She announced their breakup in January, and now Emily Jade O’Keeffe has shared intimate details about her split from husband Gerard Murtagh.
In an interview with The Courier Mail on Friday, the 44-year-old Gold Coast radio host admitted she was ‘blindsided’ by the split.
Emily said Gerard sat her down and told her he was leaving her after 16 years of marriage, claiming her high-profile career was to blame.
Heartbreak: She announced their breakup in January, and now Emily Jade O’Keeffe has shared intimate details about her split from husband Gerard Murtagh. Both pictured
‘He felt that he was losing his identity to my career and that was, I guess, part of the problem. We’d go out to functions and it’s “Emily Jade O’Keeffe and guest” and that was hard,’ she recounted.
Gerard told her he’d already found a place to live and informed her that he’d be moving out in a week, which left her ‘crushed’ and ‘enraged’.
The couple had been undergoing marriage counselling for 18 months prior to their split, and despite this, Emily had been convinced ‘we were doing really well’.
Speaking out: In an interview with The Courier Mail on Friday, the 44-year-old Gold Coast radio host admitted she was ‘blindsided’ by the split
Walking out: Emily said Gerard sat her down and told her he was leaving her after 16 years of marriage, claiming her high-profile career was to blame
‘He hid what was truly going on in him very well so I was blindsided in that there was deeper stuff going on with him. And he’s sharing it now,’ she added.
Emily asked Gerard to leave their family home two days later, and admitted it was an adjustment for their two children, daughter Millie, nine, and son Teddy, almost three.
She admitted that she was in so much pain from the breakup that her ‘bones were hurting’ and she lost 10 kilos and couldn’t sleep.
Keeping mum: Emily asked Gerard to leave their family home two days later, and admitted it was an adjustment for their two children, daughter Millie, nine, and son Teddy, almost three
‘It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through. Honestly, I felt at times I was going to die, the pain was so much, but it gets better. And everyone told me that,’ she added.
She announced their split with a slideshow of photos of them in happier times on Instagram on January 15, eight weeks after they called it quits.
‘What I want to say is that I fought hard for us. We did marriage counselling for 18 months, three different counsellors, and I loved him deeply, fiercely, honestly and with all my heart and soul until the very end,’ she wrote at the time.
‘He hid what was truly going on in him very well so I was blindsided in that there was deeper stuff going on with him. And he’s sharing it now,’ she said
‘That until eight weeks ago I thought our souls spoke to each other, that he was the love of my life, that no matter what life threw at us we were a team that could conquer it together.’
She added: ‘He was my everything. He walked in the room, I lit up, he touched me, it felt electric, he would tell me he loved me, my soul would sing. For 16 years, it didn’t waiver for me ever.’
Daily Mail Australia has reached out to both Emily and Gerard for additional comment.
‘It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through. Honestly, I felt at times I was going to die, the pain was so much, but it gets better. And everyone told me that,’ she confessed