggest healer, hopefully the more we live life our mistakes will be forgiven.”
