Carrie Bickmore and Chris Walker’s relationship was in trouble long before they called it quits, insiders claim.
The ex-Project host, 42, shocked fans last Wednesday by announcing the couple’s split, but a source told New Idea the pair ‘had been working on their relationship for some time’ before things ‘fell apart’ during their family sabbatical in Europe.
In April last year, Carrie and Chris temporarily relocated to the UK for a three-month holiday with their children, Ollie, 15, Evie, seven, and Adelaide, four.
Carrie Bickmore and Chris Walker’s relationship was in trouble ‘for some time’ before they called it quits, sources say. (The couple is pictured in happier times)
‘I think taking their family to the UK last year was an effort to mend things,’ said the spy, who described the getaway as a ‘Band-Aid solution’ to their problems.
Couples who are on the brink of separation are often encouraged by experts to go on a final holiday together in order to rekindle the spark.
However, while some relationships benefit from the escapism, others dwindle more quickly, partly because the closeness and romance of a holiday may feel forced.
In April last year, Carrie and Chris temporarily relocated to the UK for a three-month sabbatical with their children, Ollie, 15, Evie, seven, and Adelaide, four (all pictured)
Announcing her European getaway on The Project at the time, Carrie explained: ‘Chris and I and the kids are heading off on a family adventure together.
‘We’ve been wanting to do it for a while but for lots of reasons the timing hasn’t been right, but we figure it’s never going to be the perfect time to go.
‘It’s something we really want to do before my son starts his final years at school so we’re doing term two in the UK. So I will be off for a couple of months.’
‘I think taking their family to the UK last year was an effort to mend things,’ said an insider, who described the getaway as a ‘Band-Aid solution’ to their problems
The radio star also said she’d been inspired by The Project panellist Kate Langbroek, who spent two years living in Bologna, Italy, with her husband and children.
Carrie returned to The Project in July with very little fanfare and largely kept mum about her trip.
She joked she had come home with an English accent after living there for a few months and said she’d had a ‘great time’ – but little else.
Announcing her European getaway on The Project at the time, Carrie explained: ‘Chris and I and the kids are heading off on a family adventure together’
Carrie announced the couple’s split in an Instagram post last Wednesday, saying the pair was focused on co-parenting their three children.
They had been in a relationship for 11 years.
‘It’s with immense sadness that Chris and I have decided to separate,’ she wrote.
‘While this is a tough time, our focus is on parenting, loving and supporting our three children Ollie, Evie and Addie with everything that we’ve got.
‘They are doing great. We won’t be making any further comment.’
Couples who are on the brink of separation are often encouraged by experts to embark on a final holiday together in order to rekindle the romance
Carrie and Chris’ love story captured the hearts of Australians.
They met as colleagues on The Project – she was a presenter and he was a producer – and began dating in late 2012, two years after she lost her husband Greg Lange, the father of her eldest child Ollie, to brain cancer.
Despite his terminal diagnosis, Bickmore had married Lange in 2005 when she was just 25 years old.
After Lange died in 2010 at the age of 35, a widowed Carrie started the charity Bickmore’s Beanies for Brain Cancer in his memory.
Two years later and Carrie had found love again with Chris, who became a stepdad to Oliver, and with whom she later had two daughters: Evie, born in 2015, and Adelaide, born in 2018.
The TV presenter announced their split in an Instagram post last Wednesday, saying the pair was focused on co-parenting their three children
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