Rachel Stevens announces she has separated from husband

• Rachel Stevens has split from husband Alex Bourne.
• The 44-year-old announced the news via Instagram Stories to her 280,000 fans.
• She said she and Bourne “will remain partners in parenthood”.

Rachel Stevens has split from her husband Alex Bourne after close to 13 years of marriage, stating that she and Bourne “will remain partners in parenthood”.

Stevens, a star of S Club 7, and Bourne, her childhood boyfriend, got married in 2009 and welcomed two kids in 2010 and 2014 as a result.

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The 44-year-old singer announced via Instagram Stories to her 280,000 fans that she and Bourne have decided to separate ways.

“I just wanted to share with you all that, after time and consideration, the difficult decision has been made for Alex and I to separate,” she wrote.

Stevens added: “While we are no longer partners in marriage, we will remain partners in parenthood to our beautiful girls and continue with love and respect for each other.

“I feel so incredibly grateful for the life we built together and will now continue to be focused on moving forward united as a family.”

Stevens revealed on the podcast That Made Me earlier this year how she and Bourne originally connected at a youth club when they were both 12 years old, dating for approximately a month before parting ways.

Years later, the couple reconnected, and they ultimately decided to try again with their love.

“His relationship with his girlfriend ended and then I went off to LA and he was an actor at the time so he came out to LA, too. Then we rekindled our relationship again,” said Stevens.

She added: “So, it was quite a random meeting and then just sort of randomly bumping into each other. It was like we were being pulled back to each other.”

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Stevens gained notoriety in the 1990s as a member of S Club 7. After the group disbanded in 2003, he started a solo music career and achieved number two successes with Sweet Dreams My LA Ex and Some Girls.

In 2015, she reunited with the other founding members of the band for a reunion arena tour, doing a dozen live performances all across the UK.