Charley Webb and Matthew Wolfenden confirm split with statement (Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Charley Webb and Matthew Wolfenden have announced their split after five years of marriage.
The pair who met on the set of Emmerdale originally began dating in 2007, and have three children, Buster, 12, Bowie, six, and Ace, three.
They shared a joint statement on Instagram to confirm the separation, which presented a united front.
‘It is with love and respect that Matthew and I have decided to separate. We remain friends and our priority is the love for our children. For their sake, we would appreciate privacy at this time,’ Charley’s post read.
While Matthew, 43, posted an almost-identical paragraph but swapped his own name for 35-year-old Charley’s name.
Their social media activity first sparked fans’ suspicions that they had perhaps called it a day.
‘We remain friends and our priority is the love for our children.’ (Picture: Instagram/Charley Webb)
They shared identical statements (Picture: Instagram/Matthew Wolfenden)
Matthew – who recently left Emmerdale after 18 years in the role of David Metcalfe – unfollowed his wife on Instagram, before re-following, according to The Sun. He has not commented on any of her recent pictures or posted about her in over a year, and Charley’s grid has also been Matthew-free.
A source told the publication: ‘Charley and Matthew were in very different places in their lives when they first got together.
‘Three kids later and with new careers in the mix, everything has changed and perhaps they are no longer the unit they once were.’
Last week, Charley admitted to ignoring life. In her Instagram Story, the former Debbie Dingle actress posted a cryptic message which read: ‘Ignoring life and all the jobs I need to do. Also, I want more piercings.’
Matthew and Charley have three children (Picture: Instagram/Charley Webb)
Matthew proposed on Christmas day in 2009, and after a brief split in 2013, the couple eventually tied the knot on February 10, 2018, although the wedding came as a surprise to their guests.
They were joined by 100 guests at Ripley Castle near Harrogate who thought they were attending Charley’s 30th birthday – when in fact they were getting married.
‘I’m not a big one for marriage, to be honest. It’s not that important to me,’ Charley told This Morning in 2019.
Matthew left Emmerdale earlier this year (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
‘But this just felt a good way to do it, because it took the pressure off of everybody asking me a million questions – “What’s your dress like? Who’s going to be your bridesmaid?” – and I didn’t want any of that.
‘The attention is also too much. It just felt like a lot of attention.’
Both actors have left their roles on Emmerdale in recent years. Now, Matthew is playing Buddy the Elf in the newest revival of the musical, based on the 2003 film starring Will Ferrell.
Meanwhile, post-Emmerdale Charley bagged herself a role in ITV police series The Long Shadow which dramatises the five-year manhunt for the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, commonly known as the Yorkshire Ripper.
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‘We remain friends and our priority is the love for our children.’