Samantha Womack, who plays Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders has confirmed that she and her husband and 'soul mate' Mark have split up.
Discover our latest podcast
However, despite the split Womack has admitted that her and her former husband are still living together in Bedfordshire.
Together the couple have two children and Samantha is a stepmom to Mark's son from a previous relationship. But, Samantha says the house is more than big enough for everyone to live peacefully. She told OK! Magazine:
Our family home is big enough and we’re co-existing happily. There’s no rush to change things. But now feels like the right time to be honest and admit we’re no longer together.
Samantha met her future former-husband on the set of police drama Liverpool 1 back in 1998 and were together for 10 years before tying the knot 2009. However, Mark Womack is best known for his role as Mark Malone in Emmerdale.
The EastEnders star revealed that she and Mark had split two years ago but since decided to stay living together as 'best friends':
We decided that we didn’t want to stay in a romantic relationship, but we liked our way of living. We have this beautiful house and we get a lot of time away from each other. We’re still a family and we love and adore each other.
She continued:
He’s still been the best relationship of my life and I think he would say the same of me. So we sat down with the kids and explained that we weren’t going to be in a romantic relationship any more, but we would stay best friends. We’ve been happily living together ever since. It’s bizarre but these have probably been the best years we’ve had as a family.
Samantha added that the split was all due to the amount of time the couple had to spend apart and the breakdown of communication.
