Chloe Madeley reveals 'awful, dark and painful' truth about James Haskell marriage

Chloe Madeley has opened up about the end of marriage to James Haskell as she admits she feels 'relieved' the relationship ended after 'dark and painful' experiences

Chloe Madeley has admitted the final year of her marriage to James Haskell was "awful," "dark" and "painful."

The couple parted ways in October 2023 and now the daughter of TV presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan has explained that she felt "relieved" to get out of the relationship. Chloe, 37, married James, 39, in 2018 and they share a daughter, Bodhi, two.

Chloe says she will never fully divulge why the former couple decided to split up, but she does confess that her daughter was her main reason for leaving the marriage. The fitness fanatic says that she knew she didn't want Bodhi to grow up seeing their relationship and thinking it was normal.

Chloe has also admitted she wants to keep what happened to herself in order to protect her parents as well as Bodhi from the "dark and painful experiences" she has been through. She told The Sun: "When you tell people that you are divorcing, everyone sees it as such a negative thing.

"They say: 'This is going to be so hard for you.' And, yes, it is, but the hardest bit was when we were married. The last year of the marriage was awful. It was so dark, painful, and one of the worst periods of my life. It's a good thing we ended it.

"It was so incredibly scary. I'm amazed I got through it in the way that I did. I think more people should see it as a positive thing. I'm so proud of myself and so relieved that I actually called it a day."

Chloe has confirmed that she is now dating again but that "nothing feels right" for her yet. The news comes after it was reported that Chloe is "happy" and "putting herself first" after the melt down of her marriage to former rugby player James. The pair, who tied the knot in 2018 and became parents four years later, were seen in several challenging scenes on their popular ITV reality show, filmed before their official split announcement.

A source told OK!: "It's clear to see she's in a really positive place. Her coaching business is really successful and in this time she's healed and grown so much. She realised she put up with a lot during her marriage and now that it's firmly in the past, this is her time to put herself first and be happy.

"She knows the split was the right thing for them both and she's finally getting to do what she's always wanted to do, which she had put on hold when James was abroad and touring as a DJ." Chloe previously spoke about the break-up being "awful" in a chat with the magazine.

She said: "I'm never going to go into great detail about why we broke up because it's not fair on anyone and I wouldn't want him to either, but what I will say is it was f*****g awful. Part of the reason we wanted to end it was because we wanted it to stop being awful, so why would we then take that into a break up and it continue being awful?!"

The former rugby star's hectic international DJ schedule reportedly caused friction during their marriage and sparked rumours of marital issues after he was spotted partying with women other than Chloe.

Before the split was announced, Chloe confessed that one of their biggest arguments - which was also aired on their reality show - occurred when James "was in Ibiza and posted photos of other girls' a***s". Chloe said at the time she felt disrespected by her then hubby because even though she knew that was his job, she didn't want it on social media "when everyone knows I'm your wife'."

Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .