Maia Dunphy revealed she has split from her husband Johnny Vegas for a second time.
The broadcaster and writer said the pair have gone their separate ways following a brief reconciliation last year.
Maia added: “Johnny and I are not together now. It’s difficult and heartbreaking and a source of daily sadness for me.
“It’s something I am deliberately nebulous about because I don’t want it to define Tom [the couple’s son] or me, and I don’t want to talk publicly about it.
“Like many people in the same situation, I’m just doing my best to get on with life under painful circumstances.”
Vegas lives in England, while Maia lives here with her their four-year-old son.
The pair previously broke up in 2018 before rekindling their romance later that year.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent’s Living magazine, Maia admitted she had been putting off confirming they had split again and insisted she never tried to profit from the comedian’s fame.
She said: “People want to know if we’re together or not. We’re not, so it’s probably time to say so.
“I completely understand why people are so interested in Johnny.
“Once we were together, I was offered reality shows and daytime TV slots in the UK – the kind of breaks people in my line of work might dream of – but they weren’t the breaks I wanted.
“I had no interest in suddenly being Mrs Vegas, I worked too hard for that.
“I never traded off him and just kept ploughing my own furrow, but even in Ireland, my ‘more famous husband’ was always the deal-breaker.
“Fame is a funny, fickle thing and as soon as we became involved, he was the first thing people asked me about. Not just journalists or TV work colleagues, but everyone.”
Recalling a time a friend once offered to change the date of her own wedding because Johnny couldn’t make it, Maia revealed: “Her wedding. That hurt so much, as she’d never even met him.
“I’d known her for 25 years and it felt like my coming alone wasn’t enough.”
