Chloe Madeley 'putting herself first' a year on from James Haskell split - 'It's my turn to be happy'
This time last year viewers of their family reality show were watching some very tense exchanges between Chloe Madeley and James Haskell in what we later learnt were the final days of their crumbling marriage. The couple, who said ‘I Do’ in 2018 before becoming parents four years later, were seen in a number of difficult scenes on ITV’s Chloe Madeley: A Family Affair, which was filmed in the lead up to their official split announcement.
The cracks in the marriage were laid bare - with James even saying his now ex treated him “like a dog” during the series’ finale - and almost exactly a year ago this week they announced their split , saying the constant speculation about the state of their marriage had forced them to reveal the news sooner than they planned.
Now, as the one-year breakup anniversary hits and after Chloe opened up about the “tricky” job of co-parenting two-year-old Bodhi, a source tells OK! that Chloe has decided that she’s finally going to be happy and put herself first.
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“It’s clear to see she’s in a really positive place,” they said. “Her coaching business is really successful and in this time she’s healed and grown so much. She realised she put up with a lot during her marriage and now that it’s firmly in the past, this is her time to put herself first and be happy. “She knows the split was the right thing for them both and she’s finally getting to do what she's always wanted to do, which she had put on hold when James was abroad and touring as a DJ.”
Fitness instructor Chloe, whose parents are TV’s Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan , previously told OK! that she would never spill the beans on exactly what went down during their marriage because she wanted to leave their “awful” relationship in the past .
“I’m never going to go into great detail about why we broke up because it’s not fair on anyone and I wouldn’t want him to either, but what I will say is it was f*****g awful,” she tells us,” she said earlier this year. “Part of the reason we wanted to end it was because we wanted it to stop being awful, so why would we then take that into a break-up and it continue being awful?!”
The pair remained living together for many months after the split, but it’s believed they now have separate homes. In our Spring chat with Chloe, she confirmed that James would be moving out of the family home this summer.
Since the split, Chloe has been focussing on her fitness business and doesn’t appear to have found a new man - or at least hasn’t announced anything publicly. Meanwhile, James has continued to tour the world as the DJ.
The former rugby pro’s busy international diary was reportedly a source of tension for the two when they were married, and provided the spark for rumours of marital strife after he was photographed partying with women who weren’t Chloe.
Shortly before they announced the split, Chloe admitted that one of the biggest rows they’d ever had - which was also shown on their reality show - happened after James “ was in Ibiza and posted photos of other girls' a***s.” At the time she said she felt disrespected by her then hubby because even though she knew that was his job, she didn’t want it on social media “when everyone knows I'm your wife'.”
As the daughter of TV royalty herself, Chloe is more than a little familiar with the pressure being famous can put on a marriage, and our source says she’s learned a lot from her parents’ own experiences. Recently, her dad Richard, 68, who also shares son Jack with Judy, gave a very rare comment on his daughter’s love life , and said he found her early twenties the most difficult to deal with because “she was moving from one relationship to the next”.
"Some [relationships] were clearly not going to work - one of the great gifts of good parenting is knowing when to keep your mouth shut, but I was vigilant,” he said in a newspaper interview. Heartbreakingly though, he said he always wanted her to “have the kind of stability she finally found with James”.
But now that 12 months have passed and the exes appear to have successfully managed to navigate life as co-parents, our source says that not only Chloe has done a lot of reflecting so she can avoid falling back into a bad place with James, the sportsman has also stepped up to the plate when it comes to being a dad.
“Chloe’s learned a lot from her parents and they’re also encouraging her to really go for her dreams - this is Chloe’s time for happiness,” they claimed. “Chloe and James’ TV show really showed the insides of their marriage and it wasn’t always easy, but it gave them a chance to look at how they’d co-parent.
“James got a lot of backlash from it but he has stepped up in the past year and Chloe is starting to find and love herself again.”
