'I feel so incredibly grateful for the life we built together.'

Rachel Stevens has announced that she has split from her husband Alex Bourne – just weeks before the couple's 13th wedding anniversary. The S Club 7 singer has spoken of how she first dated her husband when they were only in their teens, but split up, and reconnected years later as their paths kept crossing. Rachel and Alex share two children, 11-year -old daughter Amelia and eight-year-old Minnie Blossom.

Yesterday, the 44-year-old took to her Instagram Stories to let her fans know of the sad news.

"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," Rachel wrote. "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." She added: "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."

Childhood romance

Rachel and Alex married at Claridge's in London in 2009, and the pair walked down the aisle to S Club 7's hit Never Had A Dream Come True and her bandmates - Bradley McIntosh, Hannah Spearritt, Jo O'Meara, Jon Lee, Paul Cattermole and Tina Barrett - were there to watch them say 'I do'.

The 44-year-old has previously opened up about their childhood romance on The Moments That Made Me podcast. She told listeners how they shared the same groups of friends and later dated again when they were 16 and again two years later but it wasn't to be. Then years later, when they were both in their late 20s, the pair randomly bumped into each other in a department store, and while Alex was at that point in a relationship, Rachel was single and on her way to move to LA. Then, after Alex split up with the girl he was dating and moved out to LA, the pair finally got together, and the rest – as they say – is history.