Signs Pep Guardiola was struggling before shock split as expert says 'fans are right'

Top football manager Pep Guardiola and his wife Cristina Sierra are said to have gone their separate ways. We take a look at the physical toll heartbreak can cause

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has reportedly split up from his wife, and some people believe his heartbreak has been written on his face.

According to Barcelona-based newspaper Sport, the 53-year-old football boss and Cristina Sierra decided to end their relationship in December while both in Spain, after more than 30 years together.

And speaking exclusively to Mirror Online, relationship expert Lucy Beresford said changes to a person's appearance are common when it comes to grieving a relationship.

"The fans are right, Pep has been looking physically quite drained," said the psychotherapist. "I just cannot think from my clinical experience of a single person who has not been affected physically by an emotional heartbreak situation, whether that is the death of someone or the divorce or separation or even just being dumped.

"The problem is it is an ending and therefore it is like a bereavement even if there's no actual bereavement," added the expert, who works with married dating app Ashley Madison. "You shut down emotionally and what that means if you haven't got the energy for any other self care and that's why it manifests itself physically."

Pep and Cristina met when they were teenagers and have son Marius, 22, and daughters Maria, 24, and Valentina, 17, together. Newspaper Sport said their relationship remained "cordial, stable and friendly" despite deciding to part ways.

Cristina runs her own fashion company back in Spain and has been credited with being responsible for Pep's sharp fashion sense. "My wife is the best in the world at many things, but especially in fashion," Pep told Men In Blazers. "She says normally to me, don't wear this or wear that, so I follow her."

Expert Lucy explained breaking up after such a long time could take a toll on your physical wellbeing as well as mentally. "It's over half his life and therefore the life that you've known and the life that you believed would continue - 'This is what we'll do in ten years time, this is what we'll do when the kids get married' - all of that has literally stopped and you can't get your head round it," she said.

"You shut down because your brain's in that flight or fight survival mode - 'I've got to get through, I've got to try and make sense of this thing and therefore my body hasn't got time for anything else'. If you've got a job like Pep Guardiola, you do have to function in another way - you've got to show up for work, you've got to look after your colleagues and in his case his players.

"You've got to be there for your family, your children. You've got limited resources and unfortunately the person who ends up not being looked after is yourself. Everything gets reduced and if you've got that public profile as well, it's added pressure and what ends up getting lost at the end is looking after you."

The relationship guru said common signs of grief and heartbreak were including forgetting to eat or even wash. "There's loss of appetite, there's a preoccupation with ruminating on the problem, therefore you forget to eat, you don't look after yourself, you forget to wash, you might forget to shave, you might wear the same clothes," she said.

"In the most extreme examples, I've seen people lose a couple of stone in weight, I've seen people who have worn the same clothes for over a month. Not washing hair, not cleaning under their fingernails. Really quite a basic lack of self care. The body is in flight or fight mode and it's burning up those calories like no tomorrow so what tends to happen is people lose weight."

And Lucy's solution might be a surprising one. "You have to re-parent yourself as if you are a new baby," said the expert. "As any new parent will tell you, you have to focus on sleep and food, that's all that matters.

"It's difficult when you're a grown up, when you've got a high profile job and people expecting to be looked after by you. Pep has to behave very selfishly and focus on himself."